Hodgepodge Questions Volume 161

It's that time again, so here are the questions for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Skate back here tomorrow to add your link to the games...see you there!

1. Are we always responsible for our actions? Are there any exceptions?

2.  Has anyone from your home town become famous?

3. January was National Slow Cooker month. Do you own a slow cooker/crock pot? Did you use it last month? What's a favorite dish you make using a slow cooker or crock pot?

4. How do you feel about private companies collecting data about you?

5. The Games of the 2014 Winter Olympics kick off with their opening ceremony this coming Friday....will you be watching? Which Winter Olympic event would you most like to see in person? Have you ever been to Russia? Any desire to go, Olympics or otherwise?

6. Share a good or bad sports related memory from your childhood or teen years.

7. What's a must have song for you on a work out play list? If you don't work out, run, swim, bike, walk, or anything else that could be construed as 'exercise', then what's a song that movtivates you to at least get up off the couch?

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Black Monday

That's what they call the day after the Superbowl, right? Ay yi yi, what a heartbreaker that turned out to be. Unless you were rooting for Seattle, of course. I realized last night, while sitting with my stomach clenched and my eyes turned away for much of the game, that I am not cut out to be the mother of a professional athlete. Pretty sure watching the Olympics will confirm that.

We were out of town this weekend, and arrived home mere minutes before the National Anthem was sung. Now that was a highlight. Renee Fleming was fabulous, and I absolutely loved the fly over.  I like when the anthem is sung as written, without a lot of curly cues, and runs and riffs, or whatever you call the nonsense so many celebs like to add to make it more about them, and less about our nation. I'm also a big fan of Bruno Mars, and his halftime show did not disappoint.

We spent the weekend with hubs sister and brother in law, and their two boys, which is always a lot of fun. My brother in law is a very talented musician, and they had a house concert so we trekked to Maryland to hear him play.

I had to drive the whole way there, because hubs was literally on the phone the entire four+ hours. Literally. Not exaggerating even a little. I kind of wanted to fling the phone out the window, but I resisted. He may have wanted to fling it out the window too.

We've made this trip many times, but for some reason there is one spot in the journey where we always look at each other and ask if we're on the right road? Is this right? Does this look familiar? Do we go through the city? Didn't we go around last time? Rest assured we were on the right road, but there is always a moment of panic as we scramble to figure it out. Usually a U-turn too, ahem. And hubs would probably say the panic is all me, but whatever, we made it.

Saturday we hung out, ran some errands in preparation for their party, dined at Chipoltle, and listened to the boys explain the finer points of Java script and computer coding. It is in moments like these I realize the gap in technology knowledge between our generations is gargantuan. I'm glad there are smart kids coming up to create the next wave of stuff we can't live without. Glad they can walk me through the steps to use it too!

Hubs brother1 and his wife arrived late afternoon Saturday, and we haven't seen them in a long while so it was nice to catch up in person. I didn't take many pictures, but did snap one of the hubs with his brother and sister. No matter how big the 'kids' get, mothers never tire of photos like this one. Hubs brother2 was on a work trip, so missed the music this time around. It was a lovely evening.

So it's snowing here.  

Just thought you should know.

I have a million things going on this week, including but not limited to, putting away my Snow Village. Don't judge! It's still technically winter, so I feel perfectly fine leaving it out longpast the holidays. I realized yesterday though, that it's suddenly February and spring will be here soon (HA!) so I guess it's time.  

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Play It Again or Maybe Don't

Groundhog Day falls on Superbowl Sunday this year, and who can stand all the excitement? Ha!Actually I don't pay much attention to what the groundhog 'says' because when you live in the Northeast there is no such thing as a true early spring. Oh, we'll have a gorgeous spring-like day here and there, maybe even as early as March, but March is cruel and just when you think spring is here, BAM-snow. That's how mother nature rolls in our neck of the woods.

Hearing the radio DJ's talk about Groundhog Day this morning did get me thinking about the movie, the one with Bill Murray where he lives the same day over and over until he gets it right.  And in the spirit of Friday Fragments, and 5 on Friday, I thought it might be fun today to think about what days I'd like to live over.

My immediate thought was the two days my girls were born, and while those were two of the happiest days of my life, there's really no need to experience childbirth again, right? As I thought about it some more I realized the days I'd like to live over were ordinary days.  They were cozy slices of life as opposed to grand occasions, and they were filled with love and laughter and family.

I'd love to relive a Thanksgiving dinner with my dad at the head of the dining room table. I'd be about nine years old and he'd be carving the turkey in that elaborate way he liked to carve a turkey, and there would be a shrimp cocktail in a fancy glass on my china plate.

I'd be seated beside my brother and across the table from my sisters, and we'd all be dressed in church clothes, because Thanksgiving meant no play clothes at the table. My mom would be in her chair, closest to the kitchen because moms since time began are assigned that seat. She would light candles and have 1969 bouffant hair and a soft smile.

I'd love to relive the magical space between day and night, that after dinner early evening ritual we established with our golden haired toddlers. Where mom and dad would sit on the floor beside the tub, and listen to the sounds of sisterhood cementing itself into the fabric of our family.

We wrapped chubby legs and wet hair in hooded towels, and snuggled their squirmy selves in close to warm up. To breathe deeply the scent of baby shampoo-ed curls, as we maneuvered them into PJs with extravagant ruffles across the bum, and then we squeezed in tight for Stellaluna, There's a Moose in the Garden, and Goodnight Moon. To feel the weight of a sleeping three year old pressed against my chest as I carried her up the stairs. To kiss a soft sweet forehead, and feel the hope and glorious wonder of young motherhood.

I'd love to relive a day on our boat. A sunny day where we fly like the wind, then slow time and ease into our cove. Where we raft up with friends, and kids who are all arms and legs and laughter, leap into the water with purple noodles and carefree abandon.

Where even the blue heron stands captivated by the perfection of a Saturday afternoon. James Taylor wafts through a speaker, the sun sparkles like diamonds on a blue black river,  and God signs His masterpiece with the flourish of a pinky orange paintbrush.

I'd love to relive an afternoon in our English garden. Doors thrown open wide to the beauty of iris on the patio and poppies with their heads turned toward the sun.

The scent of lilac in the air, the Sunday Times, an ice cold glass of Pimms, teenage daughters whispering, dreaming in the wide expanse of grass. The other side of the pond. Redefining home. Feeling like the whole wide world was within reach.

I'd love to relive one tender Tennessee Smoky Mountain Christmas, before life tilted. The hodgepodge of family by birth and by marriage.

Snow up to the window sills and baked ham in the kitchen. Grandparents flanked by their children's children.

Innocence.

I ask myself, if I were really given the chance, would I go back? Relive something that has been safely tucked away in the quiet corners of my heart and mind?  Actually I don't think I would.  Memory is a very precious thing...moments that were savored in the living are cherished there.

I think that's how it should be, how I want it to be.
What about you...do you have a 'Groundhog Day' somewhere in your heart?

Alice's Adventures in the Hodgepodge

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge! I'm always glad to see you here, and please know newcomers are always welcome to join the party. Answer the questions on your own blog, then hop back and link up with all your friends and neighbors. Be sure to add a link to this post on your blog so people reading know how to play along too. The code for the Hodgepodge button is on my sidebar.

Now for my answers, which are not short this week.
Any week actually, but this one especially.

1. It's been said that one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day?  Do you think that's true? Do you find that an easy exercise most mornings? What's something positive you told yourself this morning? If you missed that boat, what's something positive you could tell yourself tomorrow?

Positive is pretty much my modus operandi, so I find it fairly easy to think happy at the start of a new day. Chalk it up to years spent at summer camp, but quite often my first thought in the morning is, 'This is the day that the Lord has made...I will rejoice and be glad in it.'  I sing it, but only to myself. See #2. 

