A Hodgepodge For The Ages

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

1. On July 29th 1957 The Tonite Show premiered with Jack Parr as it's host. This marked the beginning of the modern day talk show. Do you watch any daytime or late night talk shows today? Do you have any thoughts on the hubbub surrounding the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, or are you more in the camp of 'who is Stephen Colbert? 

I don't watch any talk shows these days. Mostly because I find celebrity culture exhausting and not all that interesting. In my opinion the night time shows have become less entertainment, more political commentary and who wants that when they're trying to quiet their mind for sleeping???

Eons ago we would fall asleep to Johnny Carson or David Letterman, but this new crop is too full of their own self-importance for me to enjoy. Sure there are some funny bits now and then, but the overall content is very one-sided. Not everyone shares my opinion and that's fine, but I'm not tuning in and apparently I'm not the only one. 

I paid very little attention to the outrage over the cancellation of Colbert's show. It wasn't making the network money, and there's a merger happening, and entertainment is business so it's gone. Pretty sure it's not the end of democracy as some folks want us to believe.  

2. What's the best part of your day? 

"The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup"....raise your hand if you remember the jingle? I checked to see when that ad first ran and it was 1984. The year I got married. 

I don't drink Folgers but that first cup of coffee in the early morning hours is definitely one of the best parts of the day. Early morning in general is the best part of my day. I like the quiet, the sunrise, and easing in to the day with my coffee and what feels like endless possibilities. 

3. What's something your generation does that you actually dislike? 

I can't think of anything I truly dislike. I will say I think it's normal as we age to become more resistant to change...our routines, technology, the way the way the world works...we want those things to stay as we've always known them to be. 

We're all a product of the times in which we're raised, but...the world does change and we have to cultivate some flexibility if we're going to age gracefully. I get it. Sometimes you just don't want to learn how to do something a new way. 

Time marches on with our without us, and we can't always be looking blissfully at what was and criticizing what is. I want to keep learning and growing and that means accepting that the world in 2025 looks a lot different than it did when I was 'young' (er). Some things are better, some are worse. I'm sure my parents felt the same. 

4. When you cook do you clean as you go, or clean it all up once you're finished cooking? What's the last thing you cooked/baked in your own kitchen? 

I don't exactly clean as I go, but I don't save it all til the end either. Hubs is 100% clean as you go. He's been known to wash a pan I'm planning to use again.  If he enters the kitchen while I'm baking it can make him twitch a little. 

I would say I clean as I need to, but save most of it for the end because I like to focus more on the actual measuring-sifting-mixing. If my hubs were answering he'd say I definitely lean more towards the clean it all up at the end side of things. Hi hubs! 

The last thing I cooked in my kitchen was a pesto pasta dish I made for dinner Monday night. I answer the questions Monday or Tuesday usually.

5. Sum up your July in ten words or less. 

An ankle fracture. That's it. That's July. 

I mean there were lots of lovely bright spots too, but if I'm summing it up that's the highlight. Or lowlight depending on your point of view. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

When we added the waterfall to our backyard we asked the guys doing the work to add a few plants around it...

That's it. That was the level of instruction we gave them regarding landscaping which, if you know us, you know this is not us lol. 

Mostly we didn't get specific because we didn't realize at the time how large the finished space would be. 

But no matter because they made it so pretty. There's actually a fair amount of planting all around and we love it. These verbena have been blooming since May and show no signs of slowing down. 

Happy Wednesday everyone! 

Weekend Chatter

Good Monday morning. I hope you had a nice weekend...here's how ours looked-

 

I spent most of Friday getting food prepped for a Saturday brunch with my sister and niece. I made a sausage and egg casserole and a new recipe that jumped out at me when I was scrolling the endless black hole known as the internet-Orange Cream Cheese Loaf. 

I'd say it's more cake than bread, but it was light, fresh, and tasty. I squeezed the orange for the juice which I think gave it that extra brightness. 

Did I take a picture of the loaf before I cut it?

No I did not. I was pretty slack in general in the photo department this weekend. I mean it was sunny and busy and I had family here and I don't always think about snapping a picture in the middle of living life. 

Also,  I'm gonna go ahead and say here that I'm cooked out right now. We had an easy taco dinner Friday night because one of the grands had T-ball practice and tacos seemed like something we could make and eat beforehand. I also stated for the record on Friday that I would not be cooking dinner on Saturday or Sunday. 

My sister and niece live a little over an hour from me but they hadn't had a chance to see Daughter1 and my son-in-law since they returned from their UK stint. Between the sickness and the travel and everyone's schedules and already full calendars it took a while to get a date on the calendar. 

I invited them for brunch and hubs made his famous hand crafted Bloody Marys and the sun shone and the kids were sweet. Pretty much a perfect afternoon. 

They stayed and visited for a while and we sat outside chatting and soaking up the sun.  After they left we watched basketball (Go VOLS!) and relaxed. There's a Korean restaurant in our tiny town that we hadn't tried yet, and who better to go to a Korean restaurant with than people who know and love the food? 

My middle grandson will tell you mandu is his favorite food and they order their beef bulgogi like the dining pros they are which is super cute. 

Hubs and I try to walk everyday in the neighborhood and I love the flowering trees whispering spring is here. 

Spring finds a way, right? 

Ans of course blooming things mean pollen and it's basically a cloud of yellow everywhere you turn, and we're not even to the worst of it yet. We press on. 

The boys all went to watch the Clemson baseball game on Sunday afternoon and my daughter and I settled in to watch the Ruby Franke story on Hulu (Devil In The Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke). Have you seen this? I never followed her online but millions did.  Several million actually. What a sad, strange story of our times. What a nightmare these children experienced and continue to live with. It's only three episodes so not a huge investment of time.

The guys had great seats for the baseball game and were on TV every other minute which was fun to see. Hubs texted and asked us to try to take a picture and I had to tell him we changed the channel because we were deep into the Ruby saga. 

The boys came in chattering (even the grown up boys) because it was probably the most exciting college baseball game ever with the hometown team pulling off a win at the last minute after being behind most of the game. 

More importantly I kept my promise and didn't cook dinner. Daughter1 threw together some pasta with tomatoes, garlic, basil, and Parmesan cheese and we had a small bowl of that which was just right. 

And that's the weekend in a nutshell. Or fourteen paragraphs. Whatever. It was nice and I hope yours was too! 

Linking today like I do every Monday, with Holly and Sarah for their weekend recap blog hop. Feel free to join the party! 

Puzzling Over 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. January 29th is National Puzzle Day. Do you enjoy puzzles? What kind (crossword, jigsaw, sudoku, etc)?  How often do you work a puzzle? 

I love puzzles, word puzzles more than jigsaw but I like those too. I work a puzzle of some sort every day. My favorites are crosswords and logic puzzles. 

2. Something you currently find puzzling? 

Honestly I look around and the list is long. Just one thing? 

How in our country today the desire for a secure border somehow means you lack compassion.  

3. What's your go-to dish to take to someone who needs a meal (new baby, bereavement, etc)? 

It kind of depends on the occasion and the family size. I made four meals for my daughter's freezer so she'll have something easy when the baby arrives. I made chicken and rice soup, beef stew, baked ziti, and chicken spaghetti. Chicken spaghetti is one of my go to meals for someone in need. 

4. Do you watch any HGTV and/or The Food Network? If so, what's your favorite program there? 

I watch now and then. I enjoy watching people cook, but I don't watch any of the Junior versions of cooking programs (featuring kids). My favorite 'food' show is The Great British Baking Show which is on Netflix. I love Home Town on HGTV mostly because I admire their mission and think Ben and Erin are super adorable. 

5.  Wrap up your January in five words, with a five word phrase, or with a five word sentence. 

Wait, what? It's over? Whoa!  

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

Not a lot of random to share today. Or maybe too much? Happy Wednesday everyone! 

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A Ragtag Post

We finally had a quiet at home weekend doing a whole lot of very little which was long overdue. Also not much to blog about, but of course I'm blogging anyway. C'est la vie. 

Hubs had been duck hunting all week and didn't get home until very late Friday night. His trip meant I had four whole entire days in the house by myself which, if you're livin' the retired life, you know is rare. And also appreciated now and then.

Hi hubs! I'm glad you're home. 

It's okay, he gets me lol. Celebrating 40 years of married life this June so yeah, he gets me. 

Back to last week...I'd naturally made a lot of overly ambitious plans (in my head) with hopes of completing some small organizational projects, and got exactly none completed. Oh I did plenty, I just couldn't quite get to my mental list which is still there, still rolling around my brain. 

Here are my excuses...

I said I had the house to myself but that's only partly true. The little brown dog was here keeping me company, pining for his favorite mister, racing to the window every time someone pulled down the driveway thinking maybe it was him, needing to go outside in the ridiculous pouring rain which meant I had to go outside in the ridiculous pouring rain, and then I had to get out the towels and the brush and the dryer and do all the things hubs normally does when it rains and the dog needs tending

Hi hubs! I'm glad you're home. 

What else....hmmm...here's something...I talked on the phone. A lot. Not a bad thing as a friend I hadn't spoken to in about a year and a half called and two hours later we were almost all caught up. Then one daughter called, then my mom called, then another daughter called and before I knew what was happening the clock said noon and I was still in my jammies. 

Which is fine, but it's not me, and it throws off my mojo aka my enthusiasm to begin a project. Let's watch HGTV instead, k? 

I still had my usual weekly to-dos like groceries and laundry and bible study on Wednesday and volunteering on Thursday and I got my nails done because priorities people. And I did manage to get beds changed from the last set of houseguests and some lingering bits of Christmas put away with the exception of two nutcrackers whose boxes have to be hunted down. 

Yes. Christmas. I told you, it's been a whirlwind. 

In other news I didn't kill any plants while he was away. Hubs babies the plants here in his efforts to keep outdoor plants alive indoors throughout the winter and I did not let him down. 

I put down a book I was reading and picked up another. Life is too short to read books that are just eh. Normal Rules Don't Apply by Kate Atkinson. I enjoy her writing but I was not getting this one at all. It's a series of stories which I thought were going to be related somehow but I was four stories in and it just wasn't happening. Moving on to Demon Copperhead  by Barbara Kingsolver, which is our March book club selection. 

Hubs and I are also listening to an audible of The Wager : A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann (author of Killers of The Flower Moon). We started this one on the windy curvy drive to Tennessee a couple of weeks ago and had to turn it off because the description of the rough and rolling sea and the conditions the sailors lived in was making me car sick. It doesn't take much. 

Back to my excuses...I cooked. A lot. I didn't eat what I cooked but I did freeze three meals to take to my daughter. Her friends are wonderful and I know will bring food in the early days, but these meals are for that day down the road when the baby is fussy and the toddler needs his momma, and she cannot face making dinner. 

I guess I did more than I thought. 

Hubs spent the weekend getting his hunting gear cleaned and put away and then I washed all the hunting clothes and got my own stuff organized so I'm ready to go to my daughter's when it's time. We had a rainy Saturday so we finished watching the second season of Reacher. We liked it, a bit corny and totally unbelievable in spots, but still we liked it. I'd booked us a date night dinner for Saturday at a restaurant we'd never been to and it was a lovely night out.

Question-when you're retired empty nesters do you still need date nights? 

Yes. Yes you do. We go out all the time, but often it's with other couples or groups of people or to events of one kind or another, and date night is dedicated let's talk about us time. 

We watched all the football today and I guess Taylor Swift is going to the Superbowl lol. What a year she's had, of course she'll be at the Superbowl. Personally I think everyone should calm down about Taylor and direct their outrage toward things going on in our own country and the world at large that are genuinely worthy of outrage. 

I didn't take any pictures all weekend but here's a snapshot of hubs plants, blooming and growing and bringing joy on the grayest of days. 

May we all do the same. 

Hodgepodge Rizz

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. 'Tis the season...

1. Oxford's Word of the Year for 2023 is 'rizz'. Hmmm...before today had you ever heard the word? Do you know what it means? (Apparently it's short for charisma) Have you ever used the word? If you were in charge of the world, what word would you declare word of the year for 2023?

