What's Up Wednesday Hodgepodge - June 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.

What We're Eating This Week . . . so far, nothing too exciting, BUT I'm doing prep for a big Canada Day dinner on Saturday. We're planning for our son and his family to be here, and three of my husband's co-workers who are from Brazil and Zimbabwe (I think I'm remembering that correctly) and were curious about Canadian food when they found out we're Canadians. On the menu: Salmon, Tourtiere, Poutine, Maple Glazed Carrots, and Bannock. Dessert bar will have Nanaimo Bars, Butter Tarts, Butterscotch Confetti, and possibly Beavertails.

French-Canadian Tourtiere

Eating the Americas - Poutine

Canada Day Butter Tarts

Eating the Americas - Nanaimo Bars

What I'm Reminiscing About . . . Just thinking about this time last year . . . On June 30th I had my knee replacement surgery, and then mostly lived on the living room sofa for a couple weeks, during the initial recovery. I remember making it as fun as I could, by doing things like drinking the necessary prune juice from wine glasses or brandy snifters! On my first day at home all by myself, I ran out of toilet paper in the only bathroom of the house that I could get the walker into, and had to figure out how to safely navigate into another bathroom in hopes of finding a spare roll and to do that without falling, since I couldn't yet bear weight on that leg. Boy, was I glad that all the spare rolls were not downstairs or it would have been all over for me! As it was, I turned it into my own episode of the survival show Alone, and it was quite an ordeal. 

When your post-surgery instructions are to
drink prune juice, but you want to keep it classy.

OH NO!!!

What I'm Loving . . . Having a keyboard to play whenever I want to. Even though I'm not playing every day, it's wonderful and a big help to have it for learning music for chorus, and just to play for fun occasionally. I'm hoping to make more use of it eventually if I am a more regular part of worship team at church, and I plan to bring a collection of music here after our next trip to Maryland.

What We've Been Up To . . . Over the past month we've had our daughter and her boyfriend here for a visit and we've done some exploring on hiking trails and local spots. We went to the Powell Festival last weekend and had such a fun time at a Smash Mouth concert! More recently, I've tried to focus more on job-hunting, looking for something part-time or flexible to give me something to do. Plus a little extra income, of course! 

What I'm Dreading . . . Last month I mentioned dreading my upcoming oral surgeon consultation. Now that I've had the consultation, I'm dreading the actual surgery and paying the bill for it. Our dental insurance is covering almost none of the cost, which is so frustrating. To make it even more frustrating, I found out that the claims have been kicked to an old insurance plan which has not been active for 18 months. So naturally it's not an in-network dentist, but it's clearly the insurance company that got it wrong. Hard to explain, but it has been the most frustrating thing to deal with, and I've been fighting with the company for six months about it. Grrrrrr.

What I'm Working On . . . job searching, household budgeting, vacation planning. All are kind of related! I also offered to help a friend compile an employee handbook for their small business, so I'll be starting on that proposal.

What I'm Excited About . . . the things I'd be most excited about are a little farther out on the calendar―next trip to Maryland, and a fall trip to my family in Canada―but I'm low-key excited about the upcoming weekend with fireworks and all of that, and maybe even about starting a job (hopefully) soon.

What I'm Watching/Reading . . . I never sat down to watch it myself, but watched enough of the older TV series Travelers that my husband was watching to know what was going on. Even kind of wished I'd sat down and followed it, because it was really interesting. 

For all the details on what I'm reading, see my book blog at Just A Second. My first monthly book review link-up there just launched today - Book Review Bulletin. The idea is to link up book review posts so that others can read and comment on them.

I'm currently working on:

 Composition As Conversation by Heather M. Hoover

A Perilous Perspective by Anna Lee Huber

Recently completed:

Beneath A Peaceful Moon by Debby Lee

A Man With One of Those Faces by Caimh McDonnell

Man of Shadow and Mist by Michelle Griep

Up next:

Reykjavík: A Crime Story by Ragnar Jónasson and Katrín Jakobsdóttir

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Murder Most Fair by Anna Lee Huber

A Fatal Illusion by Anna Lee Huber

What I'm Listening To . . . right now I can hear mowers so I think it must be lawn maintenance day here. They're working far enough from my townhouse that I can occasionally hear the birds outside my window too.

What I'm Wearing . . . still relying on my trusty t-shirts and jeans or capris most of the time. The summery dresses and my swimsuit have made a couple of appearances this season. My swimsuit was rather a tight fit, which will hopefully motivate me to do something about my weight.

What I'm Doing This Weekend . . . Big Canada Day feast on Saturday, probably take it easy on Sunday. I know there will be fireworks on at least a couple of days so we'll try to get out and enjoy those.

What I'm Looking Forward To Next Month . . . Well, hopefully starting a job and then probably getting another vehicle. Maybe a weekend getaway? Depends on the work schedule, I suppose.

What Else Is New . . . not much, it seems. I've started collecting my costume pieces for chorus. I got the jacket (and that's a tank top to wear under it, not a tie) a couple weeks ago, and will be ordering the required jeans and pants very soon. Will also need to get shoes, and there is a second jacket coming from the chorus later on.

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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. What's one thing you're excited about in the coming month?

The "What's Up Wednesday" questions asked me a very similar question and I had trouble coming up with an answer. I mean, I guess I'm excited about starting a job of some kind, but it's hard to be truly excited when I don't actually have it nailed down and know what I'm getting myself into! 

2. What was your life like when you were ten years old?

 

Life was good! I don't remember many specifics, except that my family went on a road trip in the US that summer. That stands out because it was the bicentennial year and patriotism was totally ramped up! That big road trip took us to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado and Arches National Park in Utah, and my mom's family from Manitoba met up with us in Kansas, where we stayed for a few days with their extended family. That part of the trip was super interesting because it was the town where my mom was born so we saw the house that had been her grandparents' place. And also that was the first time I'd ever seen fireflies. True story.

 

3. What's something from your childhood you still enjoy today?

 Maybe it's because I haven't had breakfast yet and I'm hungry, but I'm thinking in terms of food here! Ice cream, cookies, and sugary kids' cereals. I really want some Count Chocula or Cocoa Pebbles now . . .

4. What state (that you haven't been to) do you most want to visit? Tell us why.

 Easy answer! Alaska! I have been dreaming of going on an Alaska cruise for at least twenty years. I want to see the wildlife and the glaciers and all the scenery. And the Northern lights. I haven't seen Northern lights in years and years.

5. Do you like to drive? Tell us how you learned to drive.

 

In general, I like driving, but I try to avoid having to drive in the city. Especially in areas I'm not familiar with. I get anxious driving on busy multi-lane freeways and in crowded downtown type areas. 

I started learning to drive when I was in my late teens, but I got really anxious and it didn't go well. It was weird because I'd never had trouble with anxiety other than that, but I was so upset my first time or two just trying to manage in a parking lot with my mom as my instructor that I just gave up on it. When I was in college, my husband (he was boyfriend at that time), made me start learning again and I did better as long as I wasn't on the highway. The first time he had me get on the highway, I burst into tears and pulled over onto the shoulder as soon as I could and that was that. So I finally paid for drivers instruction after we'd been married for at least a year and got my license when I was about 22 years old, I guess. 

 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

It's just a few days until my daughter's birthday, and this might be the first time we haven't been with her for the occasion. I think one year she was away at camp or something over her birthday. And we haven't bought her gift yet. It will be rather strange ordering something from Amazon and having it shipped directly to her. Last year, her party was just a couple days after my knee replacement surgery so I let the kids do all the planning and the celebration happened around me.

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 June, with Sheaffer & Shay.

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