Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts

Friday, June 19, 2026

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!



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.

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

Thursday, June 18, 2026

Everyday Images #90



Welcome to my ongoing challenge and reminder to myself to take photos somewhat regularly. I'm not a photographer, but I enjoy taking everyday photos of things I find interesting or want to remember later, and I'm more likely to notice interesting things when I'm intentionally watching for them. Having some prompts that are open to interpretation has helped me pay a little more attention to what's around me. Here's how it works: Every two weeks I have a few words and phrases to focus on, and I try to find opportunities to take pictures of these things each week. The link-up post will be here every other Thursday, sharing my photos and offering a link-up for participants to share theirs. Right below the link-up is where you'll find the next set of prompts. 

June Prompts - Everyday Images #90
~~~~~

wildflowers
water
neighborhood spot (quarterly)
nature
adventure
favorite
twilight
~~~~~

wildflowers - sorry, I cheated on this one a bit as this photo is from a month ago. Somehow I didn't manage any photos of flowers during the past couple weeks!



water - the Niagara River



neighborhood spot (quarterly) - I took the photo from inside this time. 




nature



adventure - Going with the silly choice here!



favorite - my favorite little girls are my granddaughters




twilight



And a few bonus photos:


Goodbye to the apartment . . . 




and hello to the new house! It's still pretty chaotic, honestly, but at least we got everything into it and made a start on getting organized.


We are currently on vacation - we first went to Ontario for a few days to visit family, picked up my Mum and Dad, and then went to the vacation house we rented near Niagara Falls, NY where the rest of the family joined us. 








For our first family vacation adventure, we walked across to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and visited Bird Kingdom.
















Greetings from the vacation house!



I am sharing my photos every other Thursday, along with my prompts for the next two weeks. You can use all or some of the prompts for your own photo posts, or none of the prompts and just link up a post featuring your photos. Simple rules: Your posts must be family-friendly; the photos must be your own; and the post must be mostly photos. If you do share I'd appreciate a mention and link to A Fresh Cup of Coffee on your post.


The Everyday Images link-up is posted every other Thursday, and is open for two weeks.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

June Prompts - Everyday Images #91
~~~~~

at home (monthly)
who I'm spending time with
what I'm working on
where I'm going
when I'm taking a break
why I'm happy today
signs


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.

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

Thursday, June 11, 2026

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!



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.

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat