Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 228

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then link back here to make the middle of the week a little less middle-y. See you there!

1.July 15th is National Give Something Away Day.  What can you give away? Will you?

2. Do you have a mantra? Please share with the class if you feel comfortable doing so.

3. Who does the grocery shopping in your house? How many times a week do you shop? Do you make a list or pray for inspiration in the produce aisle?

4. Is there a TV show you're embarrassed to say you watch? You're going to tell us what it is, right?

5. A recent article listed fifteen words we should eliminate from our (written) vocabulary in order to sound smarter-

that, went, honestly, absolutely, very, really, amazing, always, never, literally, just, maybe, stuff, things, and irregardless

Of the fifteen, which word is your most overused?

6. So apparently dying your hair gray (in your youth!) is a thing right now. It's called 'The Granny Hair' trend. Your thoughts?

7. A while back Buzz Feed asked members to share the most beautiful sentence they've read in a piece of literature. A hard thing to narrow down, at least for me, but let's try. What's one of the most beautiful sentences you've ever read in a piece of literature?

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Inspire

It's Friday I think, which means it's time to blog. Yes I've become a Wednesday/Friday blogger. Hubs loves to read here, but says lately he's giving it just two stars. Sadly I cannot argue.

We're still at my mom's, still in limbo, still anxious to move on to the next thing, but trying to make the best of our current thing. One way we're doing that is we're walking for miles. Miles and miles and miles. Guess what? I'm enjoying it a lot.

Yes, even nature's stair master.

Two years ago I would not have said such a thing was possible, that I could truly enjoy and look forward to a good power walk, but turns out it is very possible. I've always liked to hike, but this is different. This is exercise for all the right reasons, and I owe my change of heart and mindset to a little big thing called boot camp.

Which I miss a lot. Go figure.

Dragging myself out of bed in the cold (oftentimes ridiculously cold) dark of night to make a 6 AM workout every Monday-Wednesday-Friday changed me, and I like the new me better. I still get my daily email from the trainer and love opening the message knowing it's going to be something positive, encouraging, and helpful. Somedays it's a motivational quote or story, somedays a reminder to stay on track or drink more water or maybe it's a healthy recipe to try. Some days it's a good old fashioned pep talk.

I first heard about boot camp from two people I knew through two completely different avenues (my hairdresser and my dental hygienist), but they both raved about it at almost the same time. Coincidence? They both looked great, really fit and healthy, and they both also shared with me about their very noticeable change in energy level since they started making time for boot camp every week.

That definitely peaked my interest because do you know what you miss a lot when you hit middle age? A whole lot of things actually, but near the top of my list is the energy I had before my hormones ran amok.

True confession here-I have never been an athlete. Boot camp sounded like something for athletes or exercise hounds or people who live on rice cakes, the plain unsalted kind. Both women assured me this was different. That it wasn't a room full of athletes, although some certainly are. For the record I am not one of the some, but still it was a very mixed group. Men and women. Young and not so young. Some weighing more than they'd like and some just looking to feel better about their health and nutrition and daily habits.

I told hubs I was going to try it for three months, and he always encourages me to find something I love, but he might have also rolled his eyes a little knowing my level of co-ordination. ahem. I thought I'd sign up for three months because I know myself, and when it comes to exercise regimens the three month mark is about where I lose interest. Not this time. At three months I discovered I  really liked it.

You're never too old people!

I was feeling stronger, had more energy and less jiggle (if you're over 50 you know what I'm talkin' about), and the biggest and maybe most unexpected benefit, I felt more clear headed than I had in a long time, definitely since hitting the M word.  

The trainers who run the program are a perfect team. A little good cop/bad cop, but most of us need a little of both so it works. Plus the bad cop wasn't bad, just honest-ha! When it comes to addressing habits that need changing a little honesty is both good and necessary. And here the honesty always came with a huge smile, a word of encouragement, a reminder that you're not defined by a number on the scale. Most importantly, always a practical plan for how to get back on track and plenty of support in your efforts to do so.

