Exceedingly Mundane

Sandra, over at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom, posted this meme. Even though she didn’t tag me specifically, I thought I’d play along 🙂

Aprons – Y/N If Y what does your favorite look like?
Yes, I have a grand total of one! Red, with an embroidered “S” on it, that my sister Gail made and gave to me for Christmas a few years ago. I love it! 🙂

Baking – Favorite thing to bake?
Cookies or brownies, but I love to bake everything. Oh, and bread, does that count?! 🙂

Clothesline – Y/N
I don’t have one, but the house I grew up in had one. I wish I did, but the house we are at doesn’t have room in the backyard, and I don’t think it is allowed either here, or the neighborhood where we will be moving soon. Both have pretty strict covenants

Donuts – Have you ever made them?
No. And I haven’t added that to my culinary bucket list… yet!

Everyday – One homemaking thing you do everyday?
Making the bed. Some kind of dishes or unloading the dishwasher.

Freezer – Do you have a separate deep freeze?
Yes. A small one out in the garage. It’s an older one with a manual defrost and I’ll be very happy one day to get a bit larger one, but mostly, a frost-free one!

Garbage Disposal – Y/N
Yes

Handbook – What is your favorite homemaking resource?
My recipes file – I have a personal recipe software program on my computer, and the recipe database I maintain on our website (here)

Ironing – Love it or hate it?
I don’t like it, but will do it rarely, when the need arises. I don’t find that need very often!

Junk drawer- Y/N – Where is it?
I have two in the kitchen right now. Not sure how that is going to translate to the new house. Probably one in the kitchen and one in my desk drawer in the hall

Kitchen – Color and decorating scheme?
Current house – yellow and red. The new house is a very open plan and will have beige most everywhere, with a speckled brown/black/white granite on the island and countertops. Island will be black. For now, I’ll keep my red accents (towels, rags, potholders, etc) until I can afford to replace them. And then, I don’t know what color scheme I’ll go with… could always use suggestions!!! 🙂

Love – What is your favorite part of homemaking?
Making a house feel like our home. Having it be comfortable and cozy. Making everyone feel welcome. Cooking to feed and nourish our bodies. Lots of things 😀

Mop – Y/N
I have a steam mop that I use on the tile. I try not to use it on the laminate, I have a spray that I use, with a rag, on my hands and knees. I’ll have to find out from the builder how to care for the floors at the new house. I think most of the house is pine, will need cleaning instructions!

Nylons – Wash by hand or in washing machine?
I haven’t worn them in years, but when I did, I just wash them by hand and hang them up in the bathroom. Classic!

Oven – Do you use the window to check on things or do you open the door?
Now that I have a nice new stove (sniff sniff, hate leaving it behind, but glad for more new appliances), I use the window.

Pizza – What do you put on yours?
On homemade, it’s usually pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, olives, red onion and cheese. When we order, I usually get a Hawaiian pizza and Tim gets a supreme

Quiet – What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?
Read!

Recipe Card Box – Y/N
Yes, I still have one with some pretty old battered recipe cards. I use it often!

Style of house
Hmmm, no idea! Both our current one (21 years old) and the new house are very similar to other houses in their respective neighborhoods. There’s a certain style to brick houses here. The new house is very open though, which we love 🙂

Tablecloth and napkins – Y/N
I either use a tablecloth or runner on the kitchen table. I will eventually, in the distant future, get a dining room table at the new house and I guess I’ll use either a tablecloth or place mats. I only have a few cloth napkins, just for show. We use paper napkins!

Under the kitchen sink – Organized or toxic wasteland?
Fairly well organized. I hope the new house is the same! Looking forward to having the sink in the laundry room, where I can store a lot of cleaning supplies in there.

Vacuum – How many times per week?
One on a schedule, daily or as needed the rest of the week

Wash – How many loads per week?
Hmm, without Beau, it probably averages 5-6, depending on the time of year

X’s – Do you make a daily to do list and check it off as you do things?
No, I just know what I want or need to do each day. If there’s something special going on, a get-together or holiday or party or something, I make lists for that, but not on a day-to-day basis

Yard – Y/N – Who does what?
Tim does most all of the yard work. I cut grass maybe once or twice a year if he needs help. I do plant flowers and herbs, but he does the regular maintenance stuff

Zzz’s – What is the last homemaking task you do for the day before you go to bed?
Clean up the kitchen

As seen on Kim’s blog, from the original source, Miz B:

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

OK, I haven’t talked books in a while, and I have been trying to read more. I LOVE my Kindle, and have read a lot of books on it since I got it for my birthday last fall. I’ve been trying to get Tim to read on it, so I loaned it to him a couple of weeks ago for him to read a free book I had gotten and really enjoyed. That gave me time to read a couple of “real” books that I had on my bookshelves.

Let’s see, I’m currently reading: The Justice Game by Randy Singer on my Kindle. It’s another freebie from Amazon, a Christian legal thriller. I’m really enjoying it so far 🙂

What did I recently finish reading? While Tim had my Kindle, I knocked out three “real” books from my bookshelves. Two I had won and one I had purchased. I read “The Swiss Courier” by Tricia Goyer & Mike Yorkey (WWII story about the Swiss Underground and the fight against the Nazis). I also read “Mystery at the Inn”, last fall’s offering of the Grace Chapel Inn set of books by Guideposts. Lastly, I read “Secrets” by Robin Jones Gunn, a freebie I won online. It’s the first of a series, but I probably won’t purchase any. They were all good, and I enjoyed each of them (all Christian fiction).

