Lately...
I didn't have time to write a blog post this weekend, and it's already noon on Monday. So, here is a quick and rather random post, just so you have something to read. 😉
Lately, I've been...
listening to
Leslie Odom's album, "Mr.".
When I watched Hamilton with Sonia, I liked Aaron Burr's voice, which, of course, is Leslie Odom's voice.
So, I googled him and discovered he has some albums of his own. Sweet!
I've only listened to "Mr" so far, and I don't like all of the songs, but there are several I really like.
(a few tracks have a little language, but you can just set your Spotify to not download tracks marked with an E for explicit.)
Taylor Swift's Folklore
Since I'm in a different stage of life than Taylor, I don't exactly resonate with the lyrics of her songs, but I do like the airy (and not so pop-y) sound of a lot of her songs on this album.
Quite a few tracks on this album are marked E, but again, Spotify's filter is very handy. 🙂
Instrumental study mix on Spotify (ha)
Sometimes I need to work on my computer while Mr. FG has work meetings, and I find it to be very helpful to put earbuds in with an instrumental mix on Spotify.
I just cannot type words into a blog post while listening to his co-workers talk!
reading
Just Mercy
I finished this one, a reread because it was assigned for book club. It is just as heartbreaking the second time through, and I think it's something every American should read at least once.
Bryan Stevenson is doing seriously amazing work to help people who have no voice and I cannot applaud him and his non-profit enough.
The Sun Does Shine
This one is written by Ray Hinton, a guy that Bryan Stevenson helped off of death row. This guy sat on death row for 30 years for a crime he didn't commit. Can you even imagine the horror of that??
I just got to the part where Bryan Stevenson's team has arrived to help, and I wanted to cheer.
Save Me the Plums
This is a memoir by Ruth Reichl, the editor of Gourmet magazine. I'm about halfway through, and so far, I like it, and I want to check out some issues of Gourmet now.
I have to say, though, reading The Sun Does Shine and Save Me the Plums at the same time is sort of weird. The problems that Ruth Reichl is facing seem so very small in comparison to Ray Hinton's problems.
And the problems I face in my own life are definitely more similar to Reichl's than to Hinton's.
watching
Hmm. I watched Hamilton with Sonia.
And I've watched some episodes of Criminal Minds with her as well.
I have to say, though, I like crime shows like CSI better. There's less scary stuff on CSI (as I remember it) because they're not usually actively chasing a killer. I'm kind of jumpy, and my goodness, Criminal Minds makes me jump every single time.
And honestly, I like shows such as The Crown better than crime shows. Give me all the period dramas!
working on
getting my boating license
Not because I'm going to drive a boat, but because if I get my license, then I can go out on my brother's jet skis with him or with Mr. FG.
I am learning some good information, but as with any licensing course, there are plenty of cheesy videos.
(Did you know life jackets make you look cool??)
decluttering!
Zoe and I tackled the laundry room, so I've been busy giving away stuff from that room.
And I helped Sonia get rid of a dresser she doesn't need in her room.
I'm still shipping out books that are selling on eBay too.
On a related note, here's how I declutter without creating trash.
Im reading Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks which is beautiful and truly heartbreaking. Please read it if you havent already.
And Totally the other end of the spectrum Im watching Selling Sunset.....
Gourmet was a great magazine but it stopped publishing years ago.
I was wondering if maybe my library has some issues. Or maybe at least some Gourmet cookbooks!
Lots of it is online. http://www.gourmet.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/recipes.html
I subscribed for more than 20 years, the only food mag I've ever subscribed to. Many family favorites came from there.
On a 9 hr road trip to return a kid to college. I’m sad and anxious. Listening to a lot of Zac Brown Band to lighten my heavy heart. Been working too much to read but have cooked some family faves before kid’s departures. Homemade BBQ meatballs, recipe from my NE grandma and BBQ steak quesadillas that was added to our favorites list after a Home Chef delivery. I like Folklore and Tge Chicks new album, Gaslighter both.
I've had a hard time reading anything current. So I'm re-reading the Emily series by L.M. Montgomery. The first book is far and away the best but I'm nearing the end of the last one and will need to find something to read.