Before I saw the article announcing the word of the year, I'd never heard it or used it. I can't imagine its a word I'll be using in the future either. If I were in charge of the world, what word would I choose? Nana of course. That's one of the most used words in our house anyway. 

2. What's one word you tend to abbreviate in your writing or speech? (as in rizz for charisma)

I think I use fave for favorite on a pretty regular basis. 

3. Are you a Hallmark movie watcher this time of year? What's your favorite character from a holiday- themed movie, book, or TV special? 

I've seen one or two, but I'm not really into the Hallmark movies. My favorite character from a holiday themed movie, book or TV special? I always liked Cindy Lou Who from the animated version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. And I love the book (and the family featured in the story) The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. 

4. Something you look forward to eating this month? 

Homemade Christmas cookies. They're a big deal in my house thanks mostly to my momma, the original Star Baker. I won't have daughter2 home to bake for the holidays this year, but I'll still do a few of our favorites to share. 

I made peppermint snowballs today and they definitely say Christmas to me. 

5. What's the most stressful part of the holiday season for you? 

I try not to let stress play a starring role. I don't enjoy the wrapping, but hubs has been a big help this year so that task is mostly knocked out. Probably the most stressful part of the holidays always is getting everyone where they need to be-traffic, flights, etc. Travel at the holidays is not for the faint of heart. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

My book club met today (Tuesday) and we had a fun little ornament exchange. Everyone brought an ornament that in some way relates to a favorite book, or a book they really enjoyed. Then I read a story filled with the words left/right and whenever I said left or right you passed your gift to the person on that side of you. It was fun. I brought a painted oyster shell representative of one of my favorite books-The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. I received a beautiful stained glass bird ornament representing The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. We all enjoyed this and will definitely do it again next year. 

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Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 530

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

1. Oxford's Word of the Year for 2023 is 'rizz'. Hmmm...before today had you ever heard the word? Do you know what it means? (Apparently it's short for charisma) Have you ever used the word? If you were in charge of the world, what word would you declare word of the year for 2023?

2. What's one word you tend to abbreviate in your writing or speech? (as in rizz for charisma)

3. Are you a Hallmark movie watcher this time of year? What's your favorite character from a holiday- themed movie, book, or TV special? 

4. Something you look forward to eating this month? 

5. What's the most stressful part of the holiday season for you? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Chill Out

January is a funny month, it's long but it's not my least favorite month in the year. The month of March often feels like ten Januarys and consequently is the month I most want a little getaway. Back to January... I think there's pressure to be productive this month. To look at the blank page before us and feel a surge of enthusiasm for cleaning, organizing, and embracing that out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new mentality in every area of one's life.  

Impossible to maintain for the next eleven months, but in January we are ever hopeful. 

Since I'm mid-office redo I've been forced to go through all my files and accumulated stacks and do some shredding and re-organizing. It feels good to thin the paper piles and start fresh. Hubs doesn't understand why there are still so many piles (there aren't!) but everything has to be looked at before it can be discarded. 

Because our project here required carpentry, painting, construction, and sanding there is mucho dust on every wall and surface. What better time for a whole house vacuum than January? Hubs likes to vacuum so even better. 

Painters left yesterday and their piece of the project is done. Next up is the electrician who will install lights in the stairs. Hopefully. We finally have the lights in hand and now just need to know where we land on his calendar. 

The lights probably should have gone in first,  but we weren’t sure we were ever going to get them so plan B. He thinks we can make it work this way too, 'since there's access'. 

Whatever that means? I'm more of a call me when it's all done kind of home improvement person, which works for us because hubs is the opposite and likes to drill down to the nth detail. Somebody needs to, right? 

Let's talk books.

I read more in January. Well in regular-ordinary years I read more in January. I don't know about you but I feel like my sense of concentration suffered during the 'Covid years' and it's just now getting back to what it was last century. 

My neighborhood book club just finished this month's selection-The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan. A mostly pleasant read in spite of its WW2 setting. The plot centers around a cooking show that taught British homemakers how to make the most of their rations.That part of the storyline is true, but the contest added to the novel is complete fiction. 

There were lots of recipes sprinkled throughout the book and I made two of them for our get together on Tuesday-fruit scones and an apple honey cake. I did not make the sheep's head pie or the sardine rolls mentioned, and I also skipped the spam and game pie for reasons I don't need to explain. 

A friend loaned me my current read, The Winemaker's Wife, a novel by Kristen Harmel, plus I've started next month's book club book- Becoming Mrs. Lewis, a fictional account of the relationship between  C. S. Lewis and Joy Davidman.

Lots of books to make January feel less January. 

I've also signed up for the Lifetime of Reading Challenge on Facebook (you'll find it on the Book Girl's Guide page), with a theme this year of different decades. This means we'll read a wide range of books featuring main characters of different age ranges. Sounds interesting and you can choose your own book or read one of their suggestions. 

I've chosen one of theirs for January, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith, which is actually a re-read for me. This was one of my favorite books as a young girl and I've wanted to re-read it for ages. January seems like a good time. 

If books aren't your thing, how about puzzles? I was given three puzzles for Christmas and hubs is helping with the first one. It's the University of Tennessee stadium on football Saturday, and you know what that means? It means the whole puzzle is orange and white. Yikes! I told hubs he has to help because his sister gave it to us. We're making progress and if we ever get it together we might frame this one to hang in the pool room. 

If books aren't your thing and puzzles aren't your thing how about TV? We might be the last people to the party, but we're finally watching The Sopranos. We're only in to Season 2, and it's definitely gritty so not for everyone, but we're hooked. I grew up in NJ and hubs and I lived there twice during our married life so we're loving the backdrop. 

Books, puzzles, TV binging, home improvement and icy temps. That about sums up January. We have snow in the weekend forecast which seems ridiculous because we rarely get snow, but apparently we are getting a little snow. Hubs would be happy to never see another flake, but I miss an occasional snowfall so hoping the weather forecaster is correct. They're wrong sometimes ya know-ha! 

Happy Januarying to you all! 

