Puppy Power: The Weekly Hodgepodge

Join the fun! 

Come on over to 

From This Side of the Pond 

for the Hodgepodge link-up!

  

What gives you energy? What takes it away? 

What gives me energy (not an exhaustive list and in no particular order): 

• 
  Spending time with God
• Caffeine 
• Laughter - laughing myself or hearing others (especially children) laugh
• Creativity
• Music (whether I'm listening to it or playing it)
• A good mix of people time and solitude (I'm an ambivert)
• The sight, smell, and feel of craft or school supplies
• Morning showers
• Rest/naps

What zaps my energy (again not an exhaustive list and in no particular order): 

• Toxic people
• Too much junk food
• Winter
• Meetings that serve no purpose
• Depression
• Big crowds at the store where no one moves and every aisle is blocked
• Dehydration
• Being too hot or too cold
• Headaches
• Too much screen time 

How often do you shop for clothes? What accessory do you always wear? 

I don't buy clothes on a set schedule.  Because I still losing weight (hallelujah), I'm slowly replacing items as needed.  The end of this month, I'll most likely hit the thrift store and other familiar haunts to hunt for cold weather clothes and shoes.  The accessory I always wear is earrings.  I know, it's not really a clothing accessory, but I don't wear belts at all and only wear scarves or hats when it's cold (unless it's Easter). 

What's something free that you feel grateful for? 

My salvation in Christ, for one (free, but definitely not cheap).  That makes the other free things like fresh air, clean water, library books, and living in a free country all the more precious.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner...which meal of the day do you enjoy most? What's your go-to comfort food? 

I'm working to enjoy each meal rather than seeing eating as a necessary evil or cooking for one as a wasteful chore. Right now, I think breakfast is my favorite because I can have it any time (not just the breakfast hour).  Can cereal be considered a comfort food even if it's grown up good-for-you cereal?

Insert your own random thought here. 

n case you missed it:  

• My previous Hodgepodge post "Scraps and Such 04" is here.
• My latest Weekly Digest "Let's Groove Tonight" is here.
  
• My latest First Line Friday post: #38:  The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard is here. Note: I have completed the volume, so this post also contains the "last thoughts" section.
• My "25 for 2025" challenge is here.  (Updated regularly)
• My "2025 I Can Only Blame MyShelf Reading Challenge" is here. (Updated regularly)

Let's Groove Tonight: The Weekly Digest and Hodgepodge

NOTE:  This week I am combining my (semi-) weekly digest with my (semi-) weekly hodgepodge.  See the "I am thinking about" section for a few of this week's hodgepodge questions.  

Looking out the window....

These Rubber Rabbitbrush plants were outside the 
Green Mountain Rec Center.

 

I've been meaning to get in a walk at Union Square Park before the summer flower beds stopped blooming. I finally made it.

These are called Scabiosa, or Pincushion flowers.

 

I never tire of photographing hibiscus flowers...

 

...or black-eyed Susans...

...or daisies.

Favorite quote(s) of the week...

We have here an ever-living gospel, as full of life as when it first came from the lips of God. It is as strong to convince and convert, to regenerate and comfort, and to sustain and sanctify as ever it was in its first days of working wonders. We have an unchanging gospel that is not green grass today and dry hay tomorrow, but is always the abiding truth of the immutable God. Opinions change, but truth certified by God can no more change than the God who uttered it.- Charles Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook, p. 255.

 

God will never alter the terms of His relationship with us. - Pastor Randy Conway, Table Mountain Baptist Church, 8/31/25 AM service.

 

"Just the way we want it" is not a bad paraphrase for "amen."  What is needed at the end of this great prayer [the Lord's Prayer] is a ringing affirmation of the goodness of God and God's world.  If your nerves can take it, you might (occasionally?) try "Whoopee!"  I imagine God himself will not mind. - Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p. 269.

 

I'm thinking about...

Join the fun! 

Come on over to 

From This Side of the Pond 

for the Hodgepodge link-up!