Last week hubs and I were on one of our five-milers in the stinkin' heat and the high humidity, and as we powered on I thought to myself, 'I feel good. I'm glad I'm out here walking.' Now maybe you're one of those people who've always loved to exercise, someone who needs to run like they need oxygen, but that's never been me so these kinds of thoughts still surprise me.

I've learned a lot about myself this last year and a half, and I can't say enough about the trainers who run boot camp and the other programs they've put in place to help us replace poor habits with healthy ones.

I'm physically stronger than I ever imagined I could be. I'm not going to challenge anyone to an arm wrestle or anything, but I am strong and I have never in my life been physically strong. It feels great.

I know what I need to eat and how much, in order to feel good in my clothes. Not saying I always manage this, but I'm definitely on the 80/20 track as opposed to the 40/60. I don't beat myself up over the 20 either. Our health is more about our daily habits and the choices we make regularly over time as opposed to a single day.

You cannot out train poor nutrition. Truth. This is the boot camp mantra and while we'd like to think we can eat whatever we want as long as we work out, we can't. Habits are formed in our youth, so it's best to develop some good ones that don't need breaking when your metabolism slows to a crawl. Ask me how I know.

You can't out train poor nutrition. I think they'd want me to say that twice-ha!

One thing I also adopted thanks to boot camp, was more realistic goal setting. The trainers suggest you try something called 3 in 30, which basically means setting three goals to accomplish in the next thirty days. They usually checked in around day 15 which was a reminder to re-visit those goals and take stock or make adjustments. This was so do-able. Much more so than five big huge ginormous impossible things you say you want to master in a year the way so many of us do come January 1.

I like to look back at this short journey and take note of the timing. It was perfect. Perfect in that I had enough time to develop some brand new skills, make changes to my menu planning, gain confidence and actual enjoyment out of exercise all while in a truly supportive environment.

I try to imagine how this season of in-between we're currently living would play out without the benefit of new habits established last year. Instead of feeling capable I'd feel overwhelmed. Instead of feeling disciplined I'd feel guilty for not doing what I know I need to do, which is eating right and exercising more.

So I'm grateful. Grateful that we're never too old or too clumsy to do something positive for our health. I'm especially grateful for people who live up to their business name-Inspire. Grateful for people who use their gifts to encourage, uplift, and 'inspire' others to do the same.

Summertime and the Hodgepodgin' is Easy

Welcome to another edition of the weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then add your link IF you've played along. The first three questions are a tad heavy for early July, but sometimes that's how we roll. In my defense, they didn't feel heavy when I wrote them, and if it's all too much just know there's chocolate in question #4.

Okay here we go-

1. When did you last 'swim against the tide'?

It's hard to swim against the tide. Exhausting in fact, kind of like I imagine swimming against a literal tide would be. It does not come naturally to me, but there are times when circumstances force us to say/do the hard and unpopular thing. I suppose I swim against the tide in terms of prevailing political opinion on a whole host of issues. 

In my experience it's much easier to swim against the tide if you're part of a 'school of fish'. Much harder to be the lone fish. While it's not often I'm the lone fish,  a particular conversation does come to mind and what I remember most is that it absolutely wore me out. At the end of the day my integrity was still intact, which I think is important when you're swimming upstream.  

2. What's the last self-help or self-improvement book you read?

I'm currently reading Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. It's so good I had to grab a highlighter. I try to read my Bible every day which, if you're looking for self-help or self-improvement, is the very best book out there. 

3. "Tolerance is a tremendous virtue, but the immediate neighbors of tolerance are apathy and weakness." (Sir James Goldsmith)

Agree or disagree? Discuss. With civility please, because i think we have a good thing going in our very diverse (in geography, age, religion, political persuasion, ethnicity, marital status, upbringing, and cooking abilities) neighborhood here on This Side of the Pond.