Life In The Hodgepodge

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered this week's questions, add your link at the end of my post. Be sure to leave a comment for the blogger before you so the blog world keeps on turning. Here we go-

1. Do you (or did you used to) watch talk shows? Which are or were your favorite? 

I don't watch any talk shows currently. I was never a die-hard fan but (going to date myself here) I did watch some Phil Donahue back in the day. I also liked Regis and Kathie Lee in their early years. 

Hubs and I used to love The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, but late night talk shows today are just another excuse to rant about politics so we don't tune in. 

2. Would you describe yourself as resilient? If so what do you think made you that way? If you answered no explain why? 

Yes I would describe myself as resilient. I've moved a lot and that's probably the biggest contributor, particularly living outside of America. Growing up with three siblings I'm sure plays a part too. 

3. What parts of life have surprised you the most. Explain. 

I'm going with retirement. It takes more figuring out than I imagined. I don't really even know what I imagined exactly...when I was a kid it seemed like everyone who retired played golf and lunched with friends. Life is so much more complicated than that. 

4. Why do you live where you live? 

Well it's beautiful for one thing. We're retired and can live wherever we want, we love the south, we wanted to be on the water, and you just can't beat the view-

5. A memory from this week that made you smile? 

Pumpkin patch pictures courtesy of these cuties' Momma-

I mean, seriously....

How can you not smile? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Raise your hand if you've ever cooked pheasant? If your hand is up and you have a great recipe send it my way. Vegetarians look away-

Hubs has been in South Dakota with some friends and former colleagues and also his brother who was able to make the trip this year too, so extra fun. 

They'll bring home some birds and while I've cooked them before I'm always interested in trying something new. For the record I only cook them...hubs is in charge of plucking off any feathers that have to stay on through the airport checkpoint.  

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Rabbit Ears

This week's Hodgepodge questions linked here

In thinking about my theme for this year's A-Z Blog Challenge I decided it would be fun to describe some of what life looked like in my childhood, how those same things looked in my children's growing up years, and to see how that compares with life today in my grandchildren's childhood. 

I'm going to start with television because that's the first thing that came to mind. And since the line between TVs and computers has gone completely blurry I'll likely touch on that as well. 

K is for When I Was A Kid

When I was a child the television programs we enjoyed aired once a week or, in the case of holiday specials, once a year. You snooze you lose, something like that. 

My sister and I couldn't wait to get up on Saturday mornings and watch our favorite cartoons...Bugs, Foghorn Leghorn, The Road Runner, Johnny Quest. When the holidays rolled in we would count the days until Rudolph, The Grinch, and Frosty were mentioned in the TV guide. 

fyi-the TV guide was not something you scrolled through on your television screen because in 1960-something there was no scrolling. The TV guide was an actual magazine you held in your hand and looked through to find what programs were airing when. If you didn't subscribe to the TV guide you could also find program listings in the local paper. 

Our family did eventually have a color television set, but our first TV was black and white, and we owned just one. Uno. Singular. For the whole entire house. Where six people of varying ages and interests lived. In fact most families we knew owned just one and that was fine. We made it work. 

Once upon a time TV viewing was a family activity, and a favorite was everyone piling on the couch to watch The Wonderful World of Disney together on Sunday evenings. We got three basic channels, plus PBS. Later we added what was then called UHF which gave us I think two additional channels, and that was thrilling. For real. 

In order to change the channels you had to get up, walk over to the tv, and physically turn a knob. Sometimes we would argue over who was going to get up and change the channel. For the record if kids and parents were watching together it was never the parents-ha! 

The televisions of my childhood had antennas, or rabbit ears as they were known. When you changed the channel you would almost alway have to jiggle the antenna while someone watching from the couch would shout instructions...'a little more, no wait! back to the left!, hold it right there!, no wait!, okay that's good"

Everyday life before technology was king. 

I remember when my parents put in central air one of the 'perks' was the company they bought from gave a small TV as a thank you for your business. I mostly remember that little tiny TV living in my brother's bedroom, but I guess the only boy in a houseful of sisters needed his own TV. He would set it on a chair beside his bed to watch, and sometimes my sisters and I would all go into his tiny room and sit around that tiny TV. Good times! 

The local news aired once a day, around suppertime, followed by the national news. We read newspapers for more in-depth coverage of the day's happenings and everyone was less cranky-ha! There were some afternoon talk shows but they were mostly in the entertainment lane as opposed to politics and social commentary. 

No reality programming unless it was in the form of nature, no real housewives, Kardashians, or people spilling family secrets for all the world to see. There were daytime soaps which I suppose were the precursor to the real-life soaps we see today. Along came Phil and Oprah and later Jerry and everybody in everybody's business which seemed relatively harmless initially, but it's like we're on steroids now.  

As a teenager I babysat pretty regularly and late night weekends I would watch Don Kirschner's Rock Concert or Soul Train. Because those were the choices. For most of my childhood stations signed off the air at midnight. Yup. No TV. People slept or didn't sleep but they didn't watch TV at 3 a.m. or scroll their phone screens because phones were like televisions. One or two per family and plugged in to the wall.  In 1970-something screens were for windows, the glass kind not the computer kind. 

Language is complicated. 

In the early days of married life hubs and I had a console TV. These were a huge thing in the 1980's. Literally huge. As in a great big piece of furniture you decorated around. Still plugged in to the wall, but a bigger picture and better clarity than what we'd grown up with. Nothing like we have today but a big deal to poor newlyweds.  

We never put televisions in our children's bedrooms, but we did have more than one TV in the house. My kids grew up in the age of VHS tapes, Blockbuster rentals on Friday nights, and the excitement of purchasing a device that could rewind those videos faster than your VHS player because if you returned a VHS tape un-rewound you were fined. 

When we moved to the UK we owned one DVD. We brought our VHS player with us because we had no idea and also because in late 2003 technology hadn't sped up to supersonic speed. But speed up it did and now we watch television on devices we hold in our hands. 

Parents walk a daily tightrope in trying to limit the limitless, We know more, which is both good and awful, but we can't put the genie back in the bottle and most days don't really want to.  

We bought our first home computer when our girls were in elementary school. We didn't know what we had and they mostly painted and played games we purchased from actual stores. Oregon Trail and Math Blaster were two favorites. We might have owned four games? Life did not revolve around the computer and we had just one for the family, in a shared space so no secrets. They had computer lab in school each week and became adept at typing. 