What's a quote from a book (besides The Bible) that has stayed with you? 

"Sober alkies are often asked, ‘When did you hit rock bottom?’ But a more informed question might be, ‘How many times did you hit rock bottom?'" - American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson 

What's your number one food pet peeve? 

About food or involving food?   Well, I've already gone on a rant here about food fads, so I'm not going there again today.  My biggest pet peeve involving food is people who smack loudly, chew with their mouths open, or worse, go on camera and turn eating into a grotesque freak show for dollars (one of MANY reasons I avoid TikTok like the plague--I care too much about my brain).

What's one thing about you that is still the same as it was when you were young? 

My musical tastes are pretty much the same.  I enjoy many genres and eras of music, but the sounds of the 70s and 80s are still my go-to.  If you look at my Happy 911 playlist on Spotify, a good bit of it is both Christian and secular music from the 80s.  That's my groove right there!

What I've read since the last digest...

• Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton ✮✮✮1/2 
• The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard ✮✮✮✮ (Please see my "first thoughts" and "last thoughts" on this book here.

I'm currently reading...

• Finding the Groove by Robert Gelinas
• The Oxford Inklings by Colin Duriez 
• The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
• Mansions of the Heart by R. Thomas Ashbrook 
• Streams of Living Water by Richard J. Foster 
• On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior
• Faith's Checkbook by Charles Spurgeon

Recent blog posts...

• My previous digest, "Almost Autumn'" is here. 
• My previous hodgepodge, "Scraps and Such 04" is here. 
• My "25 for 2025" challenge is here. (Updated regularly)
• My "I Can Only Blame MyShelf" reading challenge is here.  (Updated regularly). 

From the Workshop...

 

I am thankful for...

• Insulated tumblers that don't cost as much as two weeks worth of groceries and a tank of gas to purchase.
• A successful "gym rat" summer.
• A good report at my recent physical.
• Getting to see my friends at Table Mountain Baptist.
• Easy to follow YouTube tutorials. 
• Free air at the tire store down the street from my apartment.  Also thankful for the tech who showed me how to use the air myself in case they were too busy to do it. 
• Rice cakes (both flavored and plain).
• God continuing to provide pretty papers and supplies with which to make cards. 
• Businesses that still take checks.
• Enjoying my first class of the year.  I'll be teaching the course again in a few weeks. 
    

Scraps and Such 04: The Weekly Hodgepodge

Join the fun! 

Come on over to 

From This Side of the Pond 

for the Hodgepodge link-up!

From Volume #611

Do you have a favorite mug? Let's see it. Why is this one your favorite?   

My favorite mug changes with situations and seasons, but the mug pictured here is my current favorite.  I bought it from Amazon a few months ago.  I thought it would be fun to use in Zoom team meetings.  My co-workers think it's a hoot.

From Volume #616

What's worth standing in line for? 

Friendly customer service.  I will wait in a long line of families with buggies full to bursting if I know the cashier is polite and attentive.  I will avoid a much shorter line if the cashier looks like--as my mother would say--"Dammit, I'll eat you!" That's why I enjoy an establishment that doesn't have high turnover and I can recognize a familiar face.

Now, don't get me wrong, "polite and attentive" doesn't mean they have to be sugary sweet and hold a long conversation with me.  It means that the employee looks me in the eye and treats me like a person.  I don't think that's too much to ask. 

What are some things you find particularly peaceful or calming? 

• Classical music
• The sound of a box fan (or in my case, an oscillating fan)
• The laughter of children (especially babies who will laugh at anything)
• A mug of coffee or tea and a good book
• Hugs
• The whir of the sewing machine, the scratch of a pencil, or the swish of a paintbrush as I create 
• The sound of rainfall
• Bird calls (yes, even the crows) 

Insert your own random thought here. 

My niece (right), and her daughter, my grandniece (left) just recently ran their first 5k.
I'm so proud of them both.  They have been working on their health for a while.

