Showing posts with label paperbackswap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paperbackswap. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

{ Around here - a look at this past weekend }

There's nothing I enjoy more, than having my husband home with me all day, so when we are graced with a long weekend, we enjoy it to the fullest.  For some people that will mean going out to eat, finding something fun to do outside the house, and so on.   We have done that but mostly, for us, it means staying in, snacking all day long, watching movies, catching up on favorite shows, doing woodwork, pottering around the house, gardening or working on house projects.

I snapped a few photos as I went about my day, or rather days, and I'll share those below, so if you're interested in seeing what we got up to, grab a cup of coffee or tea and check out the photos below.

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Waking up to foggy mornings, dark, dreary and cold weather. 

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On days like these, I stay in comfy clothes and slippers, all day long.  Truth be told, if I am home I am in my slippers, just love them, maybe I have a slight obsession with slippers of all kind and colors.  I think at the moment I have 4 or 5 pairs, all gifted by my family for Christmas and birthdays etc.  They know I'm a pajamas and slippers kinda gal.  Can never have enough.

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Stormy days are spent snuggled in bed, under the warmest and softest of blankets.  Marley has very easily fallen into that routine and we often go looking for him, only to find him on the bed, often times, he has burrowed himself under the blanket until it covers him and then just slips his head out the other side.  Hahaha 

He makes me laugh.

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Most of the days, while hubby played computer games with Nicholas, or watched his tv shows or movies, and while the kids did their own thing, I surrounded myself with books of all kinds.  I would absolutely love to have a full library in my house, I think it would make me super happy.

Above you can see my favorite books, and I've mentioned them before.  I first read These is My Words, back in 2011.  I knew from that moment that this was it, this was my favorite book and as much as I may love some others, they would not come near this one for me.

AND I just found out that Nancy E. Turner's new novel is out, and it follows the story of Sarah Prine's niece.  It is called Light Change Everything, I've already added it to my cart and will grab it on Friday.  Can.not.wait.  I swear anytime Nancy E. Turner brings out a book, it's like Christmas to me.

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Spent a good deal of time reorganizing my bookshelves.  I couldn't decided whether I wanted to do it by color {like I have before and thought looked really cute}, or alphabetically or by author etc.

I decided to go by alphabetical order and as I did so, I got rid of books I no longer wanted to keep.  I had quite a big pile going on.

Much as it seems that a job like this is quick, it turned out that it was actually quite time consuming, which meant a lot of breaks for normal household chores, meal cooking and dish washing.

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I'm still washing dishes by hand, and funny enough I've gotten down to a rhythm, where I don't even take notice any longer.  I get in the kitchen, wash all the dishes, and move on to the next task at hand.

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There were also breaks for hot cups of tea while the wind blew outside and screamed through the fireplace.  It's such a weird sound isn't it?  It's like waves of screams coming through the fireplace while the wind howls outdoors, but weird as it sounds there is something calming about it too.

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Back to washing some dishes that were used for bread making, and then I step away and let nature help me out by drying them for me.

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The pile of books that I no longer want and would like to pass on.   I wasn't quite sure what to do with them all, and then I remembered Paperbackswap.  If you've never heard of it, it is a website I first started using many and I mean many, years ago, like 2006.  You can read some of my posts talking about the website, here:

Grrrrrr
A day of books
Crocheting the Day away

I'm not going to link all the posts, or we will be here all day long, but if you just search paperbackswap here on my blog, you will no doubt find a lot of posts. 

If you're just curious, it is a website where you post the books you have available to give away.  If someone requests one of your books, you mail it off and once the person receives it, you get a credit.  Each credit is worth another book, so then you use those credits to get yourself a book you want, and trust me they have a huge selection of books available.

I think it's a great way to get rid of your books by essentially trading them for new ones you have been wanting.  You can also add certain conditions to the books you order from other people, such as no smoking house, or a house with no pets, or no marks or no this or that etc. 