I think it was a year or so after we arrived in England that my girls set up My Space accounts. They spent a lot of time choosing the music that would play when someone logged on and also ranking friends. Have mercy. When Facebook rolled in you needed a college email address to have an account, and then people found ways around that, and before you knew it the world discovered twelve year old children chatting with 40-year old men who were up to no good. Voila! Pandora's Box was open for all the world to see. 

The good news is that while the box is full of garbage it's also full of treasure. In the age of grandparenting I am so very thankful for how far we've come. My grands are many thousands of miles away, yet most evenings we talk and they show me things and I watch them play and read all from the comfort of my kitchen on the other side of the world. Facetime connects us and I appreciate that more than I can say. 

As I watch my daughter be a mother to her sons I see a thoughtful parent. One who is intentional in what she allows into her home via television, ipads, or the phone screen. I think her generation sees technology from a helpful vantage point. They appreciate the connection and support that can be found there, but they've also seen what too much has wrought, and they're trying to strike a balance. 

I feel certain one day I'll be chatting with my grandsons via a hologram. Or maybe some whiz kid will finally figure out how to 'beam me up Scotty'. 

Until then I write about my life here, send greeting cards and letters the old-fashioned way, and break into a smile every single time their little boy faces fill my screen. 

G'Day Hodgepodgers

Welcome to another week in the Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post. Before you run off do the neighborly thing and leave a comment for the blogger linking before you. Here we go-

1. Have you done more binge watching this past year than in 'normal' years? Any plans to break that habit in 2021? Tell us one or two shows you binged last year that you really liked. 

We have definitely watched more television in the past year than any other year of our married life. In a 'regular' year we're not big bingers, but one does what one must in the age of Corona. If life resumes some normalcy we can easily break the tv habit. We live on a lake and enjoy being out of doors and on the water, hopefully with friends and/or family nearby. 

Shows we've binged and enjoyed?  The Americans, Yellowstone, Bosch, The Queen's Gambit, Outlander...probably more, but these are the shows that popped into my head first. The Americans was my favorite. 

2. January 26th is Australia Day. Have you ever visited or lived in Australia? Have you ever tasted Vegemite, and if so what did you think?  Is a trip down under on your bucket list? We answered a question about travel three months ago (the October 21st Hodgepodge), but let's revisit now...where are you when it comes to planning or even imagining travel this year? 

I've never been to Australia but it's definitely on my list, New Zealand too. I have friends from that part of the world and I'd love to see them in person. I've tasted vegemite and it's just eh for me. 

As far as travel goes...it's still really hard to imagine anything international, and we don't have anything outside of the US currently on the books. We were planning to attend a wedding in Mexico, but the bride and groom have changed plans and we'll now be celebrating stateside. That will be fun too but means no toes in the sand so we need to figure out how to remedy that somewhere this year. 

3. Something that zaps your energy? Something that energizes you? 

As far as what zaps my energy I think everyone knows what my answer will be...anything and everything relating to 'politics' via social media lately. 

Something that energizes me?  That first cup of coffee with the sunrise makes me feel anything is possible, a hike in the great wide somewhere, meaningful conversations with my daughters or close friends...lots of things. 

4. On a scale of 1-10 what are your eating habits like these days? (1=all junk food all the time and 10= juicing every green thing in the frig) Healthiest meal you've eaten in the last week or so? 

Well we're coming off a wedding which was highly motivating in terms of watching my diet. Plus, I thought we were going to Mexico which would have meant bathing suits, and that thought is also motivating. 

Overall we eat pretty healthy. I am not into juicing, but fruits and veg are my favorite so there's always lots of both in our daily diet. I do watch my carbs and admit I had too much sugar over the Christmas holidays, but have made an effort to get back on track there so I'm going with an 8. Not bad, but still room for improvement. 

5. What's your most often 'Back in my day....' thing to say? 

I feel like I use this expression more in my writing than in my speaking, but maybe something along the lines of ..."we learned how to wait for things." Waiting is something of a lost art. Everything is so instant these days which means we don't get a lot of practice. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I do plan to write more about the wedding weekend, but I would love to have some photos to go with all my many words and as a nod to question #5, we're still waiting for the professional pics. Until then, here's a little snapshot of the I Dos captured by one of our guests-

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 365

Here are this week's questions for the Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to share answers with the universe. Don't forget to include a link back here so your readers can play along too. Here we go-

1. What's something you resolved to do this year? Have you done it?

2. Where do you go to find quietude?

3. A friend asked this question on her Facebook page and said I could borrow it for the Hodgepodge...you're only allowed to buy 5 things at the grocery store, and all must start with the first letter of your first name. Whatcha' buying?

4. The television show Survivor, the Gloria Gaynor song 'I Will Survive', survival mode, survival of the fittest...pick one and discuss.

5. Share a favorite quote or saying about strength.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Monday March Madness

Not the fun kind of March madness because fun was cancelled this month, wasn't it?

Well maybe not cancelled but we are definitely having to work for it. Pretty soon all my blog posts will be titled 'what I ate this week'. We're all learning to get creative and figure out new ways of connecting and socializing from at least ten feet away.

Are you on Zoom? We had a Zoom call with a group of college friends Friday night, and another with a former work colleague of the hubs on Saturday. I don't know why we never did this prior to social distancing because it's a great way to connect as a group and we laughed a lot. I even played cards with friends last week via Zoom and our Sunday School class is meeting that way as well.

Temps have climbed into the 80's here which is delightful. We haven't dropped the boat in the water yet, since pollen has run amok-

Don't think we'll be dining out here just yet, but I am looking forward to al fresco dinners in the near future. And once most of the pollen is down we'll be back to meeting up with friends by water. Everyone can stay safely on their own boats a healthy distance away and life might feel a little bit ordinary. Whoohoo!

Hubs has been spending his at-home time painting all the trim in the house. He enjoys a project and this is a tedious job that needed to be done. He's a meticulous painter and it all looks so crisp and clean. Perhaps if we're confined to home much longer he'll get to some of the walls too?

We've cooked some stuff. Ha! We're all cooking these days aren't we? We tried a new recipe on Saturday for grilled shrimp tacos with avocado salsa and it was a keeper.