Lastly, what I might read next? That’s always hard for me to pick, as I’m a moody reader. Right now, I’m leaning toward the sequel to “Gone To Green”, that I got free recently from Amazon, called “Goodness Gracious Green” (by Judy Christie). I might read “Always the Baker, Never the Bride” on my Kindle instead. If Tim wants to read on my Kindle again, I’ll probably read “Under the Cajun Moon” by Mindy Starns Clark, which is languishing on my bookshelves.

How about you? Have you read any good books lately? Are you reading one now? Happy Reading! 🙂

I’m going to fall back on an old favorite, doing memes. I did a lot of memes when I first started blogging, but I don’t do them very often now. I think I got burned out! I’ve seen this one at Annie‘s blog, as well as several other blogs, so I thought I’d swipe it and play today. Feel free to keep it going at your blog if you’d like!

1.Wrapping paper or gift bags? Mostly wrapping paper, I like for people to have things to open at the holidays. I do fall back on gift bags if it’s an odd size or last minute thing. Very few though

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial. And pre-lit now (post here when we bought it two years ago, Tim hates stringing the lights!)

3. When do you put up the tree? After Thanksgiving and Tim’s birthday

4. When do you take the tree down? After Christmas but before New Years

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but Tim doesn’t, so I rarely buy any

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hello. I can’t remember my childhood. I have no idea!

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, and I’ve blogged about it before – it’s olive wood and my mother-in-law bought it for us in the Holy Land. A family treasure, to be sure

8. Hardest person to buy for? a tie between my dad and father-in-law

9. Easiest person to buy for? probably my mother-in-law or sister Gail

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I joke with Tim about the year he bought me a vacuum cleaner…. (oh, and I have blogged about that too. It seems I’ve already blogged about everything imaginable here, huh?!)

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? It’s A Wonderful Life to watch on Christmas Eve, and The Bishop’s Wife while wrapping presents 🙂

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? After Thanksgiving and Tim’s birthday, usually around the first of December. I’d start earlier, but I don’t get any suggestions or ideas until I beg for them. It’s like pulling teeth on both sides of the family!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Goodness, all of it! I miss my mom’s divinity, and I do love fudge, but I don’t turn down any sweets or “special” food 🙂

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear

17. Favorite Christmas song? I couldn’t pick one, but I tend to like more traditional hymns like O Come All Ye Faithful, Silent Night, Joy to the World, O Holy Night, etc. I’m really enjoying the new Faith Hill Christmas CD this year, very traditional and she has a great voice

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Both. Always. We travel to Tim’s parents, my sisters and rarely stay home. This year, for only the second time in our marriage, we’ll be home on Christmas Eve and able to spend time at our house. I am unbelievably excited about that 🙂

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Yes, thanks to the Rudolf song!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We’ll open 3 times this year, the Saturday before Christmas (Tim’s side), Christmas Eve (just us and Beau) and Christmas Day (at my sister’s)

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The materialism and overdone-ness at the season. We’re all such consumers and it’s about buy, buy, buy. The crowds and the traffic bug me too.

23. What I love most about Christmas? being with family, celebrating the birth of our Lord

Heidi, over at God’s Grace in Practice, tagged me with this book tag and meme. It’s easy, so I thought I’d play along. Here’s the rules:

Pass this on to 5 blogging friends.
Open the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56. Write the 5th sentence, as well as two to five sentences following that.

I’m currently reading “Till Morning is Nigh” by Leisha Kelly. This is the first book I’m reading as part of the Winter Holidays Reading Challenge. It’s part of a series of books I’m reading about the Wortham’s, a family living in Indiana during the Great Depression. These are Christian fiction books, and I’m really enjoying them 🙂

My passage is:

“You know he always buys us candy in December.”

Here’s what happened before this – the ten Hammond children are staying with the Worthams, whose farm is closest to theirs. Their mother died last Christmas and their father, George, is ill-equipped to raise one children, let alone ten. The task falls mostly to the oldest Hammond daughter, Lizbeth, and Mrs. Wortham. Last year at Christmas, George Hammond tried to end his life, but Samuel Wortham found him in time. This year, the Depression is even worse, and the economy even bleaker. They are struggling just to put food on the table for so many mouths, and to find sugar to bake cookies with and material to sew a small doll from as a gift. Anyway, George Hammond has disappeared and has left everyone else wondering where he is and what he is doing during a snowstorm right before Christmas.

As the tag suggests, here’s the next several sentences:

“He’d a’ took the horse and wagon if he was going to town,” Kirk echoed Franky’s understanding. “It don’t take no wagon to haul home Christmas candy,” Joe argued. He forced a little smile. “He didn’t have money for that much.”

“Well, he’s a grown man,” I told everyone. “And since it is December, it’s probably best not to keep up our guessing.” I knew the skepticism in the children’s faces, especially Willy and Kirk. But I deeply appreciated Joe’s optimism. Far better for the little ones to have a little ordinary hopefulness than a fearful doubting of their father’s intentions.

Let’s see, I’m supposed to tag five others for this… I guess I’ll tag:

1. Gail at More Than a Song
2. Lynne at Lynne’s Little Corner
3. Kim at Mom’s Musings
4. Karen at Over the Backyard Fence
5. Katrina at Callapidder Days

P.S. I haven’t checked to see if any of them have already been tagged. If you have, I’m sorry for not checking first! 🙂