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These are all my books posted on Paperbackswap at the moment, well these WERE the books posted, because as I was in the middle of posting these, requests started coming in, and I've already mailed off 5 books that were requested.  That means, when the people that I've sent them to, receive them, they mark them as received on the website and I get 5 credits {which means 5 books}. 

I already have a wish list and a reminder list on the website that will make it easier for me to get my new books in.

How exciting is that?

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As always, there is always and I mean, always, laundry to be done.  Many weekend and weekday afternoons, are spent with a pile of clean laundry on the bed, folding and putting away while I watch something on the tv.

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The weather also permitted us to have our first barbecue of the year.  Nothing major, nothing big, not even a side dish to go with it, but we had some burgers from the butcher shop that we wanted to try, so popped those on the grill.  Oh my word, does anyone else get extremely happy with the smell of a barbecue grill on a Saturday afternoon?

I can hardly wait for Summer.

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And from summer vibes and barbecue burgers, to a foggy, cold and 30 degree weather the next day.  Insane. 

I would say it's a Texas thing, but who am I kidding, most of my friends, family and readers are in other states and everyone is complaining of the same thing.  Actually, my family in South Africa have been complaining of the same uncertain crazy weather.  I shudder to think what this all means globally, but it's best not to even go there.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed a look into my weekend and what we got up to.  A whole bunch of nothing in particular, but a whole lot of plain ol' living, and that is fine with me, it is what I enjoy the most.

Lazy weekend in with my loved ones, no rush, no commitments, no needing to be up at a certain time or in bed by another.  Just going with the flow.

How did you spend your long weekend?

Oh and before I leave, I wanted to ask you all if you had anything you wanted me to do a post on, anything specific you would like to see around here.  Leave your suggestions down below.  I do have my usual posts and ideas but I also like hearing from you, after all, you're the ones reading the blog and if there's something you would like to know more about from me, feel free to ask.

On that note, I am signing off, going to toss some laundry around and then try and get some more reading done on my next review book.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

A day of Books!


I've been reading and organizing my books. You know what I love? Going to the bookshelf and looking through all the books I have on there because I tell you, no matter how many times I do, I always find one I had no idea I had, or completely forgot about.

Now I'm very picky when it comes to getting rid of books, I really don't think I can part with any, especially if they are part of a collection I love, but there are those odd ones that I post on Paperbackswap. Which is what I've been doing today too, the thrill of posting a book and then seeing it requested and knowing that once you mail it off and the person receives it, you will have a credit waiting.

It's that anticipation which I love, though I do get a little nervous, I never know what to get, I guess it's like that with everything in life. You want something when you don't have the means to get it and when you do get the means, you have no idea where to start or what to pick first.

So I guess I'll go try and figure that out, I'm sure it will take a while.

Tell me though, do you use Paperbackswap at all?

Sunday, January 14, 2007

I'm about to babble for a while, be prepared!

We actually had a nice morning yesterday, we went out for breakfast, something we NEVER do. Go ahead, shake your heads and look appalled, but really, we're not the "get out of bed and head out for breakfast" kind of peeps.

Mainly because it's an expense which is not justified, and also because we're lazy, rather just pop some bread in the toaster and call it good. Man we ARE lazy.

But I woke up in the mood for a nice big breakfast, so we headed to AJ's Restaurant which have really good buffets, not that we got the buffet but whatever, just wanted to let you know in case you ever head that way. LOL
I had THE best omelette....goodness gravy is all I can say. It was called The Big West and it was filled with mushrooms, green pepper, onions and smoked ham....served with toast and tons of hash browns (really good ones too).

Ok now that I've made myself hungry again *sigh*, here I am munching on my toast and drooling over the eggs.....pathetic much?!?!? LOL

So anyway, we went to breakfast and then by Walmart, isn't that the cool place to hang out every saturday morning? I still remember when I was a teenager, the cool place was the mall, nowadays we chill out at Walmart bwhahahaha
We had a couple more errands to run, and then headed back home to drop off hubby and kids while I went grocery shopping and then by the library.


