Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 636

Here are the questions to this week's Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (January 14th) to share answers with all your friends and neighbors. See you there!

1. What kind of winter person are you-snow lover, fireplace snuggler, winter adventurer, or indoor hibernator? Elaborate. 

2. The Pantone color of the year is cloud dancer, described as a gentle, billowy off white shade. The color symbolizes 'peace, clarity, quiet reflection, renewal, and a soft reset'. Of the terms just listed which do you need most in your life this winter? 

3. Every cloud has a silver lining, on cloud nine, head in the clouds, storm clouds gathering, or cloud of suspicion...which 'cloud' idiom do you most relate to currently? Explain. 

4. coconut, cauliflower, cottage cheese, mayonnaise, onions, ranch dressing...of the white foods listed, which would be the hardest for you to give up? Do you like all or any of the foods on the list? 

5. Thomas Wentworth Higginson is credited with this quote-

"How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose, if there were no winter in our year." 

Agree or disagree? Tell us why. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Friday Faves

 Joining Andrea (Momfessionals) and Erika (A Little Bit Of Everything) for their Friday Favorites link 

Here are five things I'm loving in this new year-

1. Eating lighter.  Who's with me? We've had so many heavy meals these past three months (yes the holiday-ing seems to start in October for some reason) and it's been nice to change it up here.   

Last night I made this yummy salad-arugala, tomato, cucumber, toasted pine nuts, a sprinkle of parm, and a light lemon vinaigrette topped with some chicken tenders browned and finished off in the oven with a little chicken broth and capers. 

2. This juice, Uncle Matt's Ultimate Immune made with orange juice, elderberry, zinc and more-

I had a glass at my neighbor's house on New Year's Eve and liked it so much I bought some on my next trip to the grocery. It's not inexpensive, but it is delicious and not overly sweet. Plus it's pretty. Elderberry is particularly good for you this time of year as it helps boost immunity and reduces cold and flu symptoms, among other things. 

I bought mine at Publix but it's available at Wal Mart, Amazon, and other shops too. 

3. Signs of spring. It's never too early, right? 

Actually I think it might be too early in some parts of the country, and we'll likely have some cold weather here before the calendar makes it official. These daffs are hardy and can handle the kind of winter weather we get in The Palmetto State.  

4. Moving-

Not house. Definitely not that! I mean moving me. 

Hubs and I have had some nice walks in this new year and I hope we keep it up. I still wear my ankle brace and that seems to help with the lingering off and on pain that has no medical explanation. We haven't done any extreme hills, unless you count my neighborhood walking trail (which I do), but mostly we're steering clear of trails marked strenuous. 

This is the flat part of our neighborhood walking trail. It's literally a short straight up and/or straight down bit to get here, but it feels good to move and I'm hoping more walking will actually help as opposed to hurt. 

5. Day dates. 

Still counting my 52 dates in 52 weeks we started back in the fall, and think it's going to end up being more like 52 in 60 or something like that which is fine. We were away over the holidays and spent time with family so missed a week and we had company here one week so missed another and I'm sure there will be one or two more misses before we get to 52. 

But we'll get there. Lots will involve hikes because we enjoy that. We love to be outside, and hiking is a quiet activity that allows for conversation and deep thinking. Hubs says I don't need a reason to think deeply, but he humors me. 

Episode lucky 13 was a hike through some beautiful woods and around a small local lake with fabulous views of Table Rock. 

70 degrees on January 7th.

 I'll take it! 

If you'd like to share five favorite somethings from the first part of this new year hop over to our host blogs and add your links. 

Have a happy weekend everyone! 

Share Your Shelf-December

I think the link up might have been last week, but as per usual I'm easing in to January and not apologizing for it. I'm not someone who charges in to the new year. We're often exhausted as the year winds down and I love taking it slow in the first month of the year, particularly the first couple of weeks. Life will pick up speed and the calendar will fill up, but for now slow and easy down the new year road I go. 

This link up had four hosts previously but Joanne (Slices of Life) is going it alone this year so hop over and add your list of books read the month prior. Here's my short but sweet December list- 

Anxious People by Frederik Bachman

Let me start by saying I really love Backman's writing. I've read a number of his previous books and enjoyed all. My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry, a creative and original tale where a 7-year old girl is best friends with her grandmother, is my favorite. 

Most of Bachman's books feature quirky yet somehow relatable characters, and most get rave reviews.  Anxious People had many reviewers saying it was just okay, but I really liked it. Four stars for me. 

