Catching Up With the Hodgepodge

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.  June 17th, 1994 was the day of the infamous O.J. Simpson car chase. What were you doing in 1994? I'm guessing somebody is going to tell me they weren't born yet but that's part of the fun of the Hodgepodge. Lots of generations are represented here.

 

The summer of 1994 I was pregnant with our second son. I don't remember any specifics about what we were doing that summer, though we were probably taking it easy for the most part since it was a slightly higher risk pregnancy. I don't know that we paid any attention to the low speed car chase, but I remember it was on the news. 

 

2. What's your favorite summer salad that isn't the traditional tossed green lettuce kind of salad? Do you like fresh fruit in a salad (other than in a fruit salad of course)?

I like chicken salad, and I make it with almonds and dried cranberries, and with no celery. I don't like the texture of celery. I also started making a caprese salad platter and that's so good! I include some kind of fresh fruit on the caprese salad, like berries or peach slices, so I like that, though in general I prefer my greens and my fresh fruit to not be tossed together! 

 

3. Is chivalry dead? Should it be?

 I don't think it is, though in many ways it seems to be declining. I didn't look up a definition but to me chivalry is courtesy and good manners levelled up, and especially when it comes to gentlemen looking after the ladies around them. Good manners aren't uncommon but I would say that not all younger people are taught good manners in a way that makes it second nature to them.

4.  Would you rather spend a week of your summer vacation in Hawaii or Alaska? Have you ever been to either? Are they two places you really would like to see? How do you feel about 'Hawaiian pizza' aka pineapple on a pizza? Have you ever eaten Baked Alaska?

 I would rather spend a week in Alaska, since I've long wanted to go there. I certainly wouldn't mind visiting Hawaii but it's never been high on my priority list. I haven't been to either state yet, but yes, I really want to go to Alaska. The combination cruise and train trip through Alaska has been on my vacation wishlist for my entire adult life. I love Hawaiian pizza and have no problem with pineapple on any pizza. It's usually my pizza order when I can order a personal pizza, because nobody else in my family likes it. I don't think I've ever had Baked Alaska, but I'd like to try it. What's not to like?

5.  World Cup play is happening now . . . are you interested? Watching any matches? Did you or your children play soccer/futbol? There are eleven US cities hosting matches -

-Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York with the stadium in NJ, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle

along with three cities in Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey) and two in Canada (Toronto and Vancouver)-

You get free tickets to one of these matches. Which city do you choose? Tell us why.

 Really not interested in World Cup or in soccer overall. Which isn't to say we haven't paid attention or watched matches. We spent a couple days with my sister-in-law and her husband and he is really into soccer so we watched games with him and he explained rules to us. I never played soccer myself and neither did my kids. My kids didn't like when they had the soccer units when they were in gym class. They actively disliked it, in fact. If I was offered free tickets to any of the matches, I think I'd choose Vancouver. I haven't been to Vancouver in decades and I think I'd enjoy going back and seeing a little of the city before and after the game. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

It's been a bit of a computer odyssey for me the past couple weeks. We did not have "plug and play" internet at the new house like we'd hoped, so we finally got Spectrum out to hook it up last Tuesday. So I could use our wifi instead of setting up a hotspot with my phone. But it took until Thursday before we tried setting up our desktop computer . . . and gave up on it because there is something wrong with the connection of the actual power switch. We'd previously managed a workaround of taking out the battery and putting it back in but that didn't work. Okay, at least we had my chromebook and wifi, and given that we were about to go on vacation, we planned to take the computer to be repaired at some point after we got back. Limiting, but okay. Well, second day on vacation and my chromebook would not power on. It was fully charged, hadn't been dropped or had anything spilled on it etc, just wouldn't power on. Since we didn't have a working desktop to go home to, I definitely needed to replace it. Hadn't really planned on making that purchase but I did buy it in Canada so the exchange rate was in my favor!

Needless to say, it's put me behind on blogging and for sure on commenting! So my apologies for being even later than usual in visiting others, and I've missed a lot. Also missing out because I'm on vacation and then next week I'll have family visiting.  

What are you getting caught up on 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.

I host the Wednesday Quotes link-up every other Wednesday. Stop by and share a few thoughts and quotes on the current topic here: WQ - The Art of Teaching. I host the Everyday Images photo link-up every other Thursday. And find the Scripture and a Snapshot link-up here every Sunday.

 Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to A Fresh Cup of Coffee by email. 

 ©2006-2026 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/ 

 This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Some Hodgepodge Questions to Ponder

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!

This week it's Coke and pizza more
often than coffee!