2. There will be karaoke at the next party you attend...are you in? Or will you be faking a sore throat?

I can take it or leave it.  I like it with the right crowd, which would typically be my family since they are all well acquainted with my less than stellar singing voice. Remember Cameron Diaz's performance in the karaoke bar in My Best Friend's Wedding? I'm almost that good. I wouldn't fake a sore throat, but I wouldn't perform solo. Nor would you ask me too-ha!

3. January 29th is National Puzzle Day...what's something you've found puzzling lately?

Hmmm...people dressed in shorts in sub zero temperatures. 

4. Jigsaw, crossword, acrostic, logic, sudoku, word search...what's your favorite, and when did you last work one?

I like them all, but crosswords are my favorite. I try to work a crossword puzzle every day. I'm over 50 40, and every little bit of brain power I can accumulate helps.  

5. Recently a writer by the name of Amy Glass ruffled feathers with a post she wrote saying she looks down on young women with husbands and kids and she's not sorry. Among other things she says women will be equal with men when we stop saying housework and real work are equally important.  You can read the whole piece by clicking here.

What say you? Do you think men and women are equal in the 21st century? Why or why not?

What say me? I say Amy Glass wanted some traffic on her site and her wish came true. Not sure if this is truly the way she feels, or if it was put out there because she knew it would generate controversy and buzz, and most of all traffic aka revenue. Either way, I'm not gonna get all riled up about something a self-described feminist blogger says, other than to say this-It is the year two thousand and fourteen. Why do women continue to beat each other up about the way we choose to work and parent?  
Are men and women equal? No. Thank goodness!

Here's the thing...there is no way in the universe to accurately capture in words the dizzying heights and terrifying depths into which you are plunged when you become a parent. I've worked off and on during my adult life, but primarily I've been a mother and homemaker. I feel zero need to explain, apologize for, or justify that role.  
My husband has always worked, and worked hard, yet I bet if you asked him he would likely say his role as parent is on a mental and emotional plane unlike anything he experiences at work.  I don't think you can compare parenting and 'real work'.  Like apples and bicycles...the comparison just isn't there. 

I read something a while back that Glennon, who blogs at Momastery, wrote in a post on criticism vs. cruelty, and it was this, 'If you're not kind on the internet you're not kind.'

Let's all be kind, k? You too Ms. Glass. 

6. What's a product you've noticed in the grocery store that you'd like to try, but haven't yet?

Some friends mentioned the Campbells Slow Cooker Sauces, and said the Sweet Korean Barbecue was really good. I tend to stay away from packaged stuff, but might give this one a try. 

7. The author, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) was born this week back in 1832 (January 27th). Which character from his celebrated novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, would you most like to meet, and why? Here's a link to the character list if you need help on this one.

Before I answer I'm going to indulge in some Alice related trivia...

When Daughter2 turned 6 years old she had an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party. I found adorable straw bags at The Disney Store with the Cheshire Cat on front, and we used those as goodie bags. The girls painted tea cups, played croquet and dined on petit fours eaten on fine china. 

When Daughter2 was 13 years old I snapped her picture outside of Alice's Shoppe in Oxford. Once upon a time, Charles Dodgson was a math tutor at Oxford, and we spent a lot of time in that fair city since hubs also worked there. 

Not at Christ Church College, but in an office complex on the outskirts of town. 
Close enough. 

 photo courtesy of our friend Nigel, 2009

If you ever visit the UK,  put Oxford on your list. 

What was the question again?  Who would I most want to meet...Charles Dodgson! Wait, the question asked for a character so I'm going with Alice, a girl with unending curiosity about the world.  

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

For those of you who might be interested, the A-Z Blog Challenge registration is up and running.  Go here to add your name to the list. 

A few things about the A-Z-

In case you don't know, the A-Z is a blog challenge started by a wonderful blogger named Arlee Bird. He blogs over at Tossing It Out, and on Sundays at  A Few Words which I especially like. Hop over and say hello.  