I've really grown to hate the word. No offense anyone-ha! It's just that the word has become all jumbled up with judgement and name calling and the basest of the base. Ick. Tolerance is a virtue, but only to a degree. 

Tolerance is not demanding everyone be tolerant, bragging about how tolerant you are, and then when a viewpoint contrary to your own is expressed, calling that person a racist-bigot-ignoramus. Welcome to America in the year 2015.

Call me old fashioned, but I still believe there are some absolute truths in this world. Yes there are areas where we can agree to disagree, but there are also areas where we can't. And that's where I think the word tolerance gets lost. 

4. What is one of your most vivid memories of the kitchen from your childhood?

I have so many clear memories of the kitchen from my childhood home it's hard to choose just one. My mom still lives in that same house and the kitchen is the heart of it all. 

Christmas baking looms large in my mind (naturally!) and I remember standing on a chair beside the stove to help in the painstaking process of dipping freshly rolled buttercreams into silky melted chocolate. My mom's would be perfect, but I was impatient and mine often had a little swirl in the chocolate where I tried to remove it too quickly from the toothpick. 

I've carried on this tradition with my own girls, and I'm still sometimes impatient while daughter2 carefully waits out the minutes so hers are just right. Carousel of time people. 

5. How did/do your own children's summers compare with your summers as a child? If you're not a parent, answer as it relates to what you've observed about the current generation of children vs. your own childhood.

Very similar I think, mostly in the way childhood summers felt. Mine were a delicious concoction of carefree, outdoorsy, sunshiny, hours with plenty of time for day dreams. As a child I spent a lot of time outdoors, playing made up games with my sister and friends, swimming, and riding bikes. We read a lot of books, colored endless pictures, spent a week at camp and a week in Vacation Bible School, and some years made a trip out west to visit our grandparents, although not every year. 

I think my girls would describe their summer experiences in much the same way. They might add something about our awesome beach vacations too. We didn't take beach vacations when I was a kid. My parents did take us to the shore for the day, but only now and then which felt like a huge treat.  Because it was. 

6. Tell us what body of water you would most like to be on or near today, and why?

I'd love to be on 'our' lake. Technically it's not ours, but a small piece of the shoreline is. I'm more than ready to be sipping morning coffee on the dock. 

The dock which is not in place yet, but is under construction. Which is more than I can say for the house, still in the design-review-paperwork stage.  

If I can't be on our lake then I'd settle for my favorite Italian lake-Maggiore, or even a boat ride down the Thames. I'm not picky. 

7. Share a favorite song about water, or a favorite song with the word water in it's title, or a favorite song to listen to as you sit beside the water.

A favorite song about the water? Sailing by Christopher Cross. 

A favorite song with water in the title? An old camp favorite-Come to the Water. 

Song to listen to as I sit beside the water? Beach music please...anything by the Embers, the Catalinas, the Drifters. Throw some Kenny Chesney into the mix and I'm good. 

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Today is my beautiful mother's birthday. Here she is at my daughter1's wedding-

Happy birthday mama! Thanks for loving me and Jesus and books and home, and for sharing those loves with me. 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 227

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

1. When did you last 'swim against the tide'? Explain.

2. What's the last self-help or self-improvement book you read?

3. "Tolerance is a tremendous virtue, but the immediate neighbors of tolerance are apathy and weakness." (Sir James Goldsmith) 

Agree or disagree? Discuss. With civility please, because I think we have a good thing going in our very diverse (in geography, age, religion, political persuasion, ethnicity, marital status, upbringing, and cooking abilities) neighborhood here on This Side of the Pond.

4. What is one of your most vivid memories of the kitchen from your childhood?

5. How did/do your own children's summers compare with your summers as a child? If you're not a parent, answer as it relates to what you've observed about the current generation of children vs. your own childhood.

