Exceedingly Mundane

Time for another Question of the Day! Do you take your car to the car wash? Do you wash it yourself at home? Does someone else wash it for you? (This sounds like a good job for teens and pre-teens!) Do you pull through an automated place or drive up to one where you get out and wand that sucker yourself? LOL! Or do you never wash your car?! 😀

I admit, we don’t wash our cars very often. One vehicle sits out all the time, so it gets rained on, but it does pick up pollen and stuff. The other stays in a garage and doesn’t get that dirty. Neither Tim nor I really like washing cars. Years ago, when we were first married, we would get out on the driveway, with the hose and some car wash detergent, and wash them ourselves. It’s either age or laziness or something, because these days, we drive them to one of the local drive through places that has the automated machines that wash it for you. It’s more expensive, yes, but it certainly is very convenient! As I said, we don’t wash them a lot, so we don’t spend too much money on this particular endeavor!

Tim worked on our vehicles on Saturday. He changed the oil in both (that saves us a TON of money, him doing it rather than taking it in to a car care place), and he also rotated the tires on both vehicles. Tim grew up working on cars and farm equipment, so he’s incredibly handy in that way. It is a wonderful trait to have in a husband, believe me! 😀 Anyway, we took both of them to a drive-through car wash place ($10 each), and got them both cleaned up. They’re all shiny and clean, and set for a while.

How about you? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Is cereal a staple at your house? It is at ours. We have a whole deep drawer devoted to just cereal and granola bars. I’m not sure why I have so much space devoted to one food category, or why we keep so much cereal. Probably because I’m all about options and having choices. I really could probably use that space more wisely and efficiently for something else 😀

I eat a lot less cereal than I used to. I have made a concerted effort to transition to oatmeal in the last couple of years, to try to keep my cholesterol numbers down. I try to eat oatmeal 6 or sometimes 7 days a week, most of the year. It’s really easy in the winter. July and August are a little harder, although I usually succeed. Most of the time, I “splurge” on Sunday mornings and have a bowl of cereal before early church. It takes less time and gives me enough energy to get through church. I tried skipping breakfast a couple of mornings, and got dizzy one time, getting up and down to sing during church. Now, I make sure to eat something!

Tim is a breakfast kind of guy. But not cereal. He grew up with his mom fixing him a “big breakfast” before he left on the school bus. Tim’s idea of breakfast is biscuits, eggs, bacon or sausage, and grits. Every. Single. Morning. Me, I can’t cook very well when I’m sleepy and I just don’t think it’s that healthy to eat that every day, first thing. So, he’s had to compromise over the years, and eat breakfast for dinner about once every week or so. In the mornings, he’s pretty much stuck with cereal or oatmeal.

I only buy “semi-healthy” cereal. I keep cornflakes, for when we have bananas (or I need them for a coating of some kind). I keep Raisin Bran Crunch for Tim, and two kinds of Cheerios for me (he eats them sometimes too). I also keep granola bars for Tim, he likes to take them to the golf course. 🙂

So, are you a cereal eater? Do you stick to one kind or do you like options or variety? Do you eat the sugary, good kind from childhood (Fruit Loops, Cocoa Pebbles, etc), or have you switched to a semi-healthy kind as an adult? Leave me a comment and let me know!

I appear to be a seasonal eater. These days, if we go out to eat lunch or dinner, I seem to want to go somewhere that serves a nice variety of soup choices 🙂 Especially at lunch, I love places that offer a combo of say, soup and a half a sandwich. I guess because we’ve had quite a bit of cold weather lately, I am drawn to soups, both at home and eating out.

In the summer though, I’ll do a salad and a half a sandwich. I love places like Corner Bakery, Newks, Sweet Peppers, McAlisters, etc — good soup/sandwich/salad places. I love paninis and get those a lot. I rarely order a caesar salad, for whatever reason. I also don’t love places that just have iceberg lettuce for their salads. (Have you noticed a trend, I appear to be quite picky!)

I admit, when I eat out, I tend to favor “fattening” foods. Especially this time of year, with soups. Something like a broccoli cheese or a loaded or baked potato soup. Or at Newks on Fridays, my favored lobster bisque. Yummy and fattening. At home, I tend to make a little healthier soup, a turkey or bean chili, a Cooking Light recipe for potato soup, etc.

How about you? Which do you prefer – soup, sandwich or salad? Are you a seasonal eater or does the weather not affect what you eat? Do you have a favorite place to eat this kind of food, and a combination that you like? Leave a comment and let me know!

