Wednesday Hodgepodge - May Musings

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.  Let's compare this May to last May. What's changed? What remains very much the same?

 

I can't think of anything that's changed in a very significant way. We don't have a duck nesting under a window or beside our door this year. I guess that means that most things are more or less the same. What a boring answer! 

 

2. What's something you may do this month?

I may finally get my desk area cleaned up. I've been saying that for ages, and it just seems to get more cluttered. I am getting a crown on one tooth next week, and will get appointments on the calendar to finish my implant, so I may be able to get at least one more step done this month. 

 3. Mother's Day is approaching (in the US of A) . . . in what way(s) are you like your mother?

 I think I look more like Mom as I get older. My speaking voice is very like hers too. I especially noticed this when I was visiting family last month . . . my aunt that is very hard of hearing seemed to be able to understand and hear me quite well, but my mom had to keep repeating herself and my aunt just couldn't get it. It was so odd because we have The Same Voice. Mom and I both like to read and like word games like Scrabble. Personality traits are a little harder for me to pin down how I might be like her, but I'm sure I am.

Me and Mom (and Dad and Hubby)

 

4. Did you have a favorite book as a child? What was it and why was it a favorite?

 I had a lot of favorite books! One that comes to mind right away is The Cuckoo Clock by Mrs Molesworth. It was a very old book, originally published in 1877, although it's quite likely that the edition I had was a more recent edition. I found the book at my Grandma's house when I was maybe 9 or 10 and read it every time I was at her house. Eventually I took it home with me. The story is about a little girl who has to go live with her two elderly spinster aunts. She is lonely and bored, but the cuckoo in the clock becomes her friend and teacher, and takes her to visit inside some of the intriguing objects in the aunts' house. The cuckoo also teaches her courteous behavior and encourages her to take her studies seriously. I think it resonated with me because the two aunts reminded me of my aunts and their house filled with antiques and interesting objects.  

 I shared the book with my daughter when she was about 12 and we read it together. A fun trip down memory lane for me! These photos of the book are all from around that time.

5.  Are you more of a tortoise or a hare? Explain.

 

 I think I could make an argument for both, but I'm going with hare. My natural inclination is to procrastinate and then hustle and bustle when the deadline is getting closer. I know it's not usually a wise approach, but that seems to be my default setting. I don't run, but I'm a fast walker and get really impatient when I have to walk more slowly than I want to.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I'm sure no one has noticed except me, but I didn't share a progress report on how I was doing with my Word of the Year goals. I did posts at the end of January and February to keep myself accountable, but I excused myself from doing one at the end of March because I was traveling and really busy, and took a little bit of a blogging break. Well, here we are a week into May and I realized I still hadn't done a WOTY post for April either! So here is a super abbreviated summary of my WOTY goals report.

In March I had a lot going on, especially at the beginning and the end of the month, but I was able to be reasonably consistent with the practice of meal planning. My housekeeping plans were less consistent, but I did okay. I worked hard at the discipline of rehearsing and working on chorus music and choreo daily. It sure helped that we had an accountability challenge going within the chorus, and that we had competition coming at the end of the month! I didn't do quite as well as I would have liked with my personal disciplines of eating well and getting to bed earlier.

April was a tough start for practicing the daily disciplines, because I spent the first week on a trip visiting family. Once I got back home I developed a bad cough and felt yucky for awhile, and it was just hard to get back to a routine. It felt like I hardly made any proper meals during the month! I was also more scattershot about regular housekeeping tasks. On the other hand, despite the cough, I did a good job of practicing chorus music, and established a pretty consistent habit of doing some core strength exercises and was in bed on time on a much more regular basis. And that is something I'm determined to focus on in May, despite having stayed up past my bedtime to write some of this! 

Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions;

I will put them into practice with all my heart.

~Psalm 119:34~

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My Word of the Year for 2025 is Practice. Put the things I've learned and that I know into practice. Practice doing what I know I should do and want to do. Practice how I want to perform. Practice―and get better at―the things that are important to me. Make a practice of healthy and beneficial habits and routines. In 2024, my WOTY was Rhythm, and one way I tried to establish a rhythm was by keeping a very brief daily diary, to watch for daily and weekly patterns to develop and to be intentional about keeping the good ones going. In 2025, I've continued keeping daily diary notes in my calendar, but with a focus on how well I'm meeting my goals in the disciplines I'm practicing. See my WOTY post for 2025 for how I chose this word: Word of the Year 2025 - Practice.

 

What are you musing about 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.

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