My imagination runs away with me, like both this Emily and the Emily of the Beverly Cleary book, which is what makes anything difficult (Educated? That turned into a hard nope) basically impossible for me to read. Bad dreams, the whole nine yards.
I just read Emily's Runaway Imagination for the first time (I'm 60 and somehow missed out on her in my childhood, but my daughter loved it). It was just the right kind of read for during a pandemic when I have no attention span and needed something a little lighter.
I am sewing pencil bags (back-to-school time!) for my Etsy shop. https://www.etsy.com/shop/FabricSpeaks
I am listing some things on eBay.
I continue to use up zucchini
I’m reading a book on Hoopla on my free tablet.
I’m following up on some bills, refunds, medical statements
I’m enjoying watching adult children be really wise with their money
Two Cooks Illustrated Books showed up in my search for Ruth Reichl or Gourmet Magazine cookbooks. Hmm.., must be something there!
Love Leslie Odom Jr. ! My friend and I got to see him in concert with our city orchestra last year. Amazing. My favorite song from Mr. is Foggy. I also love Taylor Swift and I am 52 years old! Once I passed 50 I realized I just don't care what anyone thinks anymore. Very freeing. I love the songs Peace, Invisible String and Epiphany. So beautiful. Have a wonderful day!
Yes, I like Epiphany too! The ethereal sound is so peaceful.
Yes, I love that song too, but it's interesting in that it's a song about her grandfather in war, so it's such a big contrast of the words and the music!
(I'm 39 and love Taylor, and a lot of her music still resonates for me!)
Not reading anything right now, Just not in the mood to read.
watching.... DH are watching CSI Miami from the beginning... we are on season 9...
Cooking at home, or at moms. trying to only eat out once a week.
Not listening to anything right now... just the keys on the keyboard while working.
Helping my sister to get rid of some of my nephews outgrown clothes, listed a bunch on posh mark, and have more to go. I will get to it when I have a few free moments.
took some to the consignment shop over the weekend for her, you don't get much, but more then if you were to just throw them away! they bought 18 pcs, and she got almost 25.00 Hey something is better then nothing, I always say!
My eBay, is slow going, but I do have more to list. again when I get a few free moments.
OHMYGOODNESS YOUVE READ RUTH! She's by far one of my favorite writers... and her other books are just wonderful testaments to her life, and the life of the cooking world. Please do read her other ones! 😀 I was so excited to meet her in real life a few years ago, after she published an audio book of her latest cookbook. It was interesting to listen to it, because you wouldn't think that a cookbook would be made into an audio version. But it was lovely. And she reads it SO well.
I want to tell you, I have some regrets over holiday things I got rid of now that I have this darling grand baby! Although my daughter refuses to let me bring out my own spring horse with its 1960 lack of safety. Hey, I’ve still got all my fingers!
I can't really listen to music during the day. I have to answer a phone and respond to shouted requests 🙂 from down the hall, so ear pieces are out. I would greatly disturb my office neighbor if I played music out loud, so that's out. I listen to the radio on the way to and from work, mostly Christian radio with a good mix of old and contemporary music, and the classical station.
I recently - finally! - watched "Hidden Figures." I enjoyed the movie for what it was, of course, but I couldn't help but notice how the women wore dresses everywhere. It isn't a popular sentiment, but I miss dressing up more. My grandparents were poor, but even so, my grandmother still took off her well-worn button up house dress and put on one of her few nice skirt and blouse outfits just to go to the grocery store, up until she died in 1982.
I've been saying for how long now? that I'm going to re-do my closet. Well, I've moved some wood upstairs into my bedroom. Baby step #1. I'm getting it dried out from this high humidity, before I start to work with it. Next is to bring a dropcloth, drill, screws, saw and paint. Oh, and a level.
And I've been putting up pear sauce and pear butter. So far, 8.5 quarts.
For someone who had no time to write a post, you wrote a good post! ❤️
I just finished Just Mercy too - and I agree it's such an important and powerful book. A few years ago I also read Sister Helen Prejean's Dead Man Walking, and these two books really force people to confront the inequities and injustices of the death penalty. (I felt that the movie - and the opera - based on Dead Man Walking really overlooked that aspect of Prejean's work. )
They don't ask what is fair punishment, they ask what is a fair way to treat people.