So, today’s Question of the Day is about dreams. Do you remember your dreams? Do you dream a lot?

Me, I think I’m an oddball. I might dream, but I rarely remember them. I actually don’t think I dream much, but I’m sure, scientifically, I probably do. I am getting to an age now where I rarely sleep through the night. With the tinnitus, once I wake up, I have a really hard time getting back to sleep. But, right when I wake up, I never remember anything about a dream. Only once in a blue moon. If I do, I only remember a tiny bit, just a snippet, not a long or drawn out series of events or something. And mine are usually odd. Like a mixture of something from the distant past, mixed with something recent from my life, or a tv show or movie or something I’ve seen. Like they got thrown in a blender and came out, not making any sense! LOL! 🙂

Tim often tells me about his dreams, he remembers quite a lot. His retelling is pretty vivid and usually full of a lot of detail. And my mother-in-law is the same way. She seems to remember them and be able to recount details of what she dreamed, what she said and did, etc.

What about you? Do you dream a lot and do you remember any of them? Are they good, sweet dreams or really weird dreams?

What do you guys do with old Christmas cards? The ones you receive from others, whether they are the photo kind of kids or families, or just plain Christmas card greeting cards. Do you save them? Throw them out? Scrapbook them? Do something else with them?

I have been saving them, but I have a pretty big collection of them. I have several years worth in a couple of photo boxes. I am afraid I’m equally as bad with birthday cards, I tend to save those as well. I chalk it up to two things 1) I’m sentimental and 2) I’m a packrat. I think both stem from the fact that my mom was neither. She threw everything out. And I mean everything. Drawings I made for her as a child. Ornaments I made for her in Sunday School. Birthday and Christmas cards. Everything. She even threw out or gave away some old handmade quilts that were made by her mom and aunt. What I wouldn’t give to have those quilts!

Anyway, I’m trying to decide about tossing Christmas cards from years past, but apparently I’m looking for affirmation or back-up here, LOL! What do you do with your old cards you receive from others?

Thanks, and have a wonderful day!

I don’t know why I’ve always walked by these in the grocery store every year, and never picked any up to try. This year, I rectified that and bought a bag of Cuties Clementines a week or so ago. And… I really like them!

I think it’s a nostalgia thing for me. I am pretty sure that Santa put an orange in my stocking every year, growing up. I remember thinking the oranges were O.K., but I wasn’t fond of the peel and all the seeds. Maybe later, Santa switched to tangerines. And those were better, but these little Clementines are good! They’re small, so a good size for portion control, and easy to get into.

So, how about you… is there a food that is really nostalgic for you this time of year? Something your mom or grandma always made, or put in your stocking, or you always got to have this time of year? Leave me a comment and let me know!

P.S. ALL of my presents are wrapped, I’m dancing a happy jig over here! 🙂

I have a love/hate relationships with magazines. I love to subscribe to them, love to get them in my mailbox, love to flip through them when I first get them. But then…. I don’t read through them completely, and so I end up putting them in a magazine rack in my den. You know, to read more thoroughly later on. First I had one magazine holder, then I had to get a second one. So, you can imagine how many magazines I have sitting around here. Some of them go back two years, gasp! 🙂

I’ve found through the years that as I’ve aged, I’ve changed the kind of magazines I read. I guess we get to be more like our mothers the older we get!

I don’t tend to pay for most of the magazine subscriptions that I have, so I guess that is good. I do pay for one or two, but the majority of them I get through point programs that I do online. I get several from MyCokeRewards (since Tim drinks so much Coke Zero, we have a lot of codes from Coke Zero 2 liter bottles and cases)! I also get one of Tim’s golf magazines through e-rewards.

Here’s some of the ones that I have gotten in the last year, or are currently getting. Several of them are running out and I’m debating about renewing the subscription. I think I’m going to let Taste of Home go, although I do like it, but I’m trying to cook with less processed food products and also low-sodium, and that magazine is not strong in those areas.

Some of the magazines I get are:

Southern Living (Amazon deal)
Everyday Food (points)
Taste of Home (letting expire)
Good Housekeeping (points)
Redbook (points)
Better Homes & Garden (points)
Ladies Home Journal (points)
Everyday with Rachael Ray ($10 sub, but letting expire)

So, how about you… do you read magazines? Do you buy them at the store or subscribe? Do you read them and toss or recycle them quickly, or let them pile up? What’s your favorite magazine? Leave me a comment and let me know!

