Wednesday Hodge Podge

   Hi friends!  I was excited to find this linky party last week, and I am excited to visit today!  Each Wednesday, Joyce  at From this side of the pond shares a Wednesday Hodgepodge!  It's so fun to answer her questions and meet new friends!  This is her first party for 2026, and I'm really looking forward to hearing all of your responses!  So here we go!

1. What are three words you would use to describe your 2025?

   I would say, rebuilding, refocusing, and renewal.  Rebuilding, because 2024 was a hard year emotionally for me as well as relationally for our family.  In 2025 we started to put some things behind us and rebuild.  It was hard, but I think we are stronger for it.  Refocusing because we started to really settle in on the things that were important to us as a family, and we really let go of some things we were doing out of obligation.  Renewal because God used the end of the year to renew my mind and set me on a different path emotionally, and I'm really thankful for that most of all, and I am excited to take that into 2026.


2. I ask this question every January, and I always get comments about how we shouldn't be banning words. This is fun and games so just play along : )

Every January 1st since 1976 Lake Superior University has published a list of words they'd like to see banished from the Queen's English. Words may be banished due to misuse, overuse, or just general uselessness (go here to read about how the words are chosen). Here's the list for 2026-

67 • demure • cooked • massive • incentivize • full stop • perfect • gift/gifted • my bad • reach out

Which one (if any) do you use most often? Which one of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word you think should have made the list?

   Haha this is funny and I honestly didn't know about this at all!  I agree with 67..  that's been overused like crazy.  I also still don't understand demure, but I've heard it a lot.  The rest of these are odd..  I think I use "my bad" a lot.  It makes me chuckle when I heard others use it.  Oh, and I just re-read them and realized what it meant by "cooked" my son uses that all the time.  How about "Yeet"? Did you know that meant to throw?  I feel so old hearing my teenagers speak words I didn't know lol!

3. What are your nightly rituals? Is that different from your 'ideal' nightly ritual? If so what's your ideal?

  My nightly rituals aren't my ideal ones at all lol.  Most of the time I wash my face, brush my teeth, take my medicines and watch a show on my computer until I fall asleep.  I want to do more reading and less tv watching!  I did give up the habit of looking at my phone before bed a long time ago and that was a huge win for me.  But I did resolve to spend the year off of social media, so I don't really have anything to look at anyway.  

4. January 6th is/was National Bean Day. Do you like beans? Which one is your favorite? Last thing you ate made with beans?

   I do love beans!  Especially Pork n beans, which my family finds silly since I make them every time I make mashed potatoes.  I do use them a lot, we make pintos in the crock pot, we use black beans in a lot of our mexican food dishes.  I think the last thing was pork n beans, just by themselves as a side dish.  

5. Are you easily embarrassed? Elaborate.

  No I am not.  My husband has a tendency to act silly a lot, he's an extreme extrovert- so I'm not easily embarrassed at all.  We've also learned to live a very public life (he is a Pastor, and very popular in our town and surrounding communities) so we seem to live pretty openly.  I'm also hopelessly clumsy so it’s not a new thing for me to do something like fall, drop something, or just stumble- it happens a lot and I'm used to laughing it off.  So no, I don't embarrass very easily lol.  

6. Insert your own random thought here.

   I've really enjoyed these questions!  Thank you Joyce for hosting!  You are certainly a creative person!