The weather is warmer, the days are longer and the call to be outside is strong! Here are Ten Things I Like To Do Outside.

1. Read. Has to be a real book or my Kindle, though, because the iPad just doesn’t function well in bright sunlight.
2. Knit. This goes without saying, doesn’t it?
3. Spin. Only if it’s not too windy or I wind up with fluff all over the yard.
4. Walk and Run. So much better outside than on the dreadmill at the gym.
5. Have cocktails. We did this Saturday with friends and it was awesome.
6. Eat. Everything tastes better outside, right? I love dining al fresco.
7. Take pictures. Natural light is my favorite and I really enjoy walking outdoors with my camera.
8. Ride my pretty, pretty cruiser bike. I’m really looking forward to being stronger after all the spinning classes I have taken this winter.
9. Have a fire in the firepit. How come when the fire is inside and in our woodstove it’s work but outside it’s a party?
10. Swing in a hammock. You can bet I will be doing this as much as possible next week.

And those are my 10 things I like to do outside. If you wrote a post for today please click the button below to add your link. As always, if you want to sign up for the Ten on Tuesday email then please click here.

One of the Fat Mum Slim’s Photo-A-Day prompts for last week was “Good Together” and all I could think of was peanut butter and banana. That got me to thinking about what other foods are good together and that lead me to this week’s Ten on Tuesday topic: 10 Foods That Belong Together.

1. Mashed Potatoes & Gravy. If you know me at all then you anticipated this would be the first thing on my list.
2. Chili & Cornbread. Followed by chili and hot dogs the next day!
3. Peanut Butter & Jelly. Still one of my most loved sandwiches.
4. Crackers & Cheese. Best snack in the world.
5. Beef Stew & Homemade Biscuits. Light and fluffy biscuits, not from a mix but from scratch.
6. Pizza & Beer. What? Beer is so a food.
7. Corned Beef Hash & Poached Eggs. A rare indulgence for me these days but oh-so-good.
8. Steak & A Baked Potato. It’s a classic combo for good reason.
9. Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup. Best lunch ever.
10. Bacon & . . . everything. Because everything is better with bacon.

I think I could go on and on with this one and I hope you all had fun writing posts today, too. If you want to share your link be sure and click the button below. And if you want to receive the Ten on Tuesday weekly email then click here to subscribe.

Today is April Fool’s Day and I’ve got something fun in store for our Ten on Tuesday topic. Listed below are 10 statements about me. Some of them are true. And some of them are false. Your job is to figure out which is which. Ready?

1. I bake bread weekly.
2. Knitting is my current favorite crafty hobby. Before that it was quilting. And before that counted cross stitch.
3. I have been to Italy, England and France.
4. I have gone deer and turkey hunting.
5. I am left handed.
6. I would rather have yellow cake than chocolate cake.
7. I don’t really talk about it on the blog but I went to a private high school.
8. If I wasn’t a librarian I would be a lawyer.
9. I cried when I watched this week’s episode of The Good Wife.
10. I’m thinking of giving up blogging.

Can you figure out the true and false statements? I’m not very tricksy so I bet you can. Don’t forget to add a link to your post below – if you wrote one – and I hope you did! Want to receive the weekly Ten on Tuesday email? Click here to subscribe.

You would think, since I am a librarian, that I read a lot. And these days you would be right – I’ve been reading up a storm. Or, at least, a storm for me. I think it’s partially because I love the Kindle app on my iPad but I think it’s mostly because of GoodReads. I get a daily email telling me what my friends are reading as well as their recommendations and reviews and this has really made a big difference in getting me excited about reading again. And so, today’s Ten On Tuesday topic is a list of the Last 10 Books I Have Read.

1. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This is really a short story but boy does it make an impression.
2. Frances & Bernard by Carlene Bauer. It’s been a long time since I have read an epistolary novel and I must say I truly enjoyed this one.
3. The Blackberry Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke. The Hannah Swenson mystery series are a guilty pleasure for me. Very simple but pretty entertaining and with recipes, too.
4. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I enjoyed this very much. It’s long but the characters are like real people and the story is good. Not as good as The Little Friend . . . but worth reading.
5. Wonder by R.J. Pallacio. This is a juvenile fiction title that, in the words of my friend and colleague, everyone should read. Everyone. It won’t take much time, I read it in a day, but it will change the way you look at the world.
6. Visitation Street by Ivy Pochada. It took me a while to get into the story but once I did I was hooked and I couldn’t wait to find out what.really.happened.
7. The Law of Similars by Chris Bohjalian. I am a huge fan of Bohjalian’s and somehow I missed this title when it first came out. It’s fairly similar to Midwives but that’s not a bad thing at all.
8. The Man in the Window by Jon Cohen. This is a Nancy Pearl recommendation and I loved it. It actually prompted me to start a very small book club with a few close friends and I’m grateful for that.
9. W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton. Can you believe the alphabet mysteries aren’t done yet? I feel like I’ve been reading Kinsey Millhone stories my whole life. I’ll be said when she finally reaches Z.
10. Wishin’ and Hopin’ by Wally Lamb. I got this free on Amazon and it was a good holiday story but nothing great. Certainly nothing like She’s Come Undone or I Know This Much is True.

Turns out, those are all the books I have read so far this year. I have to admit that I liked the way that worked out. If you wrote a post today then please add your link below and if you want to receive an email with the Ten On Tuesday topic every Monday, click here to sign up.

Last week we talked about the chores that our spouses do so I thought it would be fun this week to talk about the things that we all do. I have to admit, I had to really think about this one because Dale does a lot for me. Still, I managed to come up with Ten Chores I Do That My Spouse Could Do But Doesn’t.

1. Meal planning – from breakfasts to dinners, whether for the two of us or a big family holiday, I own it. And that means that I also do the -
2. Grocery shopping. It’s just easier for me to get it done. And I don’t really mind the shopping part. The schlepping of the groceries into the house, though? I’m not a fan.
3. Feeding the cat. He feeds Dixie, I feed Mason. It works best this way.
4. Paying the bills. The mortgage, the car payment, the credit card . . . blech.
5. Laundering the sheets and towels. Dale does our clothing but I do everything else. And so I am also the one
6. Changing the sheets. I love it when they are clean and fresh but I abhor actually doing it.
7. Vacation planning. This is one I (mostly) don’t mind!
8. Scheduling of car maintenance: oil changing, tire rotating, you know the drill. If I don’t take care of this it doesn’t get done and then our cars (and wallets!) suffer.
9. Shopping for gifts. And cards. Christmas, birthdays, all occasions, all gift selection, procurement and preparation belongs to me.
10. Maintaining our social calendar. Like vacation planning, I don’t really mind this. I do, however, get a little aggravated when Dale expects me to just know stuff that he hasn’t actually told me about.

I think our division of labor and chores works out pretty well and as far as I know Dale does, too. We’ve got things divided according to our own individual strengths and schedules and that’s what really matters. Did you write a post for today? Please click the button to add a link to your post. Do you want to receive the Ten on Tuesday email every Monday? Then click here to subscribe.