In Anxious People a failed bank robbery turns an apartment open house into a hostage situation, trapping eight anxious strangers together. The would-be-robber vanishes, secrets come to light, and the captives discover they have more in common than expected. Funny and tender Anxious People explores themes of friendship, forgiveness, and the quiet ways in which people can truly help one another. 

Grace (Sisters of the Heart #4) by Shelley Shepard Gray

A Christmas themed novel given to me by a friend in my book club. She wraps up Christmas books in brown paper and everyone grabs one. So thoughtful! This was mine, and while it was a bit 'Hallmark-y' I liked it. It was the end of the year and light felt right. 

Grace is apparently the fourth in a series by this author, but it was easy to catch up with the main character's back stories. The novel is set in a tightly knit Amish community, specifically in a Bed and Breakfast owned and run by an Amish family, The Brennemans. 

The family is ready to close down for the holidays until two unexpected guests arrive seeking shelter. First comes Levi, angry and insistent on staying. Then Melody appears, nearly nine months pregnant and alone, with no explanation for her journey from Kentucky.  The Brennemans offer warm hospitality, and daughter Katie is determined to uncover the secrets they carry. 

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson 

I'm still on my 'read a classic every month' kick, and this was December's selection. The language and vocabulary alone in these classics make me want to read more. Hubs and I listened on Audible, and I loved it. I don't know if I ever read this as a child, but hubs remembered it well. The narration is top notch and made the listening more fun. 

Treasure Island was published in 1883, and blends moral lessons with adventure. It's had a huge impact, both on later tales of adventure and our perception of pirates,  that still holds true today. 

This is the story of Jim Hawkins, a young boy who goes in search of treasure after finding a treasure map. He faces shipwreck, a pirate mutiny, sword fights and more. It's the story of a young boy who overcomes the odds. 

The tale begins at the Admiral Benbow Inn on England's Bristol Channel where Jim and his parents encounter an old sailor, later revealed to be Billy Bones, former first mate of the famed pirate Captain Flint. 

After Bones death Jim takes the map to Dr. Livesy and Squire John Trelawney, who organize an expedtion to find the treasure. Together with a crew, Jim joins Long John Silver on an expedition to an uncharted island to find Flint's treasures. It soon becomes apparent many of the crew are former pirates under Silver's command and a mutiny is brewing.   

Themes of good and evil, fortune and greed, survival and resourcefulness, loyalty and betrayal are all explored. Five stars for me. 

If you're reading something great, send it my way.

The Hodgepodge. Full stop.

Happy new year Hodgepodgers! I hope you had a happy restful holiday and are easing in to this new year with joy. I'm looking forward to lots of random fun here on Wednesdays and am so glad you're joining in with the weekly hop.  

If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for your neighbor there. Onward in to 2026 we go...

1. What are three words you would use to describe your 2025? 

fractured, anchored, grateful 

2. I ask this question every January, and I always get comments about how we shouldn't be banning words. This is fun and games so just play along : ) 

Every January 1st since 1976 Lake Superior University has published a list of words they'd like to see banished from the Queen's English. Words may be banished due to misuse, overuse, or just general uselessness (go here to read about how the words are chosen). Here's the list for 2026- 

67 • demure • cooked • massive • incentivize • full stop • perfect • gift/gifted  • my bad • reach out 

Which one (if any) do you use most often? I like the word perfect and that would be my most used on this list. I have no plans to stop. 

Which one of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? I'm not a fan of my bad and would be okay if we let that one go. I know 67 is overused, but not in my crowd. Perhaps if I had teens or tweens in the house? 

Is there a word you think should have made the list? How about 'circle back'? 

3. What are your nightly rituals? Is that different from your 'ideal' nightly ritual? If so what's your ideal? 

Is falling asleep on the couch considered a ritual? I do this a little too often. 

My nightly ritual is pretty simple-pjs, wash face, moisturize, retinol, and brush/floss teeth. I often do the face wash early in the evening if we're not going anywhere. I'm not the person doing any kind of housework in the evening. If we're home we watch something on TV and I might also read or work on my blog. My energy level is on a downward trajectory after 5 PM. 

4. January 6th is/was National Bean Day. Do you like beans? Which one is your favorite? Last thing you ate made with beans? 

I like all beans, with green beans being my favorite and limas my least liked. Still I'll eat them, but mostly just in soups or stews. Black eyed peas are actually a bean and we had those on January 1st so that would be the last thing I ate made with beans. 

5. Are you easily embarrassed? Elaborate. 

I can be, but it depends on the group I'm with and who's doing the embarrassing. I can definitely fake it and pretend I'm not embarrassed when I'm actually cringing on the inside. As a child I think I was pretty easily embarrassed but as an adult I've learned to laugh at myself. 