6. Tell us what body of water you would most like to be on or near today, and why?

7.  Share a favorite song about water, or a favorite song with the word water in it's title, or a favorite song to listen to as you sit beside the water.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

The Birthday Splash Bash

The 4th has come and gone, a very different sort of holiday for us and made me feel a little homesick for tiny town. We had some fun holiday traditions there, plus the weather was just eh here, and I think you know I'm all about the weather. We did barbecue chicken indoors, but we missed the lakeside festivities and our small town parade and spending the day with friends on our very own patio.

Still we managed to squeeze in some birthday fun of another kind. My mom has a birthday this week, and per our usual way of doing things we like to make the celebrating last longer than a day. My brother and sister-in-law had us all come to their house yesterday for an afternoon by the pool, followed by a really lovely dinner early evening. We were missing my oldest sis and her family, and of course my girls who I'm always missing, but the rest of my mom's 'kids' were there, and the weather finally cooperated so a nice day all around.

Here's my nephew trying to escape what we call the depth charge. I've been where he is and there's no escaping-ha! Hubs and my brother entertained my nephew in the pool, or maybe it was the other way around?  Regardless, they did not have to be talked into it because boys will be boys. Also, you should know nine year old boys never get tired.

There was some diving for dinosaurs, cannonballing from an uncle's shoulders, and more than a little splashing.

Oh, and two cakes! My sister and brother-in-law bought these beauties from a bakery in Philadelphia called Bredenbecks. The writing looks funny on the strawberry shortcake, but that is due to my stellar photography, not the baker.

Bredenbecks has been in business since 1889 so obviously they're doing something right. Both confections were scrumptious, and I thought the chocolate was one of the prettiest cakes I've ever seen.

My mom was spoiled with hand made art work, flowers, and gifts, and I hope she felt loved on the day.

 I mean, how could she not?

Friday Brain Dump

Hubs and I walked together this morning. We walk (he runs) most mornings, but normally if he goes right I go left. Y'all there is a whole lot of togetherness in our days just now and sometimes I need to go left. Hi hubs! Love you! He gets me and my crazy need for a little space in my head.

The good kind of space not the spacey kind of space.

An.y.way...we walked. Together. Almost five miles. We'd walked about three when we landed on the road leading to the Duck Pond, and I said wanna go check it out, and he said sure, so we wandered around the long way. When I'm in charge of directions we often take the long way because that's just how I roll. After thirty one years of married life hubs is still sometimes amazed at my complete lack of 'where the heck are we' sense.

The Duck Pond.

I have not been back in this part of the neighborhood in decades, but it's a place associated with my childhood. The plant life around it looks all grown up and wild, and the water is full of algae and there aren't any ducks but there are plenty of geese and where there's geese you need to really mind where you step, but still...complete throwback.

I remember my sixth grade class walking here dressed in medieval garb. Our teacher was taking a film class and used us students to help with her final project. This was back in the day before YouTube or iMovie or cameras the size of a watch so we thought it was kinda cool. We were studying The Crusades and a hike to the Duck Pond was our version of a re-enactment.

The Duck Pond was a hangout and there were a few houses around, but not like there are now. As kids we rode our bikes there, skated across the surface when it froze (was that safe?), and got into a bit of mischief, some kids more than others which is how its been with kids since the actual crusades. I've been a rule follower all my life so not a lot of tales to tell on me.

Not interesting ones anyway-ha!

We have some plans for the weekend which include fireworks and a birthday party (for my mom, not America although Happy Birthday America!), and later today mani/pedis with my mom and sister-in-law because what is more American than apple pie and pedicures?

It has rained buckets this week and I finished a book I was reading, which was completely melancholy. This in-between season was probably not the best time for melancholy, but once I started I had to finish. A book has to be truly awful for me to put it down in the middle, and this one was not truly awful. Just truly awfully melancholy- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. It won the Booker Prize a few years ago, so I should have known. Fantastic writing but you need a good long nap, a serious cry, and a box of chocolate to recover.