Coincidentally, I'm also reading No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us. Not a planned reading pathway, but just how things became available in my library holds list. Reading these books back to back, one really sees how important it is that violence is addressed at its roots and with compassion rather than through an unfair and biased criminal justice system.
(I also read Save Me the Plums and I felt like it was so breezy and unassuming... as if just anyone could rise to head a widely read cooking magazine. I subscribed to Gourmet when I was broke and just out of college the year before it folded and I cling to those final editions. It was great fun to read Reichl's memoir and then go back and look at the magazines and re-read it with all the backstories in my head.
"Just Mercy" was a great read. Thanks for recommending "The Suns Does Shine."
I will definitely look for that.
I have been reading the Poldark series books which were a PBS special, recommended
by my daughter and I am totally addicted to 1700 Cornwall, England.
Loved poldark! Have you watched the Durrells of Corfu? It has been just the lighthearted thing I need.
I am used to doing things when people are talking on conference calls. It’s when my husband is home and singing while I’m trying to listen to a call that makes it tough!!!!
And I’ve been working on some crafts so that I can move ahead on other crafts and get the place cleaned up.
I did make banana muffins for my husband with some very ripe bananas.
Hmm, let's see ...
I've been on a Thomas Tallis kick as well as that of Ralph Van Williams. Before that I was more listening to Bruckner and Mahler.
I watched all of the Victorian farm show. I've also been rewatching the films of film pioneer R.W. Paul which make for nice background films, particularly with the piano scores which accompany them.
I've been cleaning up a lot and kind of evaluating where I am at in life. It dawned on me that I'm a strange guy who was considering buying real linen sheets while my bed's comforter is over 10 years old and has literal patches on it.
Other than that, just the normal stuff I guess.
Also, Taylor did record 'clean' versions of all her songs as well, FYI. When I bought the album it gives you a choice of download, explicit or clean. Yay!
Oh, I didn't know that! I'll have to see if those are on Spotify too.
Reading: Bible, The Land of Stories to the kids and 100 Extraordinary Stories for Courageous Girls
Listening to: My language recordings...not super fun, but necessary to learn the language!
Working on: Prepping for homeschooling.
Listening to Lauren Daigle, Crowder, and Kari Jobe. Very uplifting. Reading Born Survivors by Wendy Holden, a true story of three women widowed in WWll and how they and their unborn babies survive the concentration camps. Riveting and incredible. Watching all six seasons of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman with my five kids. It has caused us to have many interesting conversations about inequality and other hard topics and also caused us to research history on a much deeper level. Excellent show.
I just finished reading Born Survivors as well! I couldn't put the book down as I found myself cheering on, and crying with these three brave women. Really helped me put into perspective today's challenges and encouraged me to keep looking for the good even when everything seems to dark.
Lately I have been doing projects over the summer. Since of them is catching up on the Bane of My Existence [1], there's been a lot of productive procrastination:
- Tidied the laundry room and washed a few big things that have been sitting there for a while.
- Reorganized and cleaned most of my kitchen (this is maintenance work, and I do it a shelf at a time when I feel like it).
- Read may of the short books I've had on my list, as part of my library's summer reading program.
- Organized a bookcase of travel guidebooks and office supplies, which took a few hours rather than the 30 min I thought it would.
- Got the chimney work finally finished; this pandemic isn't going away any time soon so I might as well have the remaining inside work done. Carefully!
Some other things:
- Found pandemic-friendly exercise that works for me.
- Rejiggered the annual Block Party to be socially distant (BYO food, drinks and desserts to share if you want to, sit 6+ feet away).
- Nurse my little veggie patch along. I'm surprised when anything grows so it's all good.
- Having gotten Disney+ for Hamilton, I watched all the MCU in order followed by Agent Carter. I may give Agents of Shield another chance.
[1] Med bills: paying, organizing, harassing my insurance company to reimburse me already. fell hideously behind when the pandemic started to hit in February and it's gotten even more hideous since then. I'm having a lot of trouble attacking this pile.
