Really Random

1.  No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  Being consistent just is not my forte.  I have reminded myself repeatedly that in my case, blogging is about keeping an online journal, and so its purpose is to serve my need to express myself.  If I were primarily trying to write for a specific audience, it would become a stress-inducer, not a stress-reliever.  This is how I try to assuage my guilt.
2.  I hate Facebook.  (Is hate too strong?)  Off and on, I have tried giving it a whirl.  I have learned a few things.  It's easier to like people when you don't know everything that they are thinking and feeling.  I don't need to know 99.9% of what is posted.  And at least 50% of it distresses me, and most of the remaining 50% barely interests me.
3.  I don't know how to tweet.  And so far, I don't feel the need to learn.
4.  Pinning is another matter.  I do have a Pinterest account, and a few boards.  I haven't been nearly as drawn to it as some are.  
5.  So far, these items aren't really random.  They all have to do with social media.
6.  My son stopped at a Yard Sale on his way to the beach with his sweet girlfriend.  Being on the way to the beach, he had no wallet, but discovered something he wanted, so he called me, knowing I'd be interested in the vintage items being cleaned out of an old house.  I was, and besides picking up the dishes his girlfriend told him he needed for his apartment, I found a few other things.  I should take some pics to post.  I brought home 6 matching coffee mugs, a heavy aluminum roaster (that looked like 1960's maybe?), an aluminum straining basket that will fit in my vintage 4 qt. pressure cookers, a few books and an old magazine.  But really the best part was talking about biscuit recipes with the 2 ladies running the sale, and another shopper.  I guess you had to be there.
7.  I've been reorganizing our home filing system.  Reorganizing is a generous term.  We had a shameful number of piles of "important" papers which had never been put into the proper folders.  We had also been suffering with the hassle of searching these haphazard piles (randomly located throughout the house) whenever we needed some pertinent document.  This has been a very gratifying purging experience.  I have sent huge amounts of paper off to be recycled, and made another collection of papers with sensitive info for shredding.  When I lamented to DH about how long it would take to sit at the shredder, he went out and bought a fire pit at Home Depot.  So I got marshmallows, Hershey bars and graham crackers, and we had a little toasting party on Saturday night, while watching for meteors.
8.  We're doing a homemade pizza week.  We did it before several weeks ago, and it was hugely popular.  I was making sourdough starter, and on the King Arthur Flour website, there are recipes for using the daily "discard" starter as you feed it.  So, besides buttermilk sourdough waffles, I was making sourdough pizza crust each day (which you can freeze for future use if you don't use it).  The toppings and salad would change each day.  So one day, it was Hawaiian pizza, another day Greek, another day Meat Lovers or Mexican.  I found this to be a very economical and nutritious way to feed the locusts, uh, family.  (What would you do if your DH was 6'4", and your 3 boys were aged 16-21, all about 6'3" tall, and working hard at very physical jobs each day?  Adding to their appetites, the two older boys play softball in the evenings, one of them surfs every chance he gets, and the youngest is training at the gym or running pretty much daily, anticipating the upcoming football season.)
9.  Re: above:  I do the menu planning and grocery shopping and most of the cooking, but I don't haul in the groceries, take out trash, carry firewood, or my own luggage, and while I do most of the laundry, I don't carry down large hampers of dirty laundry.  Oh, and I don't shovel much snow -- only if I feel like it, for a little exercise and fresh air.  I love having "men around the house.
10.  I read somewhere that eating beans 3-4x/wk decreases your risk of heart disease by something like 37%.  I have multiple risk factors, so I've been seeking more recipes with beans, and acclimating the eaters in the house.  I have had some real success with cooking lentils with beef broth, onion powder and a little cayenne pepper, and mixing them in with ground beef in various casserole-type recipes, like Shepherd's pie, taco meat, etc.  I will try in meatloaf, and maybe even some burgers soon.
11.  I haven't sewed a thing, but the itch is getting stronger.  I want to make a whole new wardrobe!
12.  I love heirloom sewing (see Jeannie Baumeister's blog, The Old Fashioned Baby), and I want to try smocking.  I think that means I'm gearing up for grandbabies.  Kind of the way a young couple gets a puppy or kitten when they are getting mentally prepared to start having babies.  (Tho' most don't recognize that it is a common pattern they are following..
13.  There's a lot to do to get the 2 older boys off to college in about 10 days.  I hate it when they go.  I feel like I've had an amputation.  I can tell I'll be having a horrendous case of ENS (Empty Nest Syndrome) in 2 years when the last one goes. 

Anyway, that's just a little bit of what is rattling around in my head these days........