7 Quick takes (vol 3)

Well, a whole week has rolled by and it is now time for another installment of "7 Quick Takes". Here we go.

-1-

Uterine ultrasounds, especially if you are NOT pregnant, are the work of the devil. Evil, Evil, Evil! said in my best "Mermaid Man" voice. (Those of you who are familiar with Sponge Bob will know who I am talking about). Was that too much information for you? Sorry but that is the way it is.

-2-

I love movie soundtracks. They make me happy. I am not talking about just any movie sound track. I am talking about the ones from great musicals like The King and I, Oklahoma, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, South Pacific, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Girl, Wicked (OK, OK this one isn't a movie but a Broadway musical but I still love it) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. My love for these particular kinds of soundtracks may stem from the fact that this was what I had to listen to when I was growing up. I am sure that my mother got sick of me playing the soundtrack for South Pacific. I knew every song from South Pacific, The Sound of Music and The King and I long before I ever saw the movies.

Now I will say that I do love purely instrumental soundtracks as well. I practically wore out my record of Star Wars when I was in high school. I think my current "soundtrack count" in my itunes is 44 soundtracks. Everything from My Fair Lady to Hairspray (another favorite). Is it too early to put on a soundtrack?

-3-

Well, I think I can say that perhaps I might just like Butternut squash, in certain instances that is. I made "Fall Vegetable Soup" last night and it has Butternut squash in it. It was pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I may have to experiment with it some more. There aren't too many foods that I won't eat but I don't think I have had this squash too much. The only thing that I will not eat, positively WILL NOT EAT, is liver. There is no reason to eat that stuff.

-4-

I can hardly wait for next week when my older daughters will be home from college for the holidays. The house is VERY lively when everyone is here not that it isn't lively when they aren't here but the noise level is just higher. It gives me a chance to see all of their friends whom I love. I have always been very thankful to the Lord that he gave both of them such unique and special groups of friends, The Posse (older daughter's group) and LAMMA (middle daughter's group). Isn't if funny that they actually gave themselves a group name. I don't recall that my group of friends did that in high school or that it would have even occurred to us to do so. Interesting.

-5-

I will confess that I haven't baked any of our traditional Christmas cookies yet this year. I have gone to several cookie exchanges so we have had plenty of sweets to snack on at home and I haven't felt the need to do more baking. However, I am sure that I will be called on next week to make Christmas Cutout cookies, Norwegian Filled cookies (my Norwegian BIL says there is no such cookie but that is it's name so live with it Bjorn), Sugar Cookies, Coconut Candy (yes I know it isn't a cookie but work with me people!) and several other recipes for things that I don't make any other time of the year. We don't really have a ton of hard and fast Christmas traditions but the cookies are one of them. The problem with making all those cookies is that then someone has to eat them.

-6-

Why is it that I never seem to have all the laundry done? You would think that it wouldn't be all that difficult to do laundry for just two people but I always seem to have some load of laundry that needs to be washed or dried or folded. My daughters do their own laundry and have since they each reached the 6th grade. That means that I am only doing laundry for two people and I don't even do my husbands good shirts. Those shirts go to the cleaner where they can be starched much more effectively than I can do them. Will I ever get caught up with laundry?

-7-

Several years ago we decided that we were done with the gazillion present Christmas extravaganzas that we had been sucked into when the girls were growing up. When it takes you hours on end to open presents that is just ridiculous or at least I think it is for our family (not wanting to offend anyone here). So, we ask the girls for one larger gift idea for each of them. When I say larger idea I don't mean like a car or something but one idea rather than a ton of smaller ones. Usually they want gift cards to one place or another which isn't hard to do. I do fill up their stockings with little things but having one larger gift per person makes Christmas day much less overwhelming. It also makes shopping for said gifts much less of an ordeal. I am still traumatized by the year I had to find one of those absolutely ugly Cabbage Patch dolls for one of the girls. I had a "Scarlett O'Hara moment" after that. You know, when you have finally found the elusive children's toy that everyone else is also looking for but you are so exhausted by the experience that it isn't any fun to give the gift. You raise your fist and say in your best Georgia accent, "As God is my witness I'll never shop like that again!" Not the exact words I know but you get the picture.

Now that you have read through all of these go on over to Conversion Diary and check out all the other "Quick Takes". It seems like we are all enjoying this. At least I am.