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

1.  How would you define 'the good life'?

 

I love this question because it's something I started pondering seriously a couple years ago, prompted by The Bible Project's podcast series on the Sermon on the Mount. They talked about how the sayings we call the Beatitudes are declaring that those who are poor in spirit, humble, hungry for righteousness, etc are living the good life. And some of those descriptions don't sound at all like living the good life to us, and didn't sound like that to Jesus' hearers either. So it invites us to meditate on it. All that to say, I've come to a definition something like: I'm living my best life when I am in right relationship with God and with others, being grateful to God for all the resources and blessings he's given me and using those resources and blessings in ways that glorify him and bless others. 

Blessed are those [how good is life for those]

who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they shall be satisfied. 

~Matthew 5:6

Trust in the LORD and do good.

Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

Take delight in the LORD,

and he will give you your heart's desires.

Commit everything you do to the LORD.

Trust him, and he will help you.

He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn,

and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.

~Psalm 37:3-6~

That does sound like 'the good life' to me - being satisfied or contented, living in safety and prosperity, having the heart's desires that align with God's plan, and receiving justice from God. Here is the link to the episode of the podcast I mentioned: "What Does 'Blessed' Mean? (The Beatitudes Pt. 1) 

2. What's the most used app on your phone (and are you proud of that)?

In terms of time spent, it would be Rumble, which makes sense. That's the video streaming app where I watch most of the podcasts I follow and I use that for a large portion of my workday. The apps I use most often in terms of how many times I open and do something with it would be Google Maps and Spotify, both of which I use daily. I don't know if I'd say proud, but I'm not at all ashamed of it. 

3. 'Every rose has its thorn', 'everything's coming up roses', 'looking through rose-colored glasses', 'it's no bed of roses' or 'stop and smell the roses' . . . which rose idiom best related to something in your life currently. Explain.

 Very soon now, I think I'll be able to 'stop and smell the roses'. I plan to anyway! It's been go - go - go - for the past couple weeks as we did all the things to buy the house, and then pack up and move. It wound up being just us and our son and daughter-in-law doing the entire move on Saturday, and it rained really hard for part of the day, so we settled for just getting things into the house. As a result we are still in the midst of a lot of chaos, and have still needed to go back to the apartment several times to finish the packing and cleaning. But it's almost time to stop and sit back and take some deep breaths. I have one final trip to wash floors at the apartment and then we turn in our keys and are done. And then we'll have one evening to get the house sorted as best we can before we go on vacation. I plan to put my feet up and relax and enjoy!

4.  How do you feel about floral flavorings in food or drink (rose, hibiscus, elderflower, lavender)?

 I'm not crazy about floral flavorings but don't object. I learned to really like hibiscus tea when I was in Honduras years ago but I've hardly ever had it since then. And over the past couple of years I've been pleasantly surprised by lavender flavors in lattes and cold foam. But I also don't ever seek them out. 

5.  Over the course of your life what have you probably spent more time pondering than anything else?

 The Bible. There is endless wisdom to meditate on and ponder, so many layers to explore, and so many curiosities and connections to wonder about. No matter how long  or how deeply one studies Scripture, there is always something new to discover and learn. Absolutely the most amazing piece of literature of all time. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

We were supposed to be able to just pack our modem and router along and activate our same internet service at the new address. If only it were that easy. We tried every coax cable we could find and no luck. So I had to have a service tech come out to the house to install and activate it properly. It reminded me of the "olden days" when you had to wait around at home for the cable guy or phone company to come do the installation. At least with modern technology, I got real time updates of when the guy was on his way and a really accurate arrival time. All the same, it was a pretty long lunch break from work so I could be here! And now we have internet again, though I will confess my "office" is still not in the least bit put together. It's a start!

What are you pondering 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.

I host the Wednesday Quotes link-up every other Wednesday. Stop by and share a few thoughts and quotes on the current topic here: WQ - The Art of Teaching. I host the Everyday Images photo link-up every other Thursday. And find the Scripture and a Snapshot link-up here every Sunday.

 Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to A Fresh Cup of Coffee by email. 

 ©2006-2026 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/ 

 This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Something So Nice About the Hodgepodge

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 something you find extremely difficult that most people would say is simple?

 

Understanding driving directions. I wouldn't say it's "extremely" difficult but it's a challenge and the only thing I could think of. If I don't have a map or some kind of visual frame of reference, I feel like I have a deer-in-the-headlights stare when someone is trying to explain where to find an address. 

 

2. "And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow fast in movies I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer." ~F.Scott Fitzgerald

Does the season of summer make you feel this way? Elaborate.

