What's Up Wednesday Hodgepodge - April 2023

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On the last Wednesday of each month, Shaeffer & Shay host a link-up to talk a bit about what's going on in our worlds - food, entertainment, plans, fashion, work, whatever - in the What's Up Wednesday linky party. I'm late sharing what's up with me this time, because I'm on a little vacation visiting my kids.

What We're Eating This Week . . . I'm doing a lot of eating out this week! Last week I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant with friends. This week I ate breakfast with friends yesterday, and went out to dinner with another friend in the evening. We both had fish & chips, one of my very favorite restaurant meals. I'm also getting to enjoy my daughter-in-law's cooking for dinner, and she's a very good cook!

Just over a week ago, when I was still in Ohio, I tried a new recipe - barbecue chicken and cornbread in a crockpot. It actually turned out really good, and the picture doesn't do it justice, but I think next time I'll cut the chicken into smaller pieces. It turned out kind of like a pot pie, with chicken, sweet potatoes and corn in a barbecue sauce with a cornbread crust.

And we also tried out a new eatery one night, Bubbly Hall, which is sort of a food court and bar. I had Fay's Flamin' Chicken & Waffles from Fay's Crêpes, and oh, it was good!!

What I'm Reminiscing About . . . All kinds of things! Being home with family is like that, with us all remembering little stories to tell about things that happened years ago. 

What I'm Loving . . . Well, obviously! All the Nonnie-time with Aubrey, all the time with the kids, and all the get-togethers with friends!

What We've Been Up To . . . I've been "back home" in Maryland for just over a week, so I've been catching up with friends, guest teaching at co-op, visiting our old church, attending my daughter's recitals and such as her senior year at university is starting to wrap . . . and of course spending lots of time with the family.

What I'm Dreading . . . It will be sad to leave here on Saturday, but I can't really say I'll be dreading it. After all, I'm going back to my new home and to my husband. I'm not looking forward to the dental work in my future, or the bills. (Tooth still isn't fixed!) 

What I'm Working On . . . Learning music for the chorus. I missed a rehearsal so I'm going to have some catching up to do.

What I'm Excited About . . . Kennady's opera workshop recital tomorrow! Her last opera workshop recital was so good, I'm really looking forward to seeing and hearing what they've been working on this semester! I'm also excited about the women's chorus that I'm joining and the fun music we are working on!

What I'm Watching/Reading . . . I generally don't watch TV much, but while here I've watched what the kids are watching, which has been a lot of Food Network shows. We've watched some movies too. All have been enjoyable. Not sure if we'll have the time to do our Girls' Night movie we've been wanting to do for a long time, which is the movie Babette's Feast. It's one of my favorite movies.

For all the details on what I'm reading, see my book blog at Just A Second.

I'm currently working on:

When Tomorrow Came by Hannah Linder

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt 

A Perilous Perspective by Anna Lee Huber

Fair As A Star by Mimi Matthews

Recently completed:

Women Talking by Miriam Toews

In The Shelter Of Hollythorne House by Sarah E. Ladd

After the Boxes Are Unpacked: Moving On After Moving In by Susan Miller

Up next:

The Keys to Gramercy Park by Candice Sue Patterson

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Composition As Conversation by Heather M. Hoover

Murder Most Fair by Anna Lee Huber

A Certain Darkness by Anna Lee Huber

What I'm Listening To . . . At the moment it's quiet here as Kennady is at a rehearsal, Landon and Meaghan are at church, and Spencer has gone to his room. Kind of like old times! This afternoon I was out with Kennady and listening to all the newer music on her playlists that I wouldn't hear otherwise.

What I'm Wearing . . . Jeans and a t-shirt today, and most days. My favorite soft and lightweight Danskin exercise pants instead of jeans when I'm just hanging out at home. Though I seldom exercise!

What I'm Doing This Weekend . . . Heading back to Columbus on Saturday and going to church Sunday morning. Possibly joining the church? If we don't do the membership thing this week, it will be soon. And hopefully doing something fun with Harrison and family on Sunday afternoon.

What I'm Looking Forward To Next Month . . . Among some other things, what I'm most looking forward to is coming back to Maryland for Kennady's baccalaureate!

