An Icy Hodgepodge

Welcome to this week's edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger before you. 

A quick word about comments-

I leave the link up for the week and if you have a chance, it's nice to visit some of the bloggers who come late to the party. Comments keep the hop hopping : ) 

1. I live in the south so we're pretty much only talking about the weather right now. Give us a weather report from where you live. Does the kind of weather you're having today affect your mood in some way?

We woke up to ice ice baby on Sunday morning. A mess, but perhaps not quite as big a mess as predicted because we also woke up to power-yay! The ice continued the whole ding dong day, yet our power held on until sometime around 1 AM when out she went. No power all day Monday, but thankfully all was restored around dinnertime.  

Does this sort of weather affect my mood? Eh, not so long as it doesn't last until May (north Jersey I'm looking at you). A fluffy snowfall actually puts me in a good mood. A driveway that looks like a skating rink not so much. We had nowhere to be this weekend or Monday for that matter, and hubs and I agreed it was kind of nice to have a quiet cozy day at home. I read two books, we kept the fireplace running off and on, I'd cooked ahead so we reheated food, plus I had a really nice nap on Monday afternoon. 

Sometimes I think the weather is God's way of saying slow down lady. 

2.  Avocados, kale, cauliflower and cottage cheese have all had their time to shine. 2026 brings us the year of the cabbage. Is this a vegetable you like? If so, what are some of your favorite dishes that call for cabbage?  

I do like cabbage, but it's one of those vegetables I don't always think about buying. I love cole slaw, roasted cabbage, and cabbage as an ingredient in soup.  I like slaw of some sort on a fish taco and I like to make cabbage with smoked sausage.  I'm sure I'd like a cabbage roll too, but haven't had one in a long time. 

3. Was a Cabbage Patch Doll a part of your childhood? Or maybe your children's childhood? What's a toy trend from your childhood you remember wanting for your own? 

Cabbage Patch Dolls were big in my girl's growing up years and they each had a doll. Eldora Charmaine and Judith Eloise. They came with names and birth certificates. I still have them and will give them to my granddaughters maybe even this year. 

One of our favorite old home movies to watch is from the birthday where daughter2 was given her Cabbage Patch doll named Judith. This gift sent daughter1 into a complete tailspin and she attempted to negotiate with her little sister like a boss because she wanted to get her hands on that doll so so badly. Daughter2 basically carried the doll around in a football hold and this made her older sister panicky.  It's so precious to remember. I'm sure they are smiling as they read this. 

I don't remember people going crazy when I was a kid, as in lining up at midnight to get the latest thing. That was my generation of parents, although it was never me. I suppose online shopping has mostly put a stop to that insanity. 

I do remember when I was six years old wanting a budding beauty vanity and getting that very thing one Christmas. Made me so happy, but I don't think it was a trend. Just something I saw, probably in a catalog.  It had a little stool and a mirror and I think it might have come with some play makeup.  

4. Something you've spent a lot of time doing lately? 

Playing Mah Jong. I'm the contact person for our neighborhood group and we wanted to recruit some new players to grow our pool so to speak. I put an announcement on our neighborhood facebook page, and turns out everyone in the neighborhood wants to learn to play lol. 

Myself, plus a couple of other women, have been teaching a few times a week, and it's been a lot of fun. It will be really fun when everyone gets up to speed and can play without help.

5. Somehow it's the last week of January...sum up your month in just three sentences. 

Bye January.

I feel like you just got here. 

You provided a gentle start to the new year which is how I like it. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

A neighbor gifted me an Amaryllis in December and she's a beauty...

Have a nice week everyone~

An Icy Hello Monday

Good morning from the deep freeze. I'm writing this weekend catch up on Sunday morning because it feels like a certainty we'll lose power sometime today. It rained ice overnight and has continued into this morning, while temps remain below freezing for a while. Those power lines can only take so much. 

On the bright side we woke up to power, coffee, and a hot shower so counting our Sunday blessings. We were prepared to be greeted by none of the above. 

When you live in the south and winter weather is predicted the forecast essentially takes over your life. I'd much rather have snow than ice, but snow is pretty rare here and ice is so much harder to deal with. 

Let it melt. That's how you deal. 

Let's back up to Friday for our weekend recap, which I'm linking with Holly (Pink Lady) and Sarah (Sunshine and Books), our hosts for the Hello Monday hop.

