Slowing Down to Speed Up: The Weekly Hodgepodge

Join the fun! 

Come on over to 

From This Side of the Pond 

for the Hodgepodge link-up!

 

Tell us anything you want about your January. 

January has been a hard month for me.  After such a fun Christmas season with all the festivities and creativity, the first month of the year seems like a very long letdown.  I'm still trying to pull my brain out of Christmas craft mode.  

I just realized yesterday (Tuesday) that sundown is now around 5:30 p.m. and the days are gradually getting longer.  As I do each winter, I'm employing my SAD Strategies to try to keep my mood out of the dumps.  So far, I've only had one really bad day.  Too many snowy, cold, dreary days mixed with an episode of someone else's ridiculousness that made me mad enough to punch somebody made for a lousy weekend.  Well, on to February.

Lake Superior State University posts a list each year of words they think should be banished from the Queen's English for misuse, overuse, and/or general uselessness. The 2023 list includes GOAT, inflection point, quiet quitting, gaslighting, moving forward, amazing, Does that make sense?, irregardless, absolutely, and it is what it is.

Which of these words/phrases do you use regularly? Which of these words would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word/phrase not on the list you'd like to add? 

Sorry Miss Joyce, but I hate this question.  Every time it comes up, my answer is generally the same:  Who made Lake Superior University the dictionary's daddy?  In all honesty, these phrases, though overused, are better than the Oxford Dictionary's "word" of the year.

February 2nd is Groundhog Day. What's something that feels repeated in your life right now? 

 Denver's weather at the moment.

What's a food you love that's named after a place?

Spanish rice?  No, that's technically not named after a place.
Texas toast?  Well, it's named after a place, but I don't LOVE it.  Sonic ruined it for me.

Ok.  Mississippi Pot Roast.  One of my coworkers makes this for our annual team Christmas party.  It's not hard to make and is scrumptious.  I don't know why I haven't made it myself.

What's the best season of the year to visit your city or your part of the country? Tell us why. 

Summer, unless you're a glutton for punishment.  The warmer months of the year in the Denver metro area are the best.  People are out walking, having picnics, taking their kids to the playground and the park; kids out riding bikes, churches having Vacation Bible School, the community having outside events--it's MY most wonderful time of the year.  Though I plan to teach this summer, I hope to still take part in as much outside activity as I can.

Insert your own random thought here. 

Along with the Hodgepodge and the occasional Five Minute Friday post, I've added a couple of new series to my blogs:

In case you missed it:  

* My latest First Line Friday post "#5:  Don't Overthink It" is here.
* My latest Monday Mess Making post on my Auntie's Workshop blog "Don't Forget the Unicorns" is here.
* This year's reading challenge is called "Treat Yo' Shelf."  The introductory post is here.

On a sad note.  Another one of my siblings has passed away.  As you will remember, my oldest brother, Melvin, left us in 2015.  My sister, Laura Barlow, died Monday.