On a happier note...today my darling daughter1 and her sweet husband celebrate a whole half year of married life. They are just too adorable for words, and I can't help but smile when I think about their wedding day, and their charming home on the complete opposite far side of the earth from me, and the way they look at one another.

Love is grand!

Hodgepodge in the USA

Welcome to the Hodgepodge on this first day of July. Are you in summer mode yet, or like me still trying to figure out how it got to be July? You know the drill here-answer the questions on your own blog, then jump back over to add your link at the end of my post. Be sure to at least say hi to the blogger who linked before you, because that's the neighborly thing to do. Here we go-

1. On Saturday July 4th America celebrates her Independence (If you're not American,  feel free to answer in terms of a national holiday in your own country) What is your favorite thing about the day? Your favorite food on the 4th? Do you fly a flag at your house? Fireworks-yay or nay? Any special plans this year?

I love the 4th, and probably my favorite thing about the day is the patriotic pride on display in the form of flags flying, tiny town parades, and children and adults alike dressed in red, white and blue. We definitely fly the flag at our house, and my favorite food on the 4th would be red ripe watermelon. Fireworks are a must. We don't have firm plans this year, but whatever we do we'll end the day watching fireworks from the deck in my brother's back yard...prime viewing for their small town's spectacle.

2. What's something  you recently got for free?

Besides advice? I guess it would be the scoop of frozen yogurt my pup was treated to when hubs, my mom, and I went for ice cream last week.

3. The Statue of Liberty, The Liberty Bell, The Washington Monument, or Mount Rushmore...how many on the list have you seen? What is your favorite historical American monument, and why?

I've seen three of the four listed, never been to Mount Rushmore although I'd like to someday. Of the four my favorite is probably The Liberty Bell. I love the history associated with the city of Philadelphia and the story of our nation's early days.  

4. When it comes to the news are you more ostrich (stick my head in the sand) or hog (they have room to take a whole lot in)? How much attention have you given the recent news reports regarding ISIS and the acts of terror they've perpetrated against those who do not share their beliefs or support their cause.

I'm probably somewhere in between, but I've certainly been paying attention to the stories mentioned. I think Americans are so easily distracted by things that don't matter in the long run. I wish we could focus more on the atrocities being perpetrated against Christians, and a little less on Bruce Caitlyn Jenner et. al. I'm not in the mood to rant today so I'll leave it at that.

5. We're talking plain ice cream...vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry? Choose one.

It really depends on my mood and whether or not the ice cream is homemade. If it's homemade then give me good old plain vanilla. 

6. Share a song you love containing the word 'stars' in the lyrics or title.

He's Everything to Me 

Some of the best lyrics ever written. 'In the stars His handiwork I see, On the wind He speaks with majesty, Tho he ruleth over land and sea, what is that to me? Till by faith I met Him face to face...and I felt the wonder of His grace...then I knew that He was more than just a God who didn't care, who lived a way out there and...' 

7. Describe and/or say goodbye to June with an acrostic.

Just a whole lot of rigmarole

Unloading boxes, cars, houses, suitcases

New location and never ending paperwork

Eager to get started on the next phase of our home build. 

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Sunday hubs and I met my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew at the Tall Ships Festival on the Camden waterfront. There were ships on both sides of the river, but we parked on the NJ side since that seemed simplest.

One word- crow.ded. The festival was essentially rained out on Saturday, so the whole world decided to turn up Sunday. 

We spent a big chunk of the day standing in line, but the weather was delightful and it was fun hanging out beside the water. Also, stepping below deck on one of the Tall Ships confirmed for me the fact that I was not born for a life spent at sea. 

Monday was a picture perfect day, so my brother and sister-in-law invited us over for a swim and BBQ. We had more paperwork to tend to in the morning, but the rest of the day was spent relaxing beside the pool and sitting in the cool breeze on their back deck while the moon showed off. We decided Monday's weather was going to be included in the top ten days of summer. 

Not a bad way to wrap up a crazy-busy June.