I will say I'm someone who is easily embarrassed for others, even when they might not feel it themselves. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I've made a simple winter bucket list, nothing too crazy, just a few things I'd like to do in the next three months. I find a list motivating in terms of helping me tackle some of the nagging to-dos that don't seem to get done if they're not written down. I can't explain it but somehow it works. Do you have a new year-new month-new season bucket list? 

Hello Monday, Hello New Year

I say every January the official start to the new year for me is this week, sometime five or six days into the month. Christmas is still up at my house, but today is the day. Hubs took down the outdoor lights yesterday, but inside I'm still fa-la-la-ing. 

We had a nice weekend beginning with a walk to a nearby waterfall Friday morning. Let's go ahead and call it day date episode 12. 

I was wearing a hat. I forgot there would be a picture. 

The little brown dog loves this particular hike, and in fact he'd made this same walk just last week when he spent Christmas with my daughter1 and her family while we traveled. 

The minute he gets out of the car he starts panting like crazy because he smells the water and wants to get to it pronto.

We came home and had lunch, then mid-afternoon hubs and I went to the movies (episode 13). We were trying to remember the last time we went to an actual movie theater and couldn't be sure. I think it was way back in May when Mission Impossible came out, and before that who knows? We don't go to the movies often, but happened to be there twice this weekend. 

We wanted to see Song Sung Blue and had to drive a couple of towns over to where it was still playing. We loved it. Neither of us had read anything about it, and turns out it wasn't at all what we thought it was going to be. Still we loved it. I thought Hugh Jackman was playing Neil Diamond, but he's actually playing Neil Diamond in a tribute act. So good! The camera absolutely loves Kate Hudson, and the story was unexpected. Bring your kleenex. Just sayin'. 

We're rarely in this town so I checked the always trustworthy internet for a dinner rec. We ended up at a place called The West End Dinner Club which we enjoyed. It has a speakeasy vibe and the food was good. I had salmon and hubs had mahi and both were tasty. 

Saturday we did a few things around the house and I picked up a few groceries we'd be needing for the grandkids overnight visit. These two were celebrating their wedding anniversary and we said the kids could spend the night so mom and dad could have a night out in the city. 

They arrived just in time for us to load them back into the car to go see the new film David. This was the first movie in a theatre for Little Miss and she had a grand time. I mean there was popcorn and a comfy recliner so what more do you need? We liked the movie a lot and the message is excellent. It's an especially good boy flick which is rare. Also very true to the Biblical account which was nice to see. 

We came home and had a fondue party. You haven't lived until you've made fondue with a three year old lol. Little Miss pours and mixes with great confidence.  

I thought ahead and covered the table with a disposable cloth, but it still felt like there was chocolate everywhere. 

We started with cheese fondue and hubs also grilled some small steaks because it seemed like we needed more than cheese and chocolate for dinner. And popcorn. 

Hi. We're the grandparents.  

There were vegetables for the cheese and fruit for the chocolate so calling that a win. 

After dinner it was showers for the boys and a bath for little miss, and then pjs and basketball on tv. Everyone slept and we had bacon and waffles and leftover fruit before church. Shout out here to parents getting three kids dressed and fed and in the car along with themselves for church every Sunday. I felt a little like I'd run a 5k. 

Our sermon yesterday was on 1 Samuel 17 aka David and Goliath. We'd just seen the movie the day before so my ears perked up when the pastor mentioned the chapter he would preach from. Coincidence? Not likely.  In short...we all have our giants. Be like David and think less about my giant and more about my giant God. 

Wishing you a wonderful start to this brand new year. 

Joining Holly (Pink Lady) and Sarah (Sunshine and Books) today for their regular Monday morning hop. 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 635

Happy new year Hodgepodgers! Here are the questions to round one of 2026 (round 635 for real). Answer on your own blog then hop back here on Wednesday (January 7th)  to add your link to the party. See you there! 

1. What are three words you would use to describe your 2025? 

2. I ask this question every January, and I always get comments about how we shouldn't be banning words. This is fun and games so just play along : ) 

Every January 1st since 1976 Lake Superior University has published a list of words they'd like to see banished from the Queen's English. Words may be banished due to misuse, overuse, or just general uselessness (go here to read about how the words are chosen). Here's the list for 2026- 

67 • demure • cooked • massive • incentivize • full stop • perfect • gift/gifted  • my bad • reach out 

Which one (if any) do you use most often? Which one of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word you think should have made the list? 