So easy and I'll definitely make this one again. I found the recipe here.

Still have two dogs to walk which is a happy distraction and a reason to leave the house. I'm watching very little news, but do tune in to hear our governor's updates and catch headlines to see if there are new developments to be aware of on any given day.

We started watching a program on netflix called Tales By Light and are enjoying that. Each episode features a photographer taking pictures of something fabulous somewhere in the world and their shots are pretty amazing. My daughter and I have been binging old seasons of The Great British Baking Show and are completely addicted. I'm determined to bake something I've never tried before using my one packet of yeast, which I was lucky to get. Suddenly everybody's a baker.

Speaking of baking, daughter2 and I finished a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle last week-

It ended up being 998 pieces thanks to a lightning fast little brown dog who shall remain nameless, ahem, but still fun and really pretty. How long do you leave a completed puzzle set up? We wrapped this one up on Thursday and I put it back in the box Saturday. Since it looks like staying home is the name of the game for a while longer I need the table space to start another.

So that's about it-reading, cooking, walking the dogs, working puzzles, a little TV, a few home cleaning/organizing projects, and more blogging than I've done in months are what's filling the time here. I have to say many of these activities are things I enjoy doing anyway, even when social distancing isn't the norm.

How 'bout you? What are you doing to stay busy?

Leaping Into March

Wow. January was about 317 days long and February lasted only a minute. I have not written a single blog post in February, but fortunately we're in a leap year which means I'm not too late.

Someone I met last night asked me how I fill my time here at the lake and I had to scratch my head a little. I'm never actively looking for something to do because there's always something to do, but what have I been doing this month besides not blogging?

Well there's that darn Coronavirus and babies living in South Korea. I suppose I've spent a fair amount of time this month reading about it, praying about it, and FaceTiming my people with reminders to do/not do all the things they already know to do or not do, but it makes me feel better to remind them anyway. I'm a mom and that's what moms do, right?

Speaking of babies is he just the cutest ever?

His mama is pretty adorable too.

And this guy is just the light of our lives. He is hilarious and chatty and smart and busy. We love these darling boys as hard as we can from a million miles away.

I know it's only 7,000-something but it feels like a million.

So what else is happening round here? Uh, we've had some rain. SOME rain. Lots and lots and lots of rain. Ridiculous amounts in fact but I've decided that is 'winter' in the Palmetto State. Spring is coming and I've got daffodils blooming and we are so ready for blue skies and lake shenanigans.

I've been reading a lot, currently finishing up this month's book club selection-Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. It's one of those books you read with your stomach clenched because you know incredibly hard sad things have happened and more will be coming with every turn of the page.

I recently finished The Lost Man by Jane Harper and loved it. Set in the Australian Outback and a really good read. I also finished Slaves of Obsession which is a William Monk story for those of you who read Anne Perry, A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson which was good, but I think lost a little something in the translation from Swedish to English, and The Wives by Tarryn Fisher which I thought was a teensy bit crazy.

We're not people who binge watch much, but I got hooked on a Netflix program called Hinterland and had to see it through. Hubs said it was too depressing to watch more than one episode at a time, but I loved it. For one thing it's set in the Welsh countryside and the scenery is spectacular. Makes me long for a trip across the pond in the worst way. The storyline is excellent and while the episodes are long the series season is short.

When I think about it I guess it's just been everyday February life happening round here...exercising, Bible Studying, cooking, card playing, tax organizing, spending time with friends, and of course not blogging. That last bit is about to change because I signed up for a ten day writing challenge hosted by Kate Motaung (go here for details), which means ten blog posts in ten days using the word prompt she provides.

Starting Monday.

Yikes.

Hope you've had a quiet cozy February in your little corner of the world too.

Forward March!

Twenty Things

Approximately twenty things.

Because I haven't blogged in eons and I have a million bits of random in my head and on my camera which I will now narrow down to just twenty.

Approximately twenty. 

So where was I when last we spoke? I just checked and the last time I blogged about something other than asking/answering the Wednesday Hodgepodge questions was June 11th. Yikes! that was a long time ago. Longer than I thought so now I'm wondering if it's worth going back three whole weeks to tell you about small bits of absolutely nothing important.

Yes. Because I'm all about the everyday stuff of life here on This Side of the Pond.

1. We had an anniversary. 34 years so yay us!

2. We celebrated with a lovely dinner at Halls Chophouse in the nearby small big city and it was delish. We did not take a single picture. We live about 45 minutes away and decided to stay overnight because we're empty nesters and we can. Also, we wanted to preview the hotel as we'll have some wedding guests staying there in the spring.

3. Shout out to our server at Halls Chophouse who sent us a handwritten note card a few days later,  thanking us for coming and telling us how happy she was to wait on us as we celebrated our 34th anniversary. That's some fantastic customer service right there.

4. Also, complimentary glass of bubbly when we sat down. Whoohoo! I'd definitely go back.

5. We tried a newish spot in town for breakfast called Crepe du Jour. We had to, right? I mean I need to know what to recommend to people in terms of breakfast spots come April and now I do.

6. We drove home after breakfast because it was Father's Day and Daughter2 was coming out to the lake to celebrate and spend the night. She made the most precious video for hubs, filled with pics of the two of them together while she sang Carrie Underwood's song 'The Girl You Think I Am' as the background soundtrack. Cue the tissues! Also, did I snap a photo of hubs with his girl on Father's Day? No I did not. I wish I had...does that count?

7. The Tuesday after Father's Day I flew to my mom's in NJ.

8. Wait, no I didn't. I was supposed to fly to my mom's on Tuesday, but instead the Wednesday after Father's Day I flew to my mom's in NJ. I only had to sit in the airport waiting on one delay after another for seven+ hours. I passed the time reading and thinking about what sort of junk food I might buy if I didn't have a wedding happening in less than a year.

9. I finally got to my mom's about 7:30 PM. She made me a BLT and I slept in my childhood bedroom and all was right with the world once more.