In case you missed it:  

• My previous Hodgepodge post "Where No Couch Has Gone Before" is here.
• My latest Weekly Digest "Almost Autumn" is here.
  
• My latest First Line Friday post: #38:  The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard is here. 
• My "25 for 2025" challenge is here.  (Updated regularly)
• My "2025 I Can Only Blame MyShelf Reading Challenge" is here. (Updated regularly)

Almost Autumn: The Weekly Digest

Looking out the window.... 

Saw all these beauties in the flower beds outside my doctor's office.

Favorite quote(s) of the week...

Souls indifferent to the achievement of human things cannot be expected to exert themselves in divine things.- Robert Miner, quoted in Karen Swallow Prior's On Reading Well, p. 133. 

 

When people are treated as objects for long enough, they see themselves as someone else’s property. They don’t value self-stewardship because they relate to themselves the same way that significant others have related to them. Many people are told over and over again that nurturing and maintaining their souls is selfish and wrong. After a while, they develop a deep conviction that this is true. And at that point, they place little value on taking care of the feelings, talents, thoughts, attitudes, behavior, body, and resources God entrusted to them.. - Cloud and Townsend, Boundaries, p. 306.

 

We need our God. He is to be had for the seeking, and He will not deny Himself to any of us if we personally seek His face. It is not if you deserve Him, or if you earn His approval, but simply if you seek Him. - Charles Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook, p. 242.

 

I'm thinking about...

Fall.  Most of my friends are in back to school mode right now.  Most--if not all--of the K-12 schools have resumed classes and both online and in-seat classes at CCU begin tomorrow (08/25).  Since my teaching schedule for the year started more than a month ago, I've been in school mode since late July (my own version of it anyway).  Football season starts for JSU on Thursday, Alabama on Saturday, and the Broncos on September 7th.  I'm just not sure how to get into the swing of Autumn.  Maybe I'll think of something by the time the first day of fall rolls around on the 22nd.

 

What I've read since the last digest...

• The Road by Cormac McCarthy ✮✮✮1/2  
• The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy ✮✮✮1/2   

I'm currently reading...

• Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
• The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
• Mansions of the Heart by R. Thomas Ashbrook 
• Streams of Living Water by Richard J. Foster 
• On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior
• Faith's Checkbook by Charles Spurgeon

Recent blog posts...

• My previous digest, "Mind Meld'" is here.
  
• Where No Couch Has Gone Before:  The Weekly Hodgepodge is here. 
• First Line Friday #38: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard is here.  
• My "25 for 2025" challenge is here. (Updated regularly)
• My "I Can Only Blame MyShelf" reading challenge is here.  (Updated regularly). 

I am thankful for...

• Being able to work from the couch in my bedclothes when I don't feel well (and don't have Zoom meetings).
• YouTuber creators who curate TikTok videos so I don't have to swim in this cesspool of brain rot. 
• Modern medicine.
• The much-needed rain we've gotten the past couple of days.
• Cooler temperatures.
• My old faithful Singer sewing machine (I call her "Big Mama.")  

 

Mind Meld: The Weekly Digest

Looking out the window....

The Feather Reed Grass in the church parking lot is interesting.

I know that this is a terrible shot, but I've been passing (and ogling over) these plantings all summer and there's no way for me to safely get out of the car to get a shot.  They are along 1st Avenue in Denver from the intersection of University Blvd up a few blocks.  They are full of gorgeous blooms and greenery.  I hope they fill them with seasonal plants as the weather changes.  BTW--I did take the picture while I was stopped at the light, not while I was driving.

Favorite quote(s) of the week...

Prayer is all the more sure to succeed because it is for the Father’s glory through the Son. It glorifies His truth, His faithfulness, His power, and His grace. The granting of prayer, when offered in the name of Jesus, reveals the Father’s love to Him and the honor that He has put upon Him.- Charles Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook, p. 239. 

 

Some people feel so hopeless because they have no memory of being helped in the past. - Cloud and Townsend, Boundaries, p. 291. 