Hubs was away all last week on his annual duck hunting excursion with friends.

 FYI they don't call it an excursion. 

They didn't get as many ducks as they normally do, but still brought home plenty and had a great time. He says spending four days in a duck blind in rainy 20 degree temps was his way of training for the icepocalypse. 

He got home about lunchtime Friday and I left soon after to help out with a Mah Jong class in my neighborhood. I stopped for gas on my way home from playing because filling up the car is #7 on a list of ten things to do when weather is headed your way. 

I'd made dinner in the crockpot so once I was home hubs and I relaxed with a glass of wine and a catch up on all the happenings of the week that was. We watched a movie that night-Nuremburg, which we thought was just okay. I wasn't familiar with this aspect of the trial (the psychiatrist's relationship with Goering) and the acting was good.

Saturday morning we went into prep mode. We have a portable generator which hubs made sure was working, and this allows us to at least keep a frig and freezer operating and devices charged. We have two refrigerators and the generator is closer to the lower level frig so I started moving a few items from upstairs to down. All the laundry was done, the dishwasher run, and we pulled out sleeping bags, all the blankets, charged portable lights and all our devices, and inflated an air mattress in case we decide to sleep in front of the fireplace. 

I did some cooking too. On Friday I made vegetable beef soup and then Saturday I made spaghetti sauce and went ahead and made the pasta too. I added a little pasta water to the noodles before refrigerating to keep them from drying out, and I have duck meatballs in the freezer we can add to this. They're made with duck, beef, and Italian sausage so will be good with the pasta.  Easy meals we can reheat on the stove top. I have an electric oven but a gas cooktop so we can use the stove even without electricity. 

I also made brownies because every ice storm needs some. This batch was particularly good, just the right ratio of crispy edge to gooey center. 

Friday night my daughter1 and son-in-law invited us to their house for a Burns night dinner. You may not know what that is unless you're familiar with the Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns (Robbie to those who know him well). He's regarded as the National Poet of Scotland and is world famous.  Even if you don't know his poetry I'm pretty sure Auld Lang Syne rings a bell, along with the expression, 'the best laid plans of mice and men.' 

Burns was born on January 25, 1759 and every year on his birthday Burns night dinners are held in his honor. A traditional Burns night meal consists of haggis, neeps (similar to a rutabaga) and tatties (potatoes) and a dram of Scotch whiskey to wash it all down. His poetry is recited or read aloud alongside the meal. 

Haggis has a reputation, but when in Scotland (or a Burns night dinner in South Carolina) ...

Vegetarians look away. Haggis is traditionally made with sheep's offal (internal organs), mixed with oats, suet, onion, and spices all cooked inside a sheep's stomach. Sounds like something, doesn't it? We had ours as an appetizer, crumbled with crackers, and if you didn't know what you were eating you might think it was a spicy breakfast sausage. It was quite good. 

Our meal was a close version of the traditional with a haggis starter, steak and ale pie, tatties, and cabbage. The men sipped some Talisker's to make it truly official, and everyone read a Burns poem. Hearing your 8-year old grandson read a Burns poem with all it's Scottish wording is a 10/10 experience. I recommend. 

We had an early dinner so hubs and I could get home before the ice rolled in. We watched Tennessee beat Alabama in basketball and slept in our own warm bed. 

We woke up Sunday morning to an icy coating on pretty much everything. More sleet and freezing rain are in the forecast but we have nowhere to go so we'll stay snug and cozy here at home. Church services are all cancelled in our area and schools have already cancelled for tomorrow. I have a pile of books to read and as I type this we still have power which definitely makes an ice storm less miserable. 

This morning I'm grateful for heat, hot water, light, and all the many people out working on roads and power lines and in emergency services to keep us safe and comfortable. Have a nice wintry week everyone! 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 638

Here are the questions to this week's Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then skate back here on Wednesday (January 28th) to add your link to the party. See you there! 

1. I live in the south so we're pretty much only talking about the weather right now. Give us a weather report from where you live. Does the kind of weather you're having today affect your mood in some way? 

2.  Avocados, kale, cauliflower and cottage cheese have all had their time to shine. 2026 brings us the year of the cabbage. Is this a vegetable you like? If so, what are some of your favorite dishes that call for cabbage?  