The challenge has grown and expanded and morphed into something big, with well over 1000 bloggers participating now.  The way it works is this...you blog every day (Monday-Saturday) for the month of April. Sundays are a day of rest. That means there are 26 days of posting, and conveniently there are also 26 letters in the alphabet. So....a letter a day, in alphabetical order, beginning with A on April 1, B on April 2nd, etc. I like to put the letters on my calendar to help me stay on track. 

You don't need to have a theme to your posts, but I personally wouldn't participate without one. I like to think I excel at random, but I still need a theme to work with when I'm posting six days a week for a solid month.  If you're able, it also helps to get a head start on writing the first few posts and scheduling them to auto publish. I try to work at least two or three letters ahead, so if something unexpected comes up I won't crack under pressure. 

Actually there's no pressure. 

Well, there's a little pressure.

If you decide to participate let me know, so I can be sure and follow along. 

Go Broncos!

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 160

Here are the questions for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge.  Answer on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to share answers with the world wide websters. See you there!

1. It's  been said that one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day. Do you think that's true? Do you find that an easy exercise most mornings? What's something positive you told yourself today? If you missed that boat, what's something positive you could tell yourself tomorrow?

2. There will be karaoke at the next party you attend...are you in? Or will you be faking a sore throat?

3. January 29th is National Puzzle Day...what's something you've found puzzling recently?

4.  Jigsaw, crossword, acrostic, logic, sudoku, word search...what's your favorite kind of puzzle, and when did you last work one?

5. Recently a writer by the name of Amy Glass ruffled feathers with a post she wrote saying she looks down on young women with husbands and kids and she's not sorry. Among other things, she says women will be equal with men when we stop saying house work and real work are equally important. You can read the whole piece by clicking here.

What say you? Do you think men and women are equal in the 21st century? Why or why not?

6. What's a product you've noticed in the grocery store that you'd like to try, but haven't yet?

7. The author, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) was born this week in 1832 (January 27th).  Which character from his celebrated novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, would you most like to meet, and why? Here's a link to a character list if you need help on this one.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

True Tales from Inside the Vortex

So it's Monday, and not a whole lot has happened round here since Friday. Such is a winter weekend lived on the front lines of a polar vortex.

Is that a new term? Because I'm pretty sure we had some super cold weather when I was a kid, but we just called it cold. I think not having the vocabulary made it a lot less scary.

Is a polar vortex scary?

It sounds like something you should pay attention to, but perhaps it's just another way of saying super cold weather. Either way we've got it, and it's not leaving anytime soon.

It snowed here all day long on Saturday. Hubs suggested we go out to lunch, to the movies, anywhere...he wanted to get out of the house. I looked at the falling snow, the icy road, and the thermometer, and declared I would be staying put.

One thing I love about snow on the yard is seeing where the animals have been. There are three deer in our yard on a regular basis and I like to see where they roam.

Super close to the house it would seem.

We also have bird city happening in our back hedge. I don't know what it is about these bare branches, but the birds love them. Hmmm...they must not be completely bare. The big fat cardinal hung around all weekend too, and I love him. He doesn't appear to be having any trouble at all finding food this winter.  Look at that belly!

Hubs just throws seed on the ground below the hedge, and they find it. We used to have a bird feeder there, but after hubs came almost face to face with a bear on a mission to get to the seed inside the feeder, we had to rethink the whole bird feeder thing.

In hubs defense, it was dark.
In the bear's defense, he was hungry!

I finished my book club book this weekend, Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune, by Bill Dedman. Really interesting! A true story about not only Huguette, but the whole Clark family. Her father was at one time the wealthiest man in America, and made his money mostly in copper and the railroads. He also helped establish the city of Los Angeles, owned land that became what is now Las Vegas, and some pretty significant real estate on Fifth Avenue too. Huguette died under somewhat mysterious circumstances in 2011.