What Else Is New . . . I'm not sure . . . I think I've covered it! I've been paying attention to the activities offered at the Dawes Arboretum and making an attempt to get out and do things. I went on a Members Only tour of the Japanese Garden and it was a perfect day. I really need to look for a job that will get me out of my house and give me some purpose, so that will be new at some point. I've started toying with whether I could get a bird, like a parakeet, as a pet.

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A hodgepodge is a jumble or assortment of things that might not appear to belong together. Joyce at From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly link-up called Wednesday Hodgepodge that is a little collection of questions for bloggers to answer just for fun and to get to know each other. I always look forward to chatting with friends over coffee, so pour a cup of your favorite and let's visit for a few minutes!

Here are this week's questions - and my answers - for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. April 26th is National Audubon Day, honoring John James Audubon, the French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter known for his detailed study and illustration of birds in their natural habitats. Do you have a bird feeder? Any birds in your home decor? Have you ever owned a pet bird? What's your favorite bird?

I do have a bird feeder! At my townhouse, I just have two―a small seed feeder and a suet feeder. But at my house in Maryland (where I'm visiting right now), I have seed feeders, a suet feeder, a woodpecker stack feeder, and a tray feeder. Also two hummingbird feeders and an oriole feeder, but I haven't tried putting that out yet. I'm hoping that when we get a house in Ohio I'll have a good location for lots of bird feeding and birdwatching. 

All that said, I don't really use birds in my decor. We have a couple of things that feature birds, but not much. When I was growing up, we always had a parakeet; and for a little while when I was a newlywed we had a cockatiel. Just recently, I started wondering about getting a parakeet again. I'm not sure I could pick a favorite bird but maybe right now it's the cardinal.

 

2. What's something you took to 'like a duck to water'?

 

Oh, this is one of those questions that make me feel like I'm tooting my own horn! Hmmm. I'd say teaching or tutoring writing classes. When I took on the task of teaching high school writing and literature for our homeschool co-op a few years ago, I hoped I'd be able to do a halfway decent job. There was a bit of a learning curve for me, of course, but for the most part it felt natural and I loved doing it. For the most part, I've received positive feedback and I feel like I made the classes fun and informative and useful for my students.

3. Empty nest, nest egg, proud as a peacock, free as a bird, birds of a feather flock together, or the early bird catches the worm . . . choose one and tell us how it currently applies to your life.

 The obvious answer is empty nest. That's the stage of life we're in right now, having moved to a townhouse and having no adult children living with us any more. Proud as a peacock also applies right now. I'm so proud of my daughter who is getting set to graduate from university, my sons who are all outstanding men that work hard and take care of family and love the Lord, my daughters-in-law who are both beautiful additions to our family and are wonderful mothers. I'm so proud of my two sweet granddaughters who bring so much joy and laughter to the family.

4. Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds . . . your favorite seed and a favorite food or dish made with that seed or topped with that seed? Have you tried all the seeds on the list? Any you don't care for?

 I have tried all of these, and although I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin seeds or flax seeds, I do like all of them. My favorites are sesame seeds because I think of all the yummy breads that have sesame seeds on top. The two best, in my opinion, are challah and za'atar bread, and I bake them myself. 

 

5. Something in the past week that made you 'happy as a lark'?

So many things! I'm so happy to have time to spend with my kids here and be able to participate in daily life with them for a bit. Especially to have time with Aubrey. It made me so happy to hear Kennady sing in her recital, and it was also a huge lift to be able to play with her worship team in church this past Sunday. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I have an awful lot of stuff here at the Maryland house that I will need to move or deal with. It's discouraging to realize how much there is. Even more so when I try to think about when we'll be able to do it. That's a downer to end on, isn't it? The positive spin is that we weren't forced to deal with twenty years of all the things in this house in a huge hurry so we could get the house ready to sell. That would have been really stressful! Instead, we have time to figure it out and the kids can use the things that they do need or find useful . . . and hopefully the things aren't too terribly in the way!

What's up in your world this week? Leave a comment and let me know!

I'm sharing in this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

And this post is linked at What's Up Wednesday for April, with Sheaffer & Shay.

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