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.

Progress and Goals 2026 (January - April)

In previous years, I've sometimes chosen a Word of the Year and did updates during the year on how that focus was shaping decision or helping me meet goals. The last two years I did that WOTY/Goals check-in every month. Or almost every month. This year I didn't choose a WOTY, mostly because I just couldn't settle on a single word that seemed right. I figured I would come up with something by the end of January, but I didn't. Okay, maybe just catch up at the end of February . . and that came and went. I thought maybe I'd do a quarterly check-in but I didn't meet that particular goal either. (deep sigh) 

While I didn't meet my nebulous goal of doing any kind of an update on how I was doing with my goals, I do have some goals and I have been making some progress. This post might be mostly for me, but I do want to summarize some highlights of the year so far and what I've been able to accomplish on my goals. And what I'm still working on.

As I said, I didn't manage to narrow down to just one word that encapsulated what I wanted to focus on during 2026, but there is an over-arching goal. I decided this had to be a year that I worked hard on doing the follow-through on those goals. That I faithfully took the next step in making progress on the things I wanted to do, and was diligent and persistent in getting things done rather than just having vague notions of what I hoped might happen. 

And what are those goals? There are a bunch of things I want to do and learn and accomplish but I started 2026 with two big ones: 1) Improve my overall health and fitness; and 2) Move to a home that suits us better than the apartment we're in. Both of those are pretty broad and require me to make lots of small decisions and break down the big picture into smaller incremental action items that are measurable.

Improving health and fitness - I'm honestly not doing a very good job of changing my sleep habits, which is part of this picture, but I've taken some positive steps towards more healthy eating and losing weight. One thing I did was start meeting virtually with a nutritionist who is helping me set nutrition goals and provides accountability and feedback. I started those appointments just over a month ago, and certainly the travel weekends lately have presented some challenges, but overall I see improvement and I'm making progress in my weight loss goals. 

Finding and moving to a new home - Our current lease is up mid-June, so knowing that helped us work backwards to set deadlines. The first thing we had to do was decide what we were looking for, and we started off thinking that we should probably just look for a more suitable rental situation, but after my hubby met with our finance advisor, we decided that buying a house was going to be doable and potentially wiser financially. So we went back to browsing real estate listings to familiarize ourselves with what was available and what the prices were, and working with some numbers to figure out a budget. Then it was time to start rolling through the checklist of tasks:

-find a realtor to work with

-establish what we were looking for and start viewing houses

-choose a house and put in an offer

(there are lots of steps in here - and thankfully our realtor provided us a timeline to keep us on track)

-establish a closing/settlement date for the purchase by the end of May

-give our notice to our apartment and plan the move during the first two weeks of June

We are currently in that second to last step! We are in contract on a house we love and are so excited about moving into. Things are rolling along quickly now, and while we asked for a closing date on or before May 29, it's unclear whether we'll get the "before" that we would really like, and how early we can make that. At the latest we'll have possession of the house and can start moving during the first week of June. This is important, because we have a vacation house booked with the family right in the middle of June so we need to get everything cleared out of the apartment going on vacation, even if we just deposit all the boxes and stuff in the middle of the rooms at the house and deal with it when we get back! Anyway, we have documents we're signing and some tasks to complete over the next several days, and the very next thing on my to-do list is give our written notice to our leasing company that we will not renew our lease. 

And now . . . some highlights of the year so far!

January

Spencer, Kennady and Dan came to visit for New Years so we had most of the family here. We went to some Blue Jackets games. We had a winter storm that resulted in cancellation of my chorus travel plans and made for an interesting week as we experienced bitter cold and lots of snow.

February

Celebrated our daughter-in-law's birthday to start the month. Restaurant Week was extended because of the bad weather, so we did get to visit a burger place with friends. Our pastor and his wife hosted a game night with some other couples which was a lot of fun. I had to get a new phone. SuperBowl, the Home Show, a trip to Westcott House, outings with our son and his family, starting to flesh out some vacation plans.

March

I had jury duty the first week of the month, and was seated on a murder trial. It was quite the experience! Quite the start to the month too! Went to a women's conference with some ladies from church one weekend, and went to a few hockey games during the month. Our first meeting with our realtor was about the middle of March, so that kicked off our house hunting goals. I was in the world's largest human shamrock for St Patrick's Day! One weekend we went to Blackhand Gorge with the kids and also to Zanesville. At the end of the month I went with the chorus to Covington for the Sweet Adelines Regional Convention.

 

April

Holy Week was the first week of April, so added the Good Friday service to my schedule. We got together with the kids to hike and go out for dinner on Saturday, celebrated Resurrection Day at church on Sunday morning, and went to friends' for dinner on Sunday afternoon. We spent a number of evenings looking at houses. We made two trips to Maryland during the month. One was a very brief trip, just to attend a memorial service, but we did also enjoy time with our Maryland family. The other trip was a little longer and more fun, with the purpose of seeing our kids and granddaughter, and going to our daughter's choral concert. We made a decision on which house we wanted to buy and worked on all those things.

Do you have a Word of the Year for 2026, or goals you are working on? Leave a comment and let me know!

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 ©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.

Everyday Images #86

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. 

April Prompts - Everyday Images #86

~~~~~

purple

out for a walk (quarterly)

grow

at home (monthly)

trees

big and/or small

birds

~~~~~

purple

out for a walk (quarterly) - at the mudflats boardwalk in Galena

grow 

at home (monthly) - as the song says, "wherever I hang my hat, that's my home". We'll be hanging our hats at this place and calling it home for another month or so.

trees

big and/or small - our granddaughter looks very small compared to this big old tree!

birds - no impressive closeups, just this shot of cormorants roosting in the trees on a little island at the mudflats

And a few bonus photos:

Transporting tulips to Maryland at our son's request

Our granddaughter is in a karate class - very fun to watch them!

Stopped by to visit our daughter at work and checked out the pianos they were working on in the shop. They're painting this one - so pretty, but not quite purple.

A few more photos from the boardwalk:

osprey

Sure wanted to go into The Coffee Vault, but that will have to wait for another weekend.

Contenders for the "at home" photo were the family photos on the mantel, and what our evenings look like now that the Stanley Cup playoffs are underway.

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

April/May Prompts - Everyday Images #87

~~~~~

Saturday scenery

current project (quarterly)

green

on my plate

miniature

tower

connected

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.