 

Egotism is pathological self-obsession, a reaction to anxiety about whether one really does count. It is a form of acute self-consciousness and can be prevented and healed only by the experience of being adequately loved.  It is, indeed, a desperate response to frustration of the need we all have to count for something and be held to be irreplaceable, without price. - Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p.  15.

 

I'm thinking about...

Yes, I know I shouldn't be thinking of it, but I am.
This too shall pass.

 

  What I've read since the last digest...

• Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend ✮✮✮✮ (a glorious reread)
• Silence by Shusaku Endo ✮✮✮1/2   
• Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster ✮✮✮✮ ( a glorious reread)
• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin ✮✮✮✮ (a glorious reread) 
• Letters to a Young Pastor by Eric Peterson & Eugene Peterson ✮ (an impulse read)  
• Freckle Juice by Judy Blume  ✮✮✮1/2 (Kiddie Lit) 

I'm currently reading...

• The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
• Mansions of the Heart by R. Thomas Ashbrook 
• Streams of Living Water by Richard J. Foster 
• On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior
• Faith's Checkbook by Charles Spurgeon

Recent blog posts...

• My previous digest, "Big Nasty'" is here.
  
• Where No Couch Has Gone Before:  The Weekly Hodgepodge is here. 
• First Line Friday #38: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard is here.  
• My "25 for 2025" challenge is here. (Updated regularly)
• My "I Can Only Blame MyShelf" reading challenge is here.  (Updated regularly). 

From the Workshop... 

Miss Betsy and I had a painting party this past weekend.
She painted this adorable frog for her grandson's birthday present.

"Jeremiah Was a Tree Frog" Acrylic on 11x14-inch canvas.

  

I am thankful for...

• My new living room furniture.  
• A friend to help assemble said furniture.
• Coffee.
• Naps.
• I am thankful to not use TikTok.  The more content I see curated from that app from YouTube creators, the less interest I have in this brain rot.
• G-U-M toothpicks. 
• Funny and encouraging memes. 
• Rubber bands. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where No Couch Has Gone Before: The Weekly Hodgepodge

Join the fun! 

Come on over to 

From This Side of the Pond 

for the Hodgepodge link-up!

August is National Golf month...do you play? Do you enjoy following golf? Have you ever been to a professional tournament?

I'm not a big fan of golf.  I appreciate the skill needed to play, but it just doesn't appeal to me.  I'm more of a football and baseball girl.  The closest I've ever come to playing golf was going to the Putt-Putt course with some friends during undergraduate school.  

Astronaut Jim Lovell of Apollo 13 fame passed away this past Thursday. Are you interested in outer space and what's happening today in terms of space exploration? If space travel became common in your lifetime would you go? How do you personally relate to the idea of exploring something vast and mysterious...does the idea excite you, intimidate you, or something else? 

As an avid Trekkie (TOS - some of Voyager--it got too weird as it went along) I enjoy the fantasy and romanticism of space exploration.  While many inventions have been inspired by the Star Trek universe, space travel has certainly been a jarring example of "expectation vs. reality."  I'm not even talking about tragedies like the Challenger accident; mishaps happened in the fictional space universe.  I'm talking about how space exploration has become space exploitation.  It's become too political, to "woke," and too ostentatious.  It's not about exploration and science anymore; it's about sending celebrities into orbit (using tons of fuel) so they can come back to tell the regular people that their cars are putting too many carbon emissions into the air (yes, I'm looking at you William Shatner).  

Nah, give me Roddenberry's fantasy any day. Someone like me would be welcome in that universe, not the current version of "space exploration."

Describe your communication style in three words. 

GET IT SAID!

Do you have a favorite cookbook? A favorite celebrity chef? Do you watch any cooking shows on TV? 

I've collected many good recipes from the internet that I keep in a notebook, but my go-to cookbook is the Betty Crocker's New Cookbook published in 1996.  I think I bought it when I was part of the old Crossings Book Club (the book version of Columbia House).  Nearly 30 years later, I still pull recipes from it.

