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.

The Year of Pie

     One of my goals for the year 2020 had been making 52 different kinds of pie. I'm happy to report that I successfully completed that challenge with a few extra kinds thrown in for good measure.

    Other than our family favorites I really liked all the variations of cheesecake pie. The Grape Crumb pie is one I'll be making again, as well as most of the savory pies

    I would not recommend anyone ever make the Poppy Seed Pie. It was far from tasty. The texture didn't help any. It was a gelatinous, crunchy, slimy, sweet, yet earthy mess. None of us were able to take more than a bite. 

    A few others weren't a hit either. The Apple Butter Pie I had high hopes for but it ended up being a disappointment. The Mystery Pie might have been okay, but halfway through they figured out what the mystery ingredient was and promptly stopped eating it.

    Over all it was a success. I still have pie I want to try someday, but for now I'm glad to be done with this challenge and focus mostly on family favorites for a while. 

    Here's a picture of the list of 52 pie I made this year.

Wednesday Hodge Podge

 1. This is the 400th episode of the Wednesday Hodgepodge. I haven't participated in all of them but, that's a whole lot of Hodgepodging folks. 2000 questions if my math is right. So, what's something you feel like you do 400 times a week? 

Taking things upstairs. It seems there's constantly something on the stairs waiting to be taken up the next time someone goes that way. I don't quite understand how it seems to be a never ending stream of things. 

2. Tell us where you were and something about what your life looked like in the year 2000? 

I was living on a dairy farm and trying to adjust to being a new mother. Those were sweet, yet at times overwhelmingly busy days.

3. Do you like cinnamon? What's something you make and enjoy that calls for cinnamon? Of the cinnamon 'foods' listed which is your favorite: red hot cinnamon candies, cinnamon toast, cinnamon rolls, cinnamon toast crunch cereal, apple cinnamon oatmeal, churros, an Indian curry?

Cinnamon rolls would be my favorite on the list. My mother-in-law used to make the best!
I don't care for the red hot cinnamon candies. The only reason we used to have them was to make cinnamon pickles. Those used to be a favorite, but it's been quite a few years since I last made them.

4. Does Christmas 2020 (or Hanukkah) look much like it has in years past, or is this year vastly different for you and your family? How so? How are you feeling about it all? 

Christmas this year will look much like it has for the past 14 years. The only difference being, Kenneth is now married. He and Paige are planning on coming over though so we're looking forward to that.

5. What's one thing you need or want to do before this year ends? 

I'm hoping to complete my 52 pies in 2020 challenge that I set for myself at the beginning of the year. I've made well over 52 pies this year, but not 52 different kinds yet.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Only our favorite festive snacks and treats were made this year. We've been enjoying them in these days leading up to Christmas. 
The gifts have been wrapped, and everything seems to ready for Christmas with a little time to spare.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Bits and Pieces

    For the past few weeks I have been tracking a package as it treks hither and yon across the U.S. It reached a town near us several times already and then switched course, adding stops in Illinois, Charleston West Virginia, Memphis Tennessee, and now it's stuck in Detroit Michigan.

    At this point I'm giving up on it arriving in time for Christmas. I think I'll print out the tracking history, frame it, and gift it. By now it's more interesting than the original gift would have been.

~~~~~

    I pulled in next to the cart corral and parked just as one of my favorite songs started playing on the radio. I was alone so I turned up the volume and sang along (heartily).

    The song ended and I returned to reality. Reaching for my mask I noticed a lady standing there looking at me after having returned her shopping cart.

    Uh-oh my impromptu singing session had not been quite as alone as I thought. Ah well, I can hide behind my mask. 

    I exited the vehicle and tried to lock it, accidentally hitting the alarm instead of the lock.

    A few tries and I got it shut off. I avoided all eye contact, scraped up what little dignity I had left, and hurried inside the store to get my weekly shopping done.

~~~~~

    Steven was still sleeping this morning as Sharon and I did our regular morning chores about the house. As it became light outside we noticed the sky was filled with drifting snowflakes.

    "Steven is going to be so happy," Sharon said. "He told God yesterday that he would enjoy a birthday gift of snow if He has time and doesn't mind."

    A few minutes later a beaming, newly nine year old came down the stairs, absolutely thrilled to have received the perfect birthday gift.