Wednesday Hodgepodge

 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. 

If anything, I think we watched less. 

And 2021 we hope to continue watching even less. There are so many things we really enjoy doing that it's not that difficult to choose 'doing' instead of watching. 

We didn't binge on any shows last year.

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 have never been to Australia, but I think it would be interesting to visit someday.

When it comes to planning travel this year, we will be staying in the U.S.  Even those plans hinge on how things will look by the time we're ready for a get-away. What's the fun of a vacation if restaurants and points of interest are closed?

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

Facebook ... I've been unfollowing so many people on there. We remain friends, but I no longer have their posts showing up in my newsfeed.  I don't care if your guy won or lost the election. I don't want to hear about it. I don't care if you believe every conspiracy theory out there, or don't believe any of them, I don't want to hear about it. I don't care if you are for or against vaccines, I don't want to hear about it. I don't care if you think everyone should wear a mask or that they're not worth wearing. I don't want to hear about it. It all makes me feel so very weary. All those wearisome topics almost make the MLM posts bearable.

Some things that energize me are reading the Bible, spending time with our family, drawing, painting, cooking, baking, and so many other things.

There is still so much to enjoy about life, I will not allow Facebook to rob me of my joy.

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? 

I'm probably around a seven or eight. I don't juice, but I love vegetables. I'm not eating junk food, though I did taste the frosting on the cake Sharon made yesterday. We tried a new recipe that was supposed to be light and fluffy, and not as sweet as regular butter cream frostings  It may have been just a tiny bit less sweet, but I didn't like it very well. We'll not be making it again.

The healthiest meal I've eaten recently consisted of baked salmon, broccoli, and a leafy salad.

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

I try not to say a lot of back in my day things ... most of the time it involves something from our Amish days which is met with less than enthusiastic response from our children.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

The rock tumbler is done tumbling. The rocks have turned out so pretty, that it was almost worth all the noise we endured to get them to this point.

Winter's Fog

 The fog is heavy today, freezing onto every available surface. I'm assuming the barn is still somewhere behind that tree, but you can't tell due to the choking density of the fog. 

    It reminds me of a little scene that played out countless times during my growing up years.

    "Freezing fog will kill a dog," Mom would say as she looked out the window on foggy winter days.

    Dad would laugh and correct her. "The saying is, 'winter's fog will freeze a dog.'"

    They would both laugh as Mom shook her head, "I thought for sure I said it right this time," she'd say.

    But always, always, she'd get it wrong. 

Wednesday Hodgepodge

 1. When were you last a guest at an event or in someone's home? Tell us about it. Do you enjoy having guests in your own home? 

Last summer we stayed at my sister-in-laws home. She's always a gracious and welcoming hostess. This time the circumstances of our visit weren't that pleasant, but she opened her home to us to stay the night before LV's mother's funeral.

I enjoy having guests in our home. It doesn't happen nearly as much as it did in our home while I was growing up though. It's one of those things that changed when we left the culture we grew up in.

2. What has you 'tied up in knots' currently or recently? Are you any good at tying actual knots? 

There are a number of different things I could get tied up in knots about, but I'm choosing to not allow that happen. One of which is LV's upcoming doctor visit. We are rapidly approaching the one year anniversary of the explosion that had injured him, and the visit is simply to check on his progress. It should be uneventful, I keep telling myself.

I can tie several basic knots, but I'll probably be learning some new ones before long. Steven has a knot tying kit here, and he enjoys 'working' together to learn new things.

3. What's something you've been wanting to do and have decided 2021 will be the year you 'take the plunge'? 

My list of things I would like to do is huge. The item I plucked from it to concentrate on in 2021 is having my next book published. Currently I'm exploring indie options, though all the self promotion scares me a bit. I'm not good at trying to promote something I sell, at all! It's why you hardly ever see me mentioning my book series. 

4. Something in your home that's old? Something new? Something borrowed? Something blue? 

Old ... We have an old family heirloom clock that has been handed down through generations. Currently it is wrapped up in the attic.
New ... a delightful teapot Rosie Mae gifted me for Christmas. It's still considered new, right? Even though I've been using it everyday since I got it.
Borrowed ... a box full of library books. We love books and I'm thankful we have a library to borrow books from. Currently we can't browse the shelves, thanks to Covid, but we're able to request books online and pick them up at their drive through window.
Blue ... the carpeting on the floor. May I just say I would never willingly choose to have carpeting in a house.

5. Share a favorite quote, a verse of scripture, and/or a bit of wisdom for couples getting married in this challenging and seemingly unpredictable season we're currently/still experiencing. 

Look for things your spouse does 'right'. 

I could delve into this quite a bit. I may come back to it later in another blog post. Maybe. Does 20+ years of being happily married qualify me to share things on marriage? I'm not sure. I still feel too young to give advice.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

The sunrise this morning was absolutely beautiful. My camera didn't do the greatest job of capturing the beauty of it, but I was too cold to stand outside fiddling with the settings to try to improve it.

Currently

 Reading ... in the Bible I'm making my way through Genesis. I'm also throwing in a few chapters of Psalms and something from the New Testament every week instead of only reading the Old Testament for weeks on end.

In fiction I'm attempting to enjoy a children's book by Edith Nesbit called Five Children and It. So far it does not strike me as a book that will become a favorite. It has giant paragraphs that often take up an entire page or more, and fail at capturing my attention for anything other than their sheer size. I'll continue reading for a chapter or two yet, but the prospect of abandoning it is becoming more and more tempting.

In non fiction I'm loving a few holiday cookbooks. 

Watching ... a nature show all about plants and wildlife from South Africa. It's stunningly beautiful, and the narrator's voice is the best. I think I could listen to him talk about anything and enjoy it simply because of his voice.

Listening ... to the sound of Steven's rock tumbler/polisher. He loves rocks and for Christmas we thought he would enjoy getting to polish his own rocks. What we didn't realize, it takes 30 days to do a small batch of rocks. And that the tumbler is loud.

I'd like to say I'm getting used to the sound, but even though we have passed the half way point, I'm still not enjoying the noise. It's basically all you can hear. Washing machine, dryer, and noisy furnace all fade away. Who knows if they're even running somewhere behind the noise of the tumbler?

Wearing ... a brown dress. It's one of my favorite dresses I have. I still really like brown, though this one isn't loved as much as the first brown dress I had as a young girl.

Baking ... most recently, cookies. Since Kenneth got married cookies last a long time at our house and were getting stale before we got them eaten. We have now started to make a batch of dough, baking a dozen cookies, and then freezing the rest of the dough until we're ready for more. It works well

Cooking ... tonight's dinner will consist of potatoes, salad, and burgers made with our new favorite recipe. For dessert, instead of something baked we'll be splitting two oranges among those of us who enjoy them.

Playing ... we've been playing Fruit Punch quite often these past few days. And when there's time for a longer game Steven's go to has been Life on the Farm. It's one of our oldest games, and one we all enjoy. 

Wishing ... change was more comfortable. I'm not a big fan of changes even though I know I'll be glad those changes were made.

Crafting ... various paper crafts with Steven, mostly found on Pinterest.

Cleaning ... today we're finally taking the tree down, cleaning and packing away the ornaments, and getting things back to their pre-Christmas state. This is the longest we've ever kept our tree up.

Disliking ... how our big beautiful pine trees beside our house appear to have contracted whatever disease is afflicting and killing pine trees though out our area. It almost hurts just looking at them and seeing how more and more of their branches are losing their needles. 

Loving ... a darling little teapot I use everyday. I love it so much I think it deserves its own blog post some day soon.