Hodgepodge & Currently

I am cheating a bit (and/or offering an excuse equivalent to the dog ate my homework) and answering last week´s questions and not this week´s. I was almost done with last week´s questions and planned to post on Wednesday. But after I picked Alyssa up from school for Thanksgiving break on Tuesday, I spent the rest of the day and evening with her and then we left for Tennessee Wednesday morning. And so I never finished the questions or posted. So here are last week´s questions and answers.

1. Do you feel like you have a 'full plate' at the moment? In what way? 

I´d say right now I have about a 3/4 filled plate, not necessarily a full plate. My kids are grown up (even though one is living at home right now) so there´s no ferrying them from place to place and/or going to their events and activities. I work, and right now, it´s full time due to a longer term sub job but it´s school full time, not like corporate business full time.  I volunteer but it´s  a pretty minimal time commitment wise and we go to church every week but I´m  not super involved in the church yet. So, I´m busy enough but don´t feel overwhelmingly full plated. 

2. How did you learn to cook? If you have children did you teach or encourage them to cook? Do you like to follow a recipe or is your cooking style more 'let's wing it'.  

I learned to cook mostly on my own. I wasn´t super interested in learning how to cook when I was younger and living at home. My sister was way more interested and spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen with my mom. I was the same way with my kids as my mom was with me- she didn´t make me learn. I didn´t make my kids learn- they picked up on quite a bit since our kitchen  is open concept and they were often near me in the kitchen when I was cooking. When they were older, I did have them make their own lunches on the weekend and in the summer. (And I was willing and available to help if they needed it.)

I follow a recipe it´s for something that has to be baked. But if something is a stove top, like a soup or a dish that simmers in a pan on the stove, I generally don´t measure nearly every ingredient. For instance, if a recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, I´m not getting my teaspoon measurer out- I´m just going to add some cumin to it.

3. Last time you bit off more than you could chew? Elaborate. 

A long time sub job that I did prior to the current long term sub job. It was several years ago and I knew I was biting off more than I could chew but I was flattered to be asked (not a good reason to say yes!).

4. When did you last say 'the more the merrier' and mean it? 

With my Christmas decor- I´ve added more to the Christmas room and the snow globe (that´s what we´re calling the covered patio this season). It´s a lot and my motto is, ¨more is more¨(!). No minimalism for me with regard to these spaces!

Also, the more the merrier with regard to Christmas dishes. Here are most of my kitchen Christmas dishes sitting on the dining room table. I put them on the table to access what I all had.

Some of the blue and white dishes on the kitchen table

Now here´s my dining (/Christmas) room table with the dining room china (the blue and white pattern dishes are in the kitchen).

The snow globe- I call it that since I look down on it from inside a large window in the kitchen and it´s festive :).

5. Write an acrostic using the word T-H-A-N-K-S.

T(hankful)

H(opefully in every circumstance)

A(cknowledging the good even when times are tough)

N(ever) losing sight of what´s important

K(nowing that God is in control)

S(eeking) his will

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

For this, I am lifting one of the questions from this week´s questions. Sorry, Joyce, that I´m not playing well in the Hodgepodge sandbox!!

Much of our vocabulary is determined by where we live or where we grew up. What say you-

sprinkles or jimmies? lightning bugs or fireflies? soda or pop? sneakers, trainers, or tennis shoes? sub, hoagie, grinder, or hero? freeway, highway, or motorway? frosting or icing? sauce or gravy?

I have never said the word ¨jimmies¨ in my life (and didn´t hear of that term until a few years ago). 

Lightening bugs

POP!

tennis shoes

sub

I use freeway and interstate interchangeably. I saw highway for a state route.

I use both terms- frosting and icing. But probably I say ¨frosting¨ more? I say that I´ve frosted a cake. But I may say that the icing tasted good. 

I view sauce and gravy as two distinct things. Gravy is made with meat broth. Sauce is not- it´s derived from vegetables or dairy products

Currently:

What we are currently loving, hoping, doing, wearing and seeing

Currently 

loving- everything about the Christmas season so far. It will get stressful the closer to Christmas that we get but for now, everything about the season is enjoyable.

The chance for snow days in inclement weather and then getting a snow day when a fairly small amount of snow fell.

hoping- that I can make a few gifts happen that I want to. They are a bit time intensive and so far I´ve not made the time to make them a priority.

 I´m hoping that Alyssa ends her semester well at OSU. Speaking of OSU, I´m hoping that they are not the Big 10 football champs because if they aren´t, it means that the Hoosiers are!! We will find out on Saturday who the Big 10 champ is. I´m worried that it´s not gonna be my team but I know that anything is possible. #heismandoza

This was back in October- I´m holding up four fingers to brag about how IU was ranked 4th in the nation. Awww, I didn´t know that a more brag worthy rank was upcoming :)

doing- using up leftover turkey

adding festiveness (and chocolate) to cookies

wrapping presents

Donnie is good about ordering the kids´ gifts as soon as he gets their lists. I´m good about wrapping presents because I like the look of a tree with gifts under it much more than a tree without gifts. 

wearing- so many layers.  I´m almost always cold inside of buildings. I wear two to three long sleeve layers this time of year.

This is a typical outfit for me in the fall/winter- turtleneck under a sweater and then a vest on top. 

seeing- SNOW

Linking up with Joyce for the Hodgepodge and Jenn for Currently