I think it's more common to see springtime as the season of beginning over, but I can sure get behind thinking of summer that way as well. It's a very celebratory season, with vacations and long weekends and parties and all, and a season to relax and soak up the sun so in that sense it feels that summer can have a reset button that lets you get a fresh start. I like this idea!

 

3. Pickles. Love 'em or no thank you? What's your favorite type of pickle? What's something you eat that definitely needs a pickle added?

 I'm actually pretty 'meh' about pickles. I don't love them. I enjoy them in my burger occasionally, and I like deep fried pickles, but I never eat them on their own. Bread and butter pickles chips are my favorite. I love a good Cubano sandwich, and obviously that has to have pickles on it.  

 

Weird core memory . . . I remember when my parents had people over for dinner, my mum had a pretty crystal pickle dish that she always served bread and butter pickles chips in. With one of those teeny pickle forks for people to nab their pickles with. 

4.  'Tis the season . . . do you know any June brides? Are there any weddings on your summer calendar? What's your favorite movie wedding?

 Do I know any June brides? There are none in my family and I honestly can't think of any in my close circle of friends, but I'm sure I've attended June weddings. I don't have any weddings on my calendar this year. Two movie weddings came to mind as contenders for my favorite - the iconic wedding scene in The Sound of Music, and a movie I only saw once but loved, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

5.  June 1st is/was National Say Something Nice Day . . . say something nice here.

 I'm so glad for the kind, friendly, and patient bloggers in the Hodgepodge community. I usually schedule my posts and have just enough time in the morning to link up, and then I'm lucky to get around to visiting the other bloggers within a couple days. The same is true of other link-ups I participate in as well. I really enjoy the link-ups, and I appreciate that you all stop by and "say something nice" in the comment section here.  

6. Insert your own random thought here.

We should be getting possession of the house tonight and will start moving stuff in!! Big moving day is Saturday!

What's something nice happening 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.

I host the Wednesday Quotes link-up every other Wednesday. Stop by and share a few thoughts and quotes on the current topic here:  WQ - Courage. I host the Everyday Images photo link-up every other Thursday. And find the Scripture and a Snapshot link-up here every Sunday.

 Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to A Fresh Cup of Coffee by email. 

 ©2006-2026 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/ 

 This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - Name Game

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.  Do you like your name? Are you named after someone (grandparent, etc)? If you have children how did you choose their names?

 

I do like my name! I didn't always like it as much as I do now, but I don't think I ever disliked it. I'm not named after a person, and I'm not sure exactly how my parents chose the name, but as far as I know, the town of Kimberley, BC played a part, and it's how they chose to spell my name. 

We have four children. Our oldest son is kind of named after my husband and his father. They both have the name Henry, but I said I was NOT going to have Henry III or VIII. My husband really liked the name Harrison and his dad had always gone by Harry, so Harrison it was. His middle name is the name of my husband's best friend. Our second son got the name Spencer just because we liked it, but his middle name is after my husband's uncle. Our third son is Landon - again, just because we liked it, and his middle name Joseph is a name I liked - both the sound and the meaning. (It wasn't until he was about a week old that I noticed the city park next to the hospital that I drove by all the time was named after Landon someone-or-other who I supposed had been a mayor or founder or something. So maybe driving by so often had put that name into my subconscious?) Our daughter has perhaps the strangest name origin story. She is named Kennady Anne, after my husband's favorite hockey team, the Montreal Canadiens. Really!

Why am I slouching? We visited Kimberley, BC
in 2013 so the kids could see the town their mum
was named for. Purportedly.

 

2. A piece of red velvet cake, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or a slice of blueberry pie? You can only have one . . . which will you choose? If you could pick any red, white, or blue dessert other than those listed here, what would you choose?

Red velvet cake. I love ice cream, but my tummy doesn't any more so plain vanilla isn't worth it for me. And blueberries aren't my favorite berries. I like them a lot better when they are mixed with other berries. An alternative red, white, or blue dessert that I'd choose . . . cherry pie, or raspberry sorbet.

3. What's a job you'd like to try for just one day?

 Assuming I'd somehow magically have the necessary knowledge or qualifications to actually do the job on my one day, I might like to try being a museum docent, or do something in the editing or publishing field.

4.  Any patriotic decor in your home currently or coming up this summer?

 Not much, since I'm trying to get things packed up. I had a little garden flag out front, and there are a couple flags displayed indoors. There's some red, white, and blue patriotic decor on my dining room table that hasn't been packed up just yet. We plan on purchasing a new USA flag to fly in front of our new house as soon as we move in.

5.  It's the end of May, so let's exercise our brains. Sum up your month with an acrostic using the word MAY. We can do it!!