I never had just one favorite celebrity chef, but among my favorites were:

• Julia Child (especially when she cooked with Jacques Pepin)
• Justin Wilson ("add one cup of wine")
• Martin Yan (his Yan Can Cook on PBS was hilarious in the 90s)
• Paula Deen (pass me the butter, suga')
• Rosanna Pansino:  I know that technically she is a baker not a chef, but her Nerdy Nummies YouTube series was great.  She changed the format, so now I can't stand it.
• B. Dylan Hollis:  His YouTube shorts that feature vintage recipes is more about waiting to hear what crazy thing he's going to say next than learning to cook anything. 

As a child did you have any back to school traditions? If so, did you carry on those same traditions with your own children? Do you have any back to school traditions you've started on your own? 

My two favorite back-to-school traditions as a child were getting a new outfit (when we could afford it), and buying school supplies.  I enjoyed the same traditions for my classroom when I taught preschool.  Now, teaching online doesn't lend itself to the need of new clothes or supplies.  However, each time I walk through the school supplies sections of my favorite stores this time of year, I get giddy and I want to buy something.  I don't, but I want to.  Maybe I need to come up with some sort of appropriate traditions for this time of year.  

Anybody got any ideas? 

Insert your own random thought here. 

I had to say goodbye to a dear old friend a couple of weeks ago...

 

This IKEA couch was passed down to me from my friend Annie's parents.  Who knows how long they had the couch before they gave it to me, but this thing was in great shape and lasted nearly eight years before it got too "wallowed out." Rotating and/or flipping the cushions didn't work anymore, so it was time to say goodbye.

I had Big Ass Junk Removal dispose of her for me.  These guys were great. 

I used IKEA's delivery service for the first time.  Unlike Wal-Mart delivery, this service (and everyone else) found my apartment just fine (giving Wal-Mart the side eye).  My friend, Emily, came over this weekend and helped me put the couch and chair together.  I've got some more accessories to make or purchase, but I'm so pleased with the new digs.  

In case you missed it:  

• My previous Hodgepodge post "Sometime in the Morning" is here.
• My latest Weekly Digest "Big Nasty" is here.
  
• My latest First Line Friday post: #38:  The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard is here. 
• My "25 for 2025" challenge is here.  (Updated regularly)
• My "2025 I Can Only Blame MyShelf Reading Challenge" is here. (Updated regularly)

 

Big Nasty: The Weekly Digest

Looking out the window....

I'm enjoying the changing blooms in the flower beds around the Green Mountain Recreation Center. 

Veronica.

Canada Goldenrod.

I noticed something at the church that's probably not new, but it was new to me.  There are flower boxes strategically placed in different areas of the outside of the building: 

These Hostas remind me of the ones from my mom's flower garden.

These are called Coral Bells.

Favorite quote(s) of the week...

In this day’s labors or trials say, The Lord God helps Me. Go forth boldly. Set your face like a flint (Isaiah 50:7), and resolve that no weakness or shame will come near you. If God helps, who can hinder? If you are certain of omnipotent aid, what can be too heavy for you? Begin the day joyously, and let no shadow of doubt come between you and the eternal sunshine. - Charles Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook, p. 232. 

 

Refusing to be happy because someone else is unhappy, though, is a bit like cleaning your plate because babies are starving in India. Your unhappiness isn’t making anyone else happier—in fact, quite the opposite, given the fact that happier people are more likely to act altruistically. - Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project, p. 216.

 

Practice purposeful giving to increase your freedom. Sometimes people who are building boundaries feel that to do someone a favor is codependent. Nothing is further from the truth. Doing good for someone, when you freely choose to do it, is boundary enhancing. Codependents are not doing good; they are allowing evil because they are afraid. - Cloud and Townsend, Boundaries, p. 138. 

 

On makeup foundation:   There's full coverage and then there's 'calm down' coverage. - Robert Walsh, Professional Makeup Artist.