My music varies, when I need to clear my head it’s The Moody Blues.
My latest reads Into Thin Air -Krakauer Mt Everest book. Then I watched some history specials on the countries that host those wanting to climb. Their living conditions are so poor.
How To Be an Antiracist by I Kendi.
Currently reading To Kill a Mockingbird while waiting for the Alex Trebek book The Answer is.
I tore everything out of my kitchen cabinets and reorganized. I have a lot of cupboards but they are all such weird sizes. Non adjustable shelves.
My brother gave me a ton of tomatoes spent a day rehoming some, cooking and freezing them.
Just finished a grueling week of overtime. My job is usually in an office, but this was outdoors for six days working an event in 90-plus degree heat. The proceeds will go to pay for an expensive repair to our garage door.
I made a "mix tape" on a memory stick of favorite songs from the 80s and 90s to listen to while commuting to work.
Oh wow, that many days in the heat would be so exhausting.
Lisey's automotive job is not air-conditioned and when she's working down in the pit, she gets so terribly hot. She drinks Gatorade like it's going out of style, and still has trouble staying hydrated.
I bought a cooling bandana from Amazon and it helped a lot. I drank lots of water, as the taste of sports drinks reminds me of sickness. It was very tiring and I hurt all over even though it was not very physical work.
Greetings: I am interesting in hearing about your book club? I am in a club here too and we are having issues about meeting and all. We have decided to meet this September so we could pass out our new books for the year. I had the wonderful opportunity to pick out the books for the year and boy was it ever a job and a half. I did not get help because of the corona virus and all. We select 12 Fiction and 12 Non-Fiction books for the year and we pass books on the 1st and the 15th of the month. We have 24 members so we read 24 books in a year which has been fun for me. I have enjoyed reading a wide range of books from new authors and all. I have picked, "Just Mercy" for us to read this year, yes it is a great book and I enjoyed the movie too. We also had the book, "The Son Does Shine" it was an awesome read and I cried a whole lot as it broke my heart when his mom died. Oh well take care. Please tell me about your book club and what you are doing with this Covid 19 going on and all. I really enjoyed today's read from you. Have a great day!!
We've just been meeting via Zoom ever since the pandemic started. It's not quite as fun as in-person, but it's certainly better than no book club at all!
Listening to... A podcast called Don't Make Me Come Back There by a comedian who talks about funny family stuff and my Bible in One Year app.
Reading... I just finished "The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History" by Andy Greene.
I started it on our camping trip and it was a book that I could read, get frequently interrupted by my kids, and still keep track of what was going on. I made it to chapter 8 of "The Jane Austen Society" by Natalie Jenner before I had to return it to the library this week. Since that one required focus, it turned out to not be a good one for the trip. I may check it out again in a week or so to finish it.
Watching... I re-watched the first half of The Greatest Showman which turned out to be a weird experience. We attended a fundraising auction themed off that movie on the last weekend before the pandemic hit, so every song just reminded me of that last weekend of normalcy. And since the kids picked a DVD from the library, I'm also watching Paw Patrol. Ha!
Working on... My garden. Trying to keep up with the green beans and peppers and I think I'm less than a week away from canning my first batch of salsa.
I was so excited to find out we're eligible for the books by mail program from the state library and I signed us up for it last month. Then . . . the post office stopped working. Like, seriously. I have not received the books they checked out to me and mailed me over a month ago, and they haven't yet received the returns I sent back to them two weeks ago.
Of all that 2020 has required us to deal with, the troubles of the USPS is one of the most saddening for me.
Anyway. I re-read my copy of "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" last week, which I still love.
I got sucked into a YouTube black hole of those young guys that were shown reacting to a Phil Collins song from the 80s and watched a LOT of their reaction videos to songs that I remember from my own younger days. It's so fun to watch someone's jaw drop when they hear Evanescence for the first time or whatever. Plus, then I got to listen to a lot of music I had forgotten about.
We started school this week, though, so now I'm watching and listening to five kindergarteners all day, which leaves me with zero desire to watch and listen to anything else when I get home. 🙂