Hodgepodge

1. What do you make more complicated than it needs to be? 

Oh, you know, just about every facet of life!!

2. What impresses you? 

What I lack in making things simple, I make up for in being very readily impressed with many things, people, experiences, etc. I could answer this many ways but I'm going to choose a specific way.  And that way is listing things that impress me about someone's character, rather than an immutable characteristic like having a beautiful singing voice or possessing athletic prowess. 

From a secular standpoint, I'm impressed when I hear that someone has overcome a truly awful circumstance- abuse of some sort when younger yet the person did not grow up bitter about it but rather became a well adjusted adult. 

I'm impressed when I hear about people giving of their time and money generously. 

I'm impressed when I hear of someone risking his or her life to try to save a stranger. 

I'm impressed when I see or hear of athletes doing something selfless during an event. Have you seen videos of runners stopping to help a fallen runner get up and cross the finish line?? 

From an eternal standpoint, I'm impressed when Christians remain faithful even when it costs them everything, including their lives. While some people "convert" to the faith of their country's captives (think, "covert to religion X or I'll behead you"), others of faith are willing to die rather than "convert" to a "religion" under duress. Also Christians do exist (likely not many) in places like North Korea where being caught with a Bible is enough to send entire families to labor/death camps; think of the courage to have faith in the face of such dire consequences if caught.

In the West, for the most part, Christians are free to practice Christianity. Ridicule is the worst thing, by and large that Christians face for overtly stating that the Bible is God's word and that everything in the Bible is true. 

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'd give myself a generic five on the picky eater scale. I do consider myself somewhat picky due to not liking a variety of healthy food like vegetables. However, I eat leftovers willingly and will try most foods at least once. 

I think I've overcome a decent bit of the odd idiosyncrasies about my own food upbringing from the bad to the good. For example, I grew up in a household almost entirely devoid of dairy products (no sour cream, mayo, yogurt, cream cheese, cheese casseroles, cream dips, etc) so I had to develop a taste or develop a dislike when I tried these products for the first time as an adult. We also hardly ever ate out at sit down restaurants- I ate out maybe four times total before I left for college so for the most part, the only foods I was exposed to were the dishes my mom made. 

I posted this picture the other day but I'm posting it again because of the manicotti on the plate. When I went to college and ate meals at the dorm, I was exposed to food that I had never so much as heard of. Manicotti was one such food. My mom didn't make Italian food except for spaghetti and I'd never eaten at an Italian restaurant before going to college. What a nice surprise manicotti was :). I could say that about a number of foods that I had for the first time in college. 

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

A balanced life to me is one where I spread my resources- both time and money out decently. My faith and family are the most important things to me and they accordingly receive the most resources (both time and money) from me. But also, I want to devote time to a meaningful(ish) part time job, to maintaining friendships, to keep up with hobbies and to have time for intelligent stimulus such as reading nonfiction or literary fiction on a regular basis. 

My part time job (ending this week- can I get a woot-woot???) has done a bang up job of resulting in a bit of imbalance in my life. To wit, it's been a bit stressful which has impacted other areas and it's required me to wake up early, be gone from the house for hours at a time, etc. So life will hopefully become a lot more balanced soon. 

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

I'm not sure that I have a must have first destination in mind. I would for sure have countries/areas that I would  not want to miss. For instance, I'd want to visit almost every country in Europe at some point in the year. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Remember when our heat went out in January in the coldest spell of the winter?

For "balance" (el oh el), I guess it makes sense that our AC is not working during the hottest weather we've had so far this year. 

I mean why would a less than two year old HVAC system work effectively?

Why wouldn't the house be 80 degrees today (Tuesday)? And why wouldn't the company say that they have no idea when the part will come in to fix it? It's bringing back recollections to almost exactly five months ago except the problem then was with regard to heat.

Unfortunately, the temperature inside would climb two more degrees to a balmy 82 inside the house.

Almost exactly five months ago, the house was at 55 degrees. For the love.

Extreme frustration with the AC not working aside, we are grateful that the weather is taking a turn for the cool. 

Linking up with Joyce for the Hodgepodge