There's a very relaxing feeling about grocery shopping alone, at least for me, I don't have to be stressed over kids fighting or yelling at each other, or one taking off and me chasing them down the aisles with my purse in hand and all the while keeping an eye on my precious cart, lest someone come and steal my bananas or something.

I got all my groceries for two weeks, being military we get paid on the 1st and the 15th, so I go shopping for that pay period. I tried the once a week thing but found that I always ended up going back for something, so now I just draw up the menus and grocery list for those 15 days and rarely go back for anything, well, milk, but that's because Nicholas chugs it down like nuts. I'm surprised my poor son hasn't turned into a cow...or bull since he's male? You get the picture LOL

I've learnt that cooking from scratch and sticking to a menu, really does save a lot of money....so I'm able to get everything I need and not spend a ludicrous amount of money. Want to know how much I spent yesterday??? $150!!! Does that shock you??? This includes snacks, toiletries, cleaning supplies and all the food necessary for meals for the next two weeks....pick your jaw up off the floor, I'm not joking, that is exactly how much I spent.

Anyway, after the groceries and coming home to put them away (something I really really hate doing), I did some house cleaning while my meatloaf cooked away in the oven. Folded laundry, cleaned the bathrooms, did some dishes and then I sat down at the computer, the minute I did I felt as if my body went "AHHHHHHHHHH", my lower back actually ached and my feet were killing me, but that could have been from my stilleto boots....if I'm going to go shopping and do the mom/wifey thing, I want to at least look and feel good. The pain is well worth the effort in this case!!!! Just gotta remember not to repeat this all the time, my poor feet wouldn't be able to take it.

I sat at the computer and opened my Paperbackswap account, only to realize that I had 5 credits just sitting there, waiting for me to use. I literally jumped at that chance, I LOVE books and if you tell me I have some free ones, by God I'm going to use it.....so I got some Romance books:

Dancing at Midnight - Julia Quinn (one of my favorite Historical Romance Writers)

Her Highness, My Wife - Victoria Alexander

The Wallflower Series by Lisa Kleypas:
Scandal in Spring
It Happened One Autumn
The Devil in Winter

I will be putting these up on my book blog soon too, I can't believe it's been forever since I've update it at all. So look for that update, as well as my food blog update later today.

Now after doing all that, I called it at an early night and curled up in bed with some movies I had picked up at the library and some I rented at the Shoppette. First one I watched was "The Breakup" and can I just say DISAPPOINTED!?!?!?!?!

I guess I had thought this movie was going to be great but it really left something to be desired, it had some cute moments and some funny parts, but the end was just a big HUH? for me. Not at all what I was expecting, I think by the time the credits started rolling, I was just sitting there with a stupid look on my face wondering what the heck just happened.


So to quickly put that flop out of my mind, I popped in "Poseidon". Now THAT was a movie I enjoyed, mainly because I've always liked watching Kurt Russell and hardly ever see him on screen anymore, but it had action and Fergie singing???? LOL
Kinda threw me for a loop there, but whatever, it was pretty good and had some action which was great. Josh Lucas was one of the main characters and he's good plus very easy on the eyes....am I lame for that??? I mean, don't you ever find yourself watching a movie just because the main character is nice to look at???

I still have some movies to watch today:

United 93
Reign of Fire
The Cave

Wish me luck, hopefully they're good LOL
Is it just me, or is this post super long, I seem to be on an endless babble today, please feel free to walk away or tell me to just zip it already. I have days where I seem to have nothing to say and then there's days that if given the chance I will talk your ears off, or in this case, your eyes off since you're reading.

Since I love you though, I'm going to stop here and go take care of the chores I have left, then I can sit down in front of the tv and watch some movies. It's cold and cloudy and even though it's 11am, it looks like 6pm at night, that's how dark it is.

You all have a wonderful sunday, I'll see you back here tomorrow morning.

Hubby is going to be super happy today because I'm making Chicken Curry AND I'm using my new Curry powder that just arrived from South Africa....mmmm it smells SO SO good, wish we could send smells over the computer, well....good smells at least LOL



Putting away laundry
Cleaning upstairs bathroom
Watching movies (uninterrupted ones I hope)