10. My sister came over the next day and we went shopping for a new bathroom vanity for my mom and it was super frustrating so we called it a day and went to lunch instead. I had dinner at my brother's house that evening and enjoyed that too. Also not a single picture was snapped of me with my siblings or my mama while I was there. Blogging is not the only ball I'm dropping lately.

11. On Friday I drove about an hour and a half to the Eastern Shore of Maryland for a weekend with friends from long ago summer camp days. We sleep in rustic cabins that are maybe a little too rustic for 50-somethings, and we duck between raindrops and celebrate the clearing of the skies. We talk and laugh and remember. We sing camp songs and share stories under a million stars and we marvel at creation in a place so near and dear to each one of our hearts.

12. I drove back to my mom's early Sunday morning so I could go with her to church and then a leisurely lunch afterward with a few of her friends.

13. Monday morning mom and I got down to business and got the vanity sorted and new floor tile ordered and paint colors picked and we both felt better about her home improvement project. It's not a huge project, but is there such a thing as a small room reno? They all feel big to me.

14. My brother dropped me at the airport Tuesday where I once again sat for more than two hours waiting on delayed aircraft but then did finally make it home in time to have dinner with Daughter2. We were in the neighborhood so why not? Hubs phoned Daughter1's in-laws and they met us at the nearby fancy taco place too, and then hubs and I drove home and I crawled into bed where I could have happily remained for a day except we had company coming on Thursday.

15. A former co-worker of hubs and his wife drove down from NY for the weekend and we had such a great time catching up. He and hubs became friends when hubs worked for a small company post-retirement. They hit it off right away and I met his wife when we all went on a 'work trip' to Antigua last year, and we made plans then to get together at the lake this summer.

He and hubs both love to water ski so there was lots of water skiing. I love it when someone else is here to pull hubs so he can ski, tie up lines, and act as dock boy when we dock. The weather cooperated and we spent most of the weekend on the water or planted on one of the small beaches on various islands in the lake.

16. They left this morning and hubs is mowing the lawn because for some reason that's how he relaxes. I'm changing bed linens because we have company coming for the 4th of July holiday and staying through the weekend and as long as beds are made and groceries are bought we're good to go.  Company really isn't all that complicated and we enjoy all the comings and goings.

17. In other completely unrelated news...hubs and I watched the movie Hostiles. Has anyone see it? Not for the faint of heart! We also just finished Season 1 of an Amazon Prime program called Bosch. It's based on a character created by Michael Connelly and if you liked his books featuring the Lincoln Lawyer you'll recognize the name Harry Bosch. The show is really well cast and hubs and I both liked it a lot.

18. I finished a book that's gotten a lot of buzz. It's called The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir, and I thought it was just okay. Think the Duggers and you'll have an idea of this novel's theme. I wanted to like it, but I felt like the storyline fed into a lot of sterotypes and generalizations about the Christian community that are more exception than rule.  It reads more like a YA novel, and I while I do occasionally read some of those this one was more of a miss for me. I did want to know how it turned out, so there's that, but overall it was just okay.

19. While I was visiting my mom hubs was home arranging with an electrician for the install of a ceiling fan on our lower patio and the hanging of our Edison Bulbs. I love the way they turned out and can't wait to have dinner under our very own 'stars'.

20. And now an awesome sunset and 100 bonus points to anyone who made it all the way here.

photo cred: hubs

Have a great week everyone!

The Friday Five

I'm not sure The Friday Five is officially a thing, but I'm declaring it officially a thing on my blog today. I'm so out of sync with my blog and know I need to dive back in and write more often because that makes my writing better. Today you'll have to settle for this-

The Friday Five

I hope I've got Five. It might be The Friday Four. Or The Friday Fourteen.
You never know what you're going to get on This Side Of The Pond.

1. When I flip the page to May at a glance in my calendar I feel a little dizzy. There is so much happening here next month beginning with a hair appointment (that's half a day for me), the dentist, the eye doctor, a wine dinner event, cards and gifts to send for nephew and niece birthdays and a nephew's graduation, Mother's Day, lots and lots of company including college sorority sisters, a high school/camp friend, my mom, my mother-in-law, my daughters, son-in-law, and the cutest baby boy in the world.

photo credit: Sincerely Shannon

Seriously he's the cutest.

2. In preparation for his visit I've purchased a few small toys and a highchair. I've borrowed a pack and play from a friend, but bought a mattress to add to it so he'll be more comfortable. They have a full day of flying plus a couple hour car ride from the airport, plus a three hour time change so we want to do everything we can to help him sleep sweetly once he's here.

Also, it's fun to walk through my kitchen and see a highchair. This one is a Graco and was a literal snap to put together. As in you snap the parts in place. It also converts to a booster seat which is a nice feature and one we'll need down the road.

3. Do you jot notes in the Notes feature of your phone as a reminder of things you want to mention on your blog? I do that sometimes and one thing I'd written there was Big Little Lies. Did anyone watch it? What did you think? We don't get HBO here, but Daughter1 has it so we watched Season One when I was out west a couple of weeks ago.

I really enjoyed the way the show was produced and thought the acting was great, but here's my rant. I don't know why they had to use the F word as much as they did. I have a lot of women friends and nobody I know regularly drops that word a whole bunch into everyday casual conversation. It seemed unnatural and distracting.

4. Turning to the world of fashion...I don't get these tops with the super long wide bell sleeves that come down over your hands. I think some of them are so cute, but then when I imagine trying to do anything at all while wearing one the style seems completely crazy.

5. You know what they say...April showers bring May flowers.  Here's hoping! We've had so much rain this spring, three days this week it's just poured and it rained again last night. On the bright side the weekend weather and next week too all look lovely. We have a fun weekend planned with friends we haven't seen in a while and I'm excited for sunshine and warmer weather.

We did manage a boat ride on Wednesday afternoon while hubs mom was in town with some friends. Hubs was not happy about it at all. Ha!

photo credit: Sincerely Shannon

Enjoy your weekend everyone! 

Hammertime and Other Weekend Observations

Sometimes Mondays get away from me. On the blog I mean. I start doing some little something around here that needs doing and that one something leads to another something and before you know it, the morning is the afternoon and I feel less inclined to sit down at the computer.