When I first started blogging over 5 years ago, I did a lot of memes. I think most of them have disappeared from the blogosphere. The Monday Menu meme at OrgJunkie’s site is still alive, and very active, from what I can tell. I don’t know if I’ll get back to posting my menus online. It’s enough for me to just try to do them at this point. 😀

Last week, I ran across a revival of a meme that I used to do called the “Monday Morning Meme” over at one of my favorite bloggers site – Write from Karen. Karen posts 4 or 5 questions for bloggers to blog about on Mondays. This week, I’m going to be uber-selective and just pick one.

3. Thunderstorm arrives, power outage! How do you occupy your time?

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that I would read. As I have blogged about recently, reading is harder for me than it used to be. I would probably try reading with my iPod on, or maybe working on a scrapbook page. Depending on the weather, I would probably try to sit outside and read a book or magazine. I know one thing for certain – I would call the power company ASAP to find out how long my power is going to be out! This has been such a hot summer that I wouldn’t want to be out long. Another thing I might do is play on my phone. I’ve been playing Words with Friends a lot lately, and having fun with that. I have several other games on my phone that I like to play. The only downside to that – I’d probably run my phone battery down and not be able to plug it back in and charge it back up!

How about you? Play along at your blog or leave me a message and let us know what you do when the power is out!

I was surfing around a day or so ago (or maybe checking Twitter, I honestly can’t remember!), and I saw a link to this article, about washing bagged lettuce.

I normally watch The Today Show, so I didn’t see this segment on The Early Show. But, I must admit, I don’t always rewash those bags of pre-washed lettuce. I might think twice now! I try to buy heads of lettuce, or heads of romaine more precisely, and then wash them myself, run them through the salad spinner, and store in a gallon ziploc bag in my produce drawer. I have been buying some of those big plastic tubs of organic lettuce at either my grocery or at Fresh Market (our favorite spot to stop after church on Sunday and pick up food for lunch). I tend to not wash those either, but just pick out the lettuce and make a salad or whatever.

So, how about you… do you wash those pre-washed bags or tubs of lettuce again? Or do you not buy those and just buy heads of lettuce that you do wash yourself? Vote in the poll and let me know!

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I’ve gotten into a habit of asking a “Question of the Day” here at my blog. How I got into the habit of doing it, I will never know. But I really enjoy hearing what other people think about things, big or small, or what items you use in your daily life or how you feel about certain products, or current events or lots of other things. 🙂 I think it’s a great way to learn about my blog friends, share a little something about myself, as well as see how many things we share in common vs things we are different about. That’s one thing I’ve definitely learned as I’ve aged – we all have a lot more in common than we think, and we all have differences. God made us unique, in big ways and small, and I like exploring that.

So, in keeping with the title of my blog, today’s Question of the Day is just about as mundane as you can get 😀 What kind of toothpaste do you use? I have always really liked it that when Tim and I got married, we never had issues with the toothpaste. The toilet seat going up and down, yes, that’s a big one in our house, but the toothpaste has never been an issue. We both use Crest and tend to like the same type flavors and textures. We’ve transitioned to gel over the last few years, but both grew up with plain old paste. We’re both kind of funny about the toothpaste tube. Tim is just as likely as his OCD-wife to squeeze from the middle, but then be diligent about squeezing it up and keeping it near the top. 🙂

OK, so how about you? Do you use one kind in your house and everyone is happy, or do you buy multiple brands, multiple flavors, multiple kinds? Have you ever changed because someone else was using a different kind and it was just easier to switch? Do you even care?! LOL! Leave me a comment and let me know!

Ok, I’m obviously running out of things to blog about! I am constantly drawn to food blogs, recipes, cookbooks, grocery stores, food, Food Network, shows on the Travel Channel about food, etc. To say I love to eat is a gross understatement. To say I love to cook is apt on some days, and on other days, couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Today has been a good day. I’ve cooked twice, LOL! I made a loaf of banana bread and some potato soup for supper. We had sandwiches for lunch, and I had oatmeal for breakfast.

How about you, what did you eat today? Do you have something that you eat every day or something that you have on certain days like Saturday or Sunday?

Leave me a comment and let me know!

Can you believe this weather? It’s so cold! I remember reading late last summer and going into fall, that they were predicting a colder than normal winter for us this year. I was excited (and still am!), because I knew it would help kill the mosquitoes and fleas and stuff. However – I didn’t think it would get quite this cold! It’s been cold all week, and the forecast for the next two days are for the HIGHS to be below freezing!! That’s really, really, unusual for us. Plus, the lows the next three nights are forecast to be in the teens, with wind chills in the single digits or near zero. Baby, that’s cold!