I made a big pot of chicken soup on Saturday, because it felt like a homemade chicken soup kind of day. I will just add here that the smell of chicken soup simmering has to be one of the best smells in the entire world. Maybe the entire universe.

We ended up going to a movie Sunday afternoon, still cold but not snowing. We saw Lone Survivor, and a whole day later I'm still not sure I have words.  I left the movie with a proud, grateful, aching heart. That old adage 'war is hell' is brought to life in this film, and it matters not whether you're a highly trained Navy Seal, or a young Afghan child living in a remote desert village. While there is unimaginable brutality and horror in the middle of the nightmare, there is also extraordinary kindness, and courage on a level that truly defies description.

I honestly couldn't watch some of the scenes...it's a picture of war we don't really like to think about in living color. We prefer to keep war 'over there', but these men were somebody's husband, father, brother, son and the film helps us remember that.

I do think there are things in this world worth fighting for, and I'm grateful there are men and women willing to do just that. I'm in awe of the bravery of our military men and women, particularly our special forces.

Hard to segue from that, but it's Monday and I've got a Monday morning kind of to do list here in front of me, so I best get to gettin'. Enjoy your day everyone!

Slice Of Life

So here it is Friday again, another quiet week. Even quiet weeks have fragments worth capturing. In the middle of a polar vortex it's important to enjoy the small things.

First...this cardinal-

Is there anything more lovely on a hum drum January day than a bright red cardinal posed against the naked forest? Add a bright blue sky and a snowy backdrop and it's very near perfection. There's a female lurking too, but her camo prevents me from capturing her at a distance.

I was at a distance.
It was 3 degrees so shooting from my kitchen window was good enough.

When I see a cardinal this time of year, the red so vibrant against a leafless branch, it's as if God is reminding me not to be a worrier. I watch this gorgeous bird from the warmth of my kitchen and think of the verse in Matthew 6 that says, 'Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you more valuable to Him than they are?"  (NLT)

I'm glad there are seasons... in nature and in life.

Daughter1 was home last weekend, and we had such a nice day on Monday. We enjoyed a long leisurely lunch, and solved all manner of the world's problems. Long leisurely lunches with grown up girls makes my list of favorite things.

Tuesday we had us a little snow, somewhere around 6-8 inches. My bible study was cancelled, and although hubs did make it to the office, he came home early to get ahead of the worst of it. The snow was the super soft variety and so pretty!  Still not tired of it.

Wednesday hubs worked from home, which is another way of saying he set himself up in the middle of the kitchen island, and proceeded to conduct one conference call after another. Not inconvenient at all-ha!

Actually I didn't really mind. It was the push I needed to tackle the great office file clean out of 2013, which somehow was overlooked in 2013, so in reality is now the great office file clean out of 2014. Still not done, but close. I'm easily distracted.

Yesterday I had my hair cut and highlighted which pretty much means this week was awesome.

And here we are, back to Friday. My gourmet group met for lunch today, and our theme was 'eating by number'. All the recipes had a number in their name, and everything was delish, most especially the 5-ingredient no bake peanut butter bars. Oh my! I probably should not have tasted those.

I made a five-spice green bean recipe which was just okay. The 5-spice seasoning is really strong, a little heavy on the anise flavor which isn't my favorite. On the bright side though, my house smells a lot like Christmas.

Now on to the weekend, where once again we have snow heading our way. I heard one weatherman say, "...we won't even mention the Superbowl forecast just yet..."

Ruh-roh.

I don't think you needed to be a weatherman to predict a February Superbowl played in New Jersey as a risky proposition.  

And yes, the Superbowl is in fact being played in New Jersey, not New York. As a resident of The Garden State I feel it's my duty to insert that piece of sports trivia here, because apparently the lack of respect our little state is getting is annoying a whole lotta people. I say this is what happens when sports teams with one state name in their moniker play all their games in a stadium that sits in a whole 'nother state.

New York? New Jersey? Either way it's gonna be a cold one!

For more Friday Fragments hop over to Half Past Kissin' Time.  Enjoy your weekend everyone!