Plus the sun is shining and I want to get out in it. We had a rainy weekend which I secretly loved, because rainy weekends are made for curling up with a book or a Netflix binge or a crossword puzzle or maybe all three and that's pretty much what we did. I feel like my depleted energy tank has refilled to maybe the halfway mark this month. Not traveling was definitely the right call.

Friday night hubs grilled salmon and afterwards we listened to music and played a few hands in our neverending game of Rummy. Let it be known we have been playing Rummy since 1984.  He's winning.

Saturday morning we squeezed in a walk before the rains came because we need to walk, but also because we like to check out all the construction going on in the neighborhood.  We have a house going up opposite us on the cove, construction beside us, construction two doors down, and just this morning they broke ground on an inland lot opposite our next door neighbors. You almost need a hard hat round here. On the bright side, the lake is still gorgeous. And I'm glad it's a construction palooza as opposed to a one home build per year deal which would mean hammertime for the next forty-eight months as opposed to the next twelve. They're all different builders and it's fun to see so many beautiful  houses come to life.

 Especially since ours is completed.

Also, it's amazing how often I manage to work hammertime into my vocabulary in a given week-ha!  I bet some of you have no idea what I'm talking about.

We did go see a movie Saturday afternoon-The Darkest Hour. It's fabulous! Gary Oldman as Churchill is so good, and in spite of the film being almost all dialogue it's incredibly tense. Really good!

Yesterday we went to church, had a nice brunchy lunch out afterwards, then came home to-see paragraph #2. We're finishing up the last season of Longmire and since some of the characters are starting to annoy I guess that's a good thing. I also finished my book and if you've read it I'd love to hear your thoughts. (Idaho by Emily Ruskovich) A really different kind of story, the writing was absolutely beautiful, but I'm still not sure exactly what I think except to say I really really liked it. I think? The writing was five stars for sure.

I made a big pot of beef stew last night which was totally inspired by last week's Wednesday Hodgepodge so there's that. The Hodgepodge is good for all sorts of things.

The best part of the weekend was facetiming with our little  mancub who just happened to be celebrating a birthday. Six whole months! Or half a year old as I like to say. Y'all know I'm all about marking time, but can you believe it's been six months? My daughter1 posted a darling picture on Instagram which I've borrowed because you need to see the cuteness. It's something of an ongoing debate and conversation as to which side of the family he most resembles,  but I see in him a nice combination of both.

photo credit: sincerely shannon

Except mostly I see his mama. It's the eyes y'all. They positively slay me. The dimples are all his Daddy but the eyes wing me back to the days of mothering his mother. It's definitely the twinkle but it's more the way he looks right at you as if he knows what you're thinking. How in the world did I ever get along without him???

Friday Five Ish

I intended to participate in Five Minute Friday today, but I saw the prompt and changed my mind.  This week's one word prompt was 'intentional' and that felt too deep for me this morning even though I did  just use a form of the word in my first sentence. 

Let's talk about fluff instead. 

First of all, this little mancub! Look at him sitting up in the grocery cart! 

photo credit: Sincerely Shannon

Y'all he is just the cutest thing I've ever seen. We FaceTime often and I wish I could crawl right through the screen and kiss his rosy cheeks in person. 

photo credit: Sincerely Shannon

Hubs and I and refer to him often as the mancub because he's like an adorable little bear, and so full of personality. I think mancub might become his blog name. 

In other news, we had snow this week. Not SNOW!!! but snow. It stuck to the grass and made the trees gorgeous, but our roads have been fine. My daughter2 teaches a couple of counties over and they are still closed today so I guess they had more ice than we did. It doesn't take much 'round here. 

Snow was predicted to begin overnight Tuesday into Wednesday and I was so happy to wake up and see a blanket of white. Not a deep blanket, more like a flimsy coverlet, but still so pretty. Hubs will tell you he does not miss the snow at all but I miss it a little. I love the way snowfall brings a silent stillness to a planet that surely needs it. 

Plus here in the southland there's no chipping ice off the front steps for days on end, no fifteen foot icicles hanging from the gutters causing damming which then causes water to run down the interior wall of your home, no sooty black snow mountains in parking lots making it hard to see, and no week after week of sub zero temps. In fact it's supposed to be sunny and low-60's tomorrow which makes it easy to love a snow day in January. 

Hubs and I have both been reading a lot this month, mostly by the fire because snow!  I just finished  The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine. Has anyone read it? The book got great reviews on Goodreads, but I didn't care for it. The characters are so unlikable and the dialogue felt like high school. It's been compared to a Gone Girl type thriller, but I'd say that's a ginormous stretch. Would be curious to know if anyone else has read it and what they thought. 

One interesting thing, the 'author' is actually two sisters who've combined their names to form the name Liv. They live several states apart but write back and forth via FaceTime and email. 

Besides reading we've been watching some Netflix and catching up on our favorite shows including The Good Doctor, The Brave, and Victoria. Is anyone watching Victoria on PBS? It's really good and filling the TV viewing void left by The Crown. 

Our girls gave us a Legacy Box for Christmas and we finally got that sent off. It seemed simple on the surface, but of course I excel at complicating the simple. We could send ten items in our box-VHS tapes, 8 mm tapes, photos, or slides. Twenty five photos count as one item. We have all our 'baby' tapes on VHS and I knew we needed to start with those, but hubs was keen to send in some 8 mm too because all the Europe years are on 8mm. I think it's 8mm? It's not VHS and it's not DVD so it's whatever that technology thing was that came after the DVD but before the iPhone camera. We'll be getting everything back on DVD plus a memory stick. 

We knew the VHS tapes were in a box in the garage, and hubs was certain the 8mm were in the camera bag. Except they weren't which led to us opening all kinds of boxes in the storage area which led to a trip to Goodwill and the dump and then turning the house upside down trying to find those tapes. I was 100% certain I had not seen them or touched them since the move. Hubs was positive we had them when we left NJ, but I swore up and down I had not laid eyes on them. 

Except somehow they ended up in a totebag in my closet. 

oops. I kind of sort of now remember dropping the bag in there mid-move and then promptly forgetting about it. Obviously. On the bright side, we got some of that storage area emptied and the legacy box mailed so all's well that end's well.

Happy weekend everyone! 
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