3. What are your nightly rituals? Is that different from your 'ideal' nightly ritual? If so what's your ideal? 

4. January 6th is/was National Bean Day. Do you like beans? Which one is your favorite? Last thing you ate made with beans? 

5. Are you easily embarrassed? Elaborate. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Happy New You!

That's how we say it in our house. Happy new YOU! When our oldest grandson was two years old this was how he greeted the new year, and we still love it. 

So will it be a new me, or the same old me in 2026? I'm hoping for a slightly improved version, but I suppose I'm the one who will need to make that happen, so the answer is still up in the air. 

We put a boatload of expectation on the turning of a calendar page, don't we? 

Before we move forward let's look back at the week that was. Monday around 5 hubs had a thought about whether or not his passport was expiring this year or next so he went to check. He returned shortly and asked, 'Where's my passport?' 

I don't know. I mean we keep them locked up always in the same place, but when he went to check it wasn't there. So we backtracked in our thinking trying to remember when the last time was that he flew, until I remembered we had taken the passports (and every single identifying piece of information we own including our birth certificates and our marriage license) to the DMV in August when we went for our Real ID. 

Hmmm...so what did I do with them? I mean we both knew I'd been the one carrying the bag and hubs kept his cool but y'all it was a problem. A PROBLEM!! 

We knew they'd been in a tote bag and we spent the next couple of hours turning our house upside down looking for that bag in obvious and ridiculous places both, because at this point I figured I must have put it somewhere that made no sense. 

We had gone to breakfast after the DMV and even though it was all the way back in August I still phoned the restaurant and the sweet hostess went and looked in their office and under the counter and anywhere she could think of which I appreciated. I knew I hadn't left it there because I'm kind of paranoid about this sort of thing, although apparently not paranoid enough to put it all back in the spot we have for important documents. 

At some point I got on the computer and asked what to do and the internet very helpfully laid it out for me.  I went ahead and ordered a copy of my birth certificate and our marriage license because those things were easy. Hubs birth certificate would be another story, because he was born outside the US in a military hospital that no longer exists. Whoo boy. 

We finally went to bed. Hubs said we'd figure it out and let's just go to bed and see it with fresh eyes in the morning. Neither of us slept much, and when I got up he was already on the phone trying to sort out his paperwork dilemma. We both were sure the bag was somewhere in the house as opposed to truly lost or stolen, but we couldn't think of any other place to look. I decided to go look once more in one of the places I'd already looked three or four times, but this time I methodically took each thing out of the space, and hallelujah! there it was.  

Honestly I felt like I had a little PTSD from the whole experience. I know this experience falls under the heading of first world problems, but it was a problem nonetheless.

Tuesday was nice. I piddled around the house, made a big pot of lemon chicken orzo soup, caught up on blogs, and played Mah Jong with some neighbors. 

On the last day of the year (Wednesday) we went for a walk. It was cool but not windy and the sky was so blue. Some of us chased chipmunks...

we smiled at the cherry tree beginning to bloom-

...and we spent the afternoon watching football. I made a Mexican style spinach dip to take to the next door neighbors that evening. They invited us, along with another couple, to ring in the new year with dinner and cards.  

It was fun and we didn't have to drive anywhere which I consider a win on NY Eve. 

We haven't taken down a single decoration yet and I'm not mad about it. We're relaxing and enjoying sitting by the tree still, so probably won't worry about it until next week. 

On the first day of this brand new year we took another walk and watched a lot more football.  'Tis still the season. I blogged a little , and we made a semi-traditional meal for dinner. Hubs grilled pork chops and made black eyed peas and I made cornbread and cooked cabbage to go with. Technically you're supposed to eat greens and I often do spinach, but I had a head of cabbage in the frig I wanted to use so we made it work. 

If you don't know what I'm talking about you might not live in the south. 

I played around with a winter bucket list and also took a look back at fall to see how I did. Remember fall? I kept my want-to-do's back then pretty simple-

Not sure why I made a list of the odd 11, but of the 11 I checked off eight. I didn't get my photo book made, I didn't memorize three verses (although I did memorize one) and I didn't make soup in my pumpkin tureens. I will definitely get the book made this winter, there were too many other holiday related tasks to be done this fall for me to spend a lot of time making a book. I'm not fast. 

Hubs and I tackled the attic but there's still more to be done there and we'll continue working on that job this winter. Good times. 

Moving forward into the new year, new season with a new list which I'll post soon. It's a work in progress. Like me. I hope your new year is happy and bright. 

Merry 2026!