Moving preparations

All kinds of checklists!

Yawning and running out of energy

6. Insert your own random thought here.

A number of years ago, when I was still doing reviews of homeschool products we got a really fun review of name meaning gifts from the family business CrossTimber. Of course I remembered it when I answered the first of this week's Hodgepodge questions, and I've bought more gifts from the company since, so I thought you might like to see the original items we got and a link to the review, just for fun: Name Meaning Gifts from CrossTimber

 

Do you have a fun story about how your name or a family member's name was chosen? Leave a comment and let me know!

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

I host the Wednesday Quotes link-up every other Wednesday. Stop by and share a few thoughts and quotes on the current topic here: WQ - Courage. I host the Everyday Images photo link-up every other Thursday. And find the Scripture and a Snapshot link-up here every Sunday.

 Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to A Fresh Cup of Coffee by email. 

 ©2006-2026 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/ 

 This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

A Balanced Wednesday Hodgepodge

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 do you make more complicated than it needs to be?

 

Almost every project, at the start! The way I envision things I want to do begins with something pretty elaborate, which contributes to me procrastinating, because it's too daunting. The organization system I think I want in my pantry or my closet or my bookkeeping or even on my blog is too involved to be practical for me in the real world. And to be fair to myself, once I get started, I usually realize this pretty quickly and simplify. The most recent example that comes to mind was several months ago when I admitted to myself that once again the pretty calendar planner that I had such high hopes for was not practical for me. I was making it more complicated than it needed to be. So I made a promise to myself that I would never buy another planner, but would simply use undated notebooks or journals to keep track of my lists and appointments and notes in the most linear way possible.

Keep it simple!

2. What impresses you?

People who have worked hard, persevered, and focused to overcome huge challenges to achieve something amazing. Some of these people are written about in the history books, but there are many whose stories are not as well known, and yet they overcame the odds and made an impact. And we each know people around us who aren't famous but have conquered obstacles to succeed in their field, to master knowledge or skills, to recover after a tragedy, and more. Even more impressive when these people are also kind, gracious, generous, and joyful.

3. On a scale of 1-10 how picky of an eater are you? (1=extremely and 10=not at all) If you had to eat a meal made entirely of one color what color would you choose?

 I generally describe myself as a picky eater because I do have some pretty strict personal food rules around certain things. (I don't eat internal organs, fungus, things that crawl on the ocean floor, anything resembling or related to an insect, or anything that is looking back at me) But I'm usually willing to at least taste something new. So I'd give myself the number 3 or 4 on that scale. Definitely on the picky end of the spectrum, but I've got enough flexibility to try some new things.

I'm going to be completely practical and choose brown for my monochromatic meal. I think that gives me the most options because it could include meat, bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, gravy . . . vegetables might be an issue but I don't mind skipping them for one meal. Haha. I could drink coffee or tea or some soda. And perhaps most importantly, chocolate and caramel things could be considered for dessert.

See what I'm saying? Mostly brown for these meals and desserts:

 

4.  What does balance in life mean to you? Does your life currently feel 'balanced'?

 A balanced life has work and play, "have to" and "want to", busy-ness and rest in healthy proportions. Doing the things you need to do first and then having the freedom to enjoy leisure and hobbies. Balance is having the various areas of life properly ordered. For the most part my life feels pretty balanced, though as a life-long procrastinator, I do really struggle with that aspect of looking after the "have to" items before indulging in my personal "want to" items. So that gets out of balance quite often. The other area of my life that frequently gets out of balance is my sleep-wake cycle. I don't sleep well as it is, and I don't nearly always practice good sleep habits which exacerbates the problem.

5.  If you could travel the world for a year what would be your first destination?

 If I'm traveling for a whole year, I could visit a lot of the places on my wish list, but I think I would start with Iceland. I'm fascinated by its landscape that has geysers and hot springs as well as glaciers and waterfalls. And I'd obviously want to go during a time when the northern lights are at peak.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I don't really have anything, but the question about balance reminded me of a WQ theme early last year called "In Balance". Here are a few highlights:

Life is a balance of holding on and letting go. ~Rumi

A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life. ~William Arthur Ward

What are your best tips for keeping life in balance? Leave a comment and let me know!

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

I host the Wednesday Quotes link-up every other Wednesday. Stop by and share a few thoughts and quotes on the current topic here: WQ - Family Ties. I host the Everyday Images photo link-up every other Thursday. And find the Scripture and a Snapshot link-up here every Sunday.

 Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to A Fresh Cup of Coffee by email. 

 ©2006-2026 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/ 

 This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.