On the bright side, we have heat, and we now have HOT WATER! If you read my previous post, you know we had our old hot water heater go out, and it was a bit of an ordeal to get the new one installed. But, it’s in now and it’s working great. I can wash dishes and not have my hands get frostbitten 🙂 Hot showers and hot baths have never, even felt so good or been more appreciated around here 😀

So, I’m assuming that it’s cold where most of you out there in bloggy-ville live… what’s your favorite thing to do when it gets this cold? Do you like to snuggle up under a blanket, by a warm fire, drink hot tea or cocoa? Do you live for a bowl of hot soup or some other comfort food? What’s your favorite thing about the cold? If you can think of one, LOL!

Leave me a comment and let me know, and remember — Stay Warm! 😀

I bought a new set of sheets for our bed a couple of weeks ago. Exciting, huh?! Believe it or not, it’s not something I do often. I change our sheets weekly, but I take the set off, wash and dry them, and put them right back on! I don’t change them out to a different set very often (I’ve blogged about this in the past, here, three years ago), and really – I only have a couple of sets that fit our bed (ours is a queen and the guest room is a double).

Anyway, I was always under the assumption that the higher the thread count, the softer the sheets were. I never paid any attention to the type of cotton – 100% cotton, cotton blend, Egyptian cotton, sateen, etc. Apparently I should have!

I washed our new sheets and put them on the bed, excited to have nice new crisp clean soft sheets. WHAT? Soft, you ask? They’re 450 thread count (100% cotton sheets), so I assumed they’d be soft. But — they’re not! They’re rough, scratchy and not at all what I had hoped for. So, what have I been doing?

Washing them. Repeatedly. The first week I had them, I washed them 3 times! And they are getting softer. Of course, not fast enough for me 🙂 To be fair, I had some old jersey knit sheets on our bed, which are very very soft. And I’m sure my last set that I used regularly before that have been washed so many times, they can’t help but be soft. But I was really hoping for these to be soft, right out of the package.

So – help me out for the time in the future when I venture out to buy new sheets again. What do you use? The highest thread count you can afford? Are you sure to buy Egyptian cotton? Sateen cotton? Some kind of blend? Leave me a comment and let me know!

P.S. Please note that flannel sheets aren’t “allowed” here, because I live with the human heater (aka Tim). Mr. Hot Natured thinks flannel sheets and electric blankets are horrid creations and aren’t allowed in the house under any circumstance! 😀

I got a belated birthday present a few days ago!

Tim had offered to get me a camera originally for my birthday, but I said, no, I already have a digital Rebel, I don’t need a smaller camera. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized he had a really good idea. It’s nice to have a small one to stick in my purse or tote around and not carry the digital Rebel (bigger, bulkier) in some instances. This one takes good pictures and little movies, something my Rebel doesn’t do (so we had bought Tim a flip camcorder for Christmas). Anyway, it’s nice to have, and I know I’m incredibly spoiled (or blessed, however you prefer to look at it!) to have two cameras.

So, that brings me to a question – is there anything useful I can do with my old digital cameras? I have a couple of older ones, that I used before I got my digital Rebel. They’ve been sitting in a corner, collecting dust, and not being used. They are each a few years old, and I doubt anyone that I know would want them (they all have newer nicer cameras, for the most part). Is there anyway to recycle this kind of digital device? Or any worthwhile charity I could donate it to? Does anyone have any good ideas? I’d hate to just take it to Goodwill or try to put it in a neighbor’s garage sale or something.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day! 😀

Time for a new Question of the Day. Today, it’s all about those hand sanitizer products. You know, like Purell or Germ-x or any one of a number of brands. I see them more and more out in public places. In hospitals (that nice foamy stuff!), some public bathrooms, etc. I have been using them for a while. I always have a bottle of Purell or Germ-x in my purse. I don’t tend to keep it on the kitchen or bathroom counters, but I do use anti-bacterial soap or foam in those spots. My kitchen and bathrooms each have a bottle of Dial or SoftSoap or some other brand of anti-bacterial soap in a squirt/pump bottle by the sink. I’m not overly fanatical about it (think Monk), but I do use them. A lot.

So, how about you? Do you believe in products like hand sanitizers and anti-bacterial soaps? It’s funny, growing up, we never had stuff like this. Do you think we’re better off with this stuff these days, or it’s not a big deal. Chime in and leave me a comment, or just vote in the hand sanitizer poll if you’d like.

Have a great day! As for me, I better go wash my hands now, LOL!

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