3. Was a Cabbage Patch Doll a part of your childhood? Or maybe your children's childhood? What's a toy trend from your childhood you remember wanting for your own? 

4. Something you've spent a lot of time doing lately? 

5. Somehow it's the last week of January...sum up your month in just three sentences. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Skiing In To The Hodgepodge

Welcome to this week's edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions, add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger before you. Here we go...

1. Ice skating, skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, playing in the snow, or a snowy walk...which winter activity do you choose? Have you done any of these activities so far this winter? 

I choose a snowy walk. We haven't had any snow this winter so none of the above have happened. 

2. Everyone is posting pictures from ten years ago on their social media sites so let's jump on the bandwagon too. Share one photo and one thought to go with said photo from the year 2016. And maybe everyone isn't doing this, but many are and we're going to be part of the fun. 

I wrote a whole post relating to this topic on Monday which you can read here (Throwback Monday). Bring your coffee...it's not short. In a nutshell we spent 2016 building our current house so most of my photos are related to that event. 

I have a million so will share one I didn't include in Monday's post-

Our family has more than doubled in size. 

3. What's a trend you hope disappears in this new year? 

Rioting masquerading as protest. I'm so over it. 

4. 'They' say there's a day for everything and January 21st proves it. National Granola Bar Day. Do you like granola bars? How about just regular granola? Do you like bars of other kinds? 

I like granola okay. If I'm having yogurt for breakfast I'll put a small sprinkle of granola on top because I like the crunch. Granola can be calorie heavy and also full of sugar so there's that. 

I'm not a big fan of granola bars or other types of bars unless I'm hiking, and then I appreciate the energy boost they provide. 

Wait. Do candy bars count? I do like those. 

5.  A frozen lake, a trickling stream, a raging river, or a deep well...which one describes something about your life right now? Elaborate as much or as little as you like. 

I like the idea of a trickling stream at the start of this new year...gentle progress, subtle changes, reflection. That one seems to fit best right now. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I haven't ventured too deeply into the world of AI, but recently I used it for a little project with great success. My pantry had gotten out of control over the holidays. It was to the point where I was setting things in there telling myself I'd sort it out later and eventually get to a re-org in the new year.

Well the new year is here and the job felt overwhelming. Ugh. 

So I did what we do in the age of technology and snapped a photo. Then I showed it to my imaginary friend, aka AI, and asked her if she could sort it out. 

She did. In about ten seconds too. 

Also, I'm calling 'IT' a she and her response was amazing. 'She' started with some general suggestions then drilled down into some of the finer details when I said tell me more. She said she could organize it by shelf and even tell me what sort of containers I might need to purchase. 

I finally tackled the job today (Tuesday) which meant pulling everything out of the pantry, three bags of trash removed, a box of assorted items including some flower vases, pitchers and trays I've never used, etc to give away, all the shelves wiped down, the floor vacuumed, and best of all I now know what had been hiding there. Nothing exciting, nothing expired, but a lot of duplicates, including three jars of capers??? and an abundance of honey. 

Feels so good to have this job done. Now if only it will serve to inspire my cooking. 

Throwback Monday

There's a trend making it's way around social media where people are sharing what their lives looked like in 2016 . It sounded like fun so here we are. 

Ten years. I had to scratch my head a little to remember what we were doing in 2016, but thankfully I have a blog to help with that. 

Turns out we were building a house. Ha!



How do you forget that? 

I guess I've successfully blocked the process from my memory, but at the time it seemed to fill our every waking moment. 

When I say we were building a house I mean the entire year of 2016 was dedicated to that endeavor. We actually broke ground on September 24th of 2015 and then it proceeded to rain for the next month so we didn't start construction until mid-October of that year. 

And it took a looooong time. Almost fourteen months but who's counting? My camera reel from 2016 is filled with a lot of red clay, lumber, plumbing, and stone. 

And that was pretty much it. 

I mean not it it, but the home build did consume our time and our thoughts and our lives for the entirety of 2016.

As home builds do. 

In other old news...having newlyweds in the family made for a happy distraction in 2016. Daughter1 and her hubs married the year before and promptly moved thousands of miles away, which incidentally would become a trend for them going forward, although we blessedly didn't know it then. 

God gives us grace for the day y'all. 

I made two trips to the Evergreen State that year and I loved it. I didn't love the distance, but I'd never spent any time in the PNW before my daughter1 moved there, and I thought it was so beautiful. 

