Hodgepodge

Linking up with Joyce for the Hodgepodge:

1. What area of your life feels like you're stuck in a Groundhog's Day loop, doing the same thing over and over? Does it bother you or is that just how life is in this particular season? 

I can't think of an area where I feel like I'm stuck in a Groundhog's Day loop- my days are quite varied depending on whether or not I sub. Weekends vary as we sometimes have plans with friends, sometimes see one or more of our kids, sometimes don't do much of anything social, etc. 

2. Something that makes your heart skip a beat? 

I can't think of anything concrete- hearing good news about a lot of prayer requests/concerns that I have will make my heart skip a beat.

3. Do you wear your heart on your sleeve or are you more of a closed book? Elaborate. 

Definitely more of a closed book!  I'll "blame" (to the extent that I think being a closed book is considered more negative than wearing your heart on your sleeve)  some of it on my personality in general. I'm not a voluble person by nature so I don't talk much in general about anything! I much prefer to listen to others than talk about myself.  I'll give a recent example of that. I was subbing the other day and knew that my lunch half hour coincided with another staff member's lunch hour whom I really like and hadn't seen in a while. I was thinking of how I'd tell her a few updates/things about what was going on with me when we were in the teacher's lounge eating. Once in the lounge, however, several people were there and the conversation started flowing about people's weekends and how the day at school was going, etc. The conversation was lively and it was an enjoyable half hour. I realized at the end of it, though, that I'd spoken not a word, besides a murmur of agreement or an expression of astonishment at a shocking story.  Three or four others eating in the lounge are very talkative and they did almost all of the talking. I wasn't upset by this- I enjoyed hearing about the coming and goings and the low down of what was happening at school. 

Since I am quiet by personality in general, I suppose it's not too surprising that I'm not one to talk about my emotions. 

4. According to Prevention Magazine, these are 25 of the best foods for heart health-

wild salmon, sardines, liver, walnuts, almonds, chia seeds, oatmeal, blueberries, coffee, red wine, green tea, soy milk, dark chocolate, raisins, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, whole grains, apples, oranges, grapefruit, avocado, avocado oil, olive oil 

Which five do you include in your diet most often? Are there any foods on the list you simply cannot abide? 

Five most included: walnuts, almonds, blueberries, olive oil and apples

I don't like coffee, I don't drink red wine or soy milk, I don't care for broccoli, Brussels sprouts or avocados.

5. What was the last piece of furniture you bought? Is there a piece of furniture you need/want to purchase this year? 

Our outdoor patio furniture was the last piece of furniture that we bought.

This was Donnie on Christmas Eve... the project had just been completed and Donnie wanted to get the furniture assembled. The forecast called for nice weather the day after Christmas and we had family coming over so Donnie really hoped to get everything put together before we went to church on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning, I added some wreaths, garland, and a tree (in a corner that you can't see) so the room was ready and festive when guests came over on the 26th

Yes, there is a piece of furniture that I want/need. How much time do you have to read about my furniture wants (I may not talk a lot but I can write about the minutia of my life pretty readily)?

I'll give the reader's digest condensed version: Our guest room could use a dresser in it. Or more like, I could use a dresser in the guest room for storage. Plus dressers just sort of look the part for a bedroom. Ergo, I want a dresser.

However, based on the size of the room and the only wall against which it would make sense to place a dresser, the dresser needs to be a specific size in depth and that size is on the small size.

Sites like Wayfair allow you to search for pieces of furniture by specific dimensions so I could find a piece that fits pretty easily. But then the dresser would be from Wayfair. I'm not a furniture snob at all- we've purchased a few things from them including the patio furniture shown above. But, I thought it would nice to have a good piece of furniture in the room, something solid wood and sturdy with maybe a bit of character. So I've been looking at local sights and sites for local pick up of a dresser if I were to find the right one. So far no luck- I've found several that I've been interested in on FB Marketplace but they've sold before I've been able to see them much less buy them. 

So maybe I'll get a dresser for the room, maybe not. Maybe it will be good quality, maybe it won't. It's really not that big of a deal. But as of now, it's the only  furniture need/want that I have.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Yesterday was a beautiful day! High in the mid 60's- just lovely and being in early February in Ohio, not a temperature that's going to remain that high for long. It was a wonderful day to enjoy the great outdoors- to whit, we had dinner outside on the patio (only the second time that we've grilled on the patio, the first time being the day before when the temperature was not as high though still comfortable to be outside with the patio heaters on).

Also with the weather so warm, I went on a run yesterday in shorts!! I do not mind running in cold weather but there's something enjoyable about a run in the winter in shorts. So I'm running and feeling good until I didn't feel good. At some point, I felt the unmistakable pain of a blister on my heel- my bad heel- my Achilles heel surgery heel. Ugh! I dealt with blisters constantly right after I was able to start walking after the boot came off. It seemed like a few months before I didn't have to worry about having blisters and then subsequently multiple band-aids on my heel due to the blister(s). Even though my heel has remained swollen, I finally stopped getting blisters maybe two months ago. So it was especially unpleasant to feel a blister yesterday- both because of the literal, physical pain and the mental pain of knowing that I need to always have band aids on hand (/foot :)) again and worrying about carefully putting socks and shoes on. I thought I was over the hump (no sort of pun intended) and it was a downer to know that I'm not. Oh well, this too shall pass... right?? And if it doesn't, I'll just keep plenty of band aids near me at all times.