Pancakes, Books, Soup, and More {Everyday Adventures 57}

For this week’s Everyday Adventures I want to start out talking about books. We will get to the food in a minute.

Last week when I shared my favorite book for 2015 I mentioned I read 46 book in 2015. After that post I received some comments and emails, including one from my sister, mentioning how little they read last year and that 46 books seemed like a huge amount. Some of you seemed a little discouraged that you just don’t have time to read like I do and that you only finish a couple of books a year.

So this week I wanted to start by saying don’t be discouraged by the amount of books other people read. I share my reading posts not to make readers feel bad, but to encourage you.

I love talking books and love to hear what others are reading. I enjoy the interaction on those type of posts. Even if that interaction is by someone that only reads a few books a year.

Please know that the amount I read each year really depends on the stage of life I am at and the amount of time I have. I have always loved to read, but when my kids were little I was lucky to read a few books a year. There were years that I only read 3 or 4 books. That was tough for someone who loves to read, but it was the reality of my life at the time.

Right now I have three teens. My life is busy, but in a different way. I often have time while they are at music lessons to read. When we have a doctors appointment I no longer have to keep three little kids busy while we wait. My kids can entertain themselves and I can read an ebook while we wait. The same things goes for waiting in the car or other places. I have more time right now to read since my kids are older. I did not have that same amount of time a few years ago.

I will also admit that after reading some other blogs and websites, I actually got discouraged that I only read forty-six books last year because many people read a lot more than that. Yes, I was totally down on myself for a short time because I did not read enough.

Some people read over 100 books. Forty-six is nothing compared to that. Then I had to step back and realize that comparing myself to others is dangerous. Forty-six is a lot of books for me. It might not be for others, but forty-six books is still more than I read in 2014. It may not be what others read, but it is still a huge amount and I should be thankful for what I got done.

Comparing ourselves to others and other people’s life can be dangerous.

So let’s all do what we can, with the time we have, at the stage of life we are at, and stop comparing ourselves to others. Reading even a little bit is better than not reading at all!

Now for some different type of book talk.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that for my birthday each of my kids was going to take me out to lunch and spend the day or part of the day with me. My son and I went out before Christmas. My two daughters picked days after Christmas to take me out.

Can I just say I loved doing this with my kids. It was great to have one on one time with them. In fact, I told them all that I would love the same birthday gift next year.

My oldest daughter and I went out to lunch and then did some shopping. We went into a specific store because she wanted to look at some music. I decided to check out the book section while we were there.

What I found was a huge section of $3 and $5 books. I have never seen this many marked down book at this store and I am guessing it was because it was after the holidays and the end of the year.

Since we were not in a hurry my daughter and I had time to look through the books. We found some great deals. In fact, we finally just had to leave that section because we both kept finding too many books that we wanted.

I am not sure about a couple of the books I got, but they looked interesting and for only $3 or $5 I figured it was worth the risk.

If you have read any of them I would love to hear your thoughts on which books from that stack above I should start with.

My other daughter and I also went out for lunch last week. The one thing she requested that we do was visit the used book store. And it is not just any used bookstore. It is a huge used bookstore in Tulsa. If you are from NE Oklahoma and love to read you probably know which used bookstore it was. It is a pretty well known used bookstore, especially for book lovers.

I only allow myself to go into this store once or twice a year. There are just too many books that I want and it can quickly ruin my budget. But since this was a special day and my daughter had some of her own money to spend, I was excited for an excuse to make a trip there.

The picture above is the pile we came away with. About half of them are hers and the rest are mine.

Can you tell we are both history lovers? This is the same daughter that wants to read a book on every president.

I think some of these books might be a bit rough since they are war books, but they all looked interesting. And many of them are books I have heard good things about. Hopefully we enjoy them. I doubt I will get to all of them this year, but I am sure I will at some point over the next few years.

Again if you have read any I would love to hear which ones we should start with.

And now I think my book budget is officially gone for the year. Or at least the next few months. 🙂

Some people have asked why I buy so many books. First of all I love books. We also live in a more rural county with a not so great library system. It really is quite poor. Or at least poor when it comes to the type of books I like to read. And with a family full of readers I know that I will not be the only one to read the book. If I spend money on a book chances are the three or more of us will end up reading it.

Enough talk about books.

After Christmas I found a really good deal on allergy friendly chocolate. Chocolate is one of those things that you don’t realize makes a huge difference until you are a family with lots of food allergies and issues. Chocolate that is safe to eat can be expensive and hard to find, especially for those with nut allergies.

Enjoy life chocolate chips are usually close to $5 a package in my area. These were 2/$5. I might just have spent more than I should have on chocolate. You know you are buying a lot of chocolate when the cashier comments on the amount you are buying.

We are well stocked in chocolate now. I think I am going to have to hide it in order to ration it out over the next few months.

One of the things my oldest daughter and I needed when we were out shopping was calendars. Apparently calendars are on the way out. As in the old fashioned hang on the wall type of calendars. Yes, according to young people they are so yesterday or old people or whatever you want to call it.

When we asked an employee at one of the stores we were at where the calendars were he looked at us like we were crazy and then said, “Ma’am people use their phones for that now. They don’t use calendars.”

Apparently I am old, because although I do use my phone for many things, including a calendar, I still like to have also have an old fashioned, hang on the wall type of calendar.

At least office depot still realizes that some of us still use calendars. We even found a calendar for the bacon lover. Seriously, we went from being looked at like we were crazy for wanting a calendar to a store that had just about every calendar that you can image. And if that bacon calendar would not have been so expensive I so would have bought it. 🙂

If you are gluten free and missed the gluten free oven pancake I shared earlier this week in my allergy section be sure to check it out. I love making gluten free pancakes this way. And if you are not gluten free I shared how I make the regular version of oven pancakes a few years ago.

I have been working on retaking some of the photos in my archives. This slow cooked potato soup is one of them. I have not made it in awhile and forgot how good it is. It is delicious!

The picture above is one I just quickly took on my phone. I will update the photos in the post soon, but if you love baked potatoes this slow cooked potato soup is a must try. It is so easy and so good!

That ended up being a very long Everyday Adventures post, so thanks for taking the time to read it. I hope you enjoyed a look at my week. And I hope you all have a nice weekend!