The trees...all the green...I loved walking in my daughter's neighborhood with her picture perfect view of Mt. Rainier. 

Loved walking the path through what I dubbed the Jurrasic forest and then the way it opened up into the wide expanse of the Puget Sound. 

Loved hanging with this guy too of course. 

He was an adorable and only slightly naughty one year old puppy who had no idea he'd be coming to live with us just three years later.  As I said, grace for the day. 

We bought a boat-

Our dock went in before the house was even framed, and this was smart on our part if I do say so myself. 

I mean hubs was all over that so I can't take any credit but having the dock meant we could hang out in the lake while the builders did their thing. 

May 7, 2016...dipping my toes in the lake from our dock for the first time. 

We had to navigate through the overgrown prickly brush on the hillside to get to it, but still we were a step closer towards calling home home. 

What else? OOOhhh the apartment. It was actually kind of fun living in a furnished apartment while we built. I could clean the whole thing in about an hour and best of all daughter2 lived in the same complex.

She was teaching school and we got to see a lot of her and her sweet Greyhound. 

Scrolling through pictures I see we had time with extended family, some fun weekends spent both here and away with friends, some of whom we haven't seen in a while which makes me a little sad, but also grateful for the people whose paths have crossed ours whether for a season or forever. 

I see too, that taking sunrise/sunset pics has been a thing for at least a decade. 

Mostly I'm struck by how ten years feels like forever. I'd almost forgotten we lived in that apartment because life flows like a fast moving river and we have to keep paddling forward. 

Still, it's okay to glance over your shoulder now and then. 

Cheers to the next ten. I don't know what they'll bring...

...but I know there will be grace enough to meet us there. 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 637

Here are the questions to this week's Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (January 21st) to share answers with the universe. See you there! 

1. Ice skating, skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, playing in the snow, or a snowy walk...which winter activity do you choose? Have you done any of these activities so far this winter? 

2. Everyone is posting pictures from ten years ago on their social media sites so let's jump on the bandwagon too. Share one photo and one thought to go with said photo from the year 2016. And maybe everyone isn't doing this, but many are and we're going to be part of the fun. 

3. What's a trend you hope disappears in this new year? 

4. 'They' say there's a day for everything and January 21st proves it. National Granola Bar Day. Do you like granola bars? How about just regular granola? Do you like bars of other kinds? 

5.  A frozen lake, a trickling stream, a raging river, or a deep well...which one describes something about your life right now? Elaborate as much or as little as you like. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Cloudy With A Chance Of Hodgepodge

Welcome to another edition of the weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then go say hi to your neighbor there. Here we go-

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

I enjoy seeing snow fall but am not what you'd call a a snow lover. It rarely snows here and if it does it doesn't last. I'd have to travel to see snow and I don't love it enough to do that. 

I'm going with fireplace snuggler. When it's cold outside I like to be under a blanket beside the fire with my book. 

We got feet of snow every winter when we lived in NJ. Our pup loved it! Hubs not so much : ) 

And while we may not get a lot of snow here, when we do the little brown dog makes the most of it. 

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? 

I like the name cloud dancer. I crave peace and also clarity in regards to the best way to handle some difficult situations. I know trusting Jesus and taking these things to Him is what makes peace and clarity possible. 

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. 

Every cloud has a silver lining because I'm ever and always an optimist. 

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? 

I like all of the foods listed, but some would be harder than others to give up. Coconut is one of my favorite flavors, but not something I have every day or even every week. On the other hand onions are in so many of the dishes I make on a regular basis, and they add to the flavor of those dishes, so I guess onions would be the most missed. I feel the same way about mayonnaise. 

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. 

I would say I agree in the sense that life and the changing seasons teach us lessons if we pay attention. While I believe beauty exists no matter the season, there is something uniquely valuable about winter. I love the slowing down it brings that's sometimes missing in other seasons. 

I like the pause that comes with winter. The space it brings that encourages me to step back from the busyness of daily life. Time to reflect and time to rest. I think faith grows in times of rest, maybe more so than in times of productivity. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Speaking of clouds...I have a small obsession with the sky and clouds especially. Back in September I saw someone on Instagram share a sky collage and decided I wanted to do the same. Every morning in the month of October I snapped a picture of the sky while standing in the same spot in my backyard. Here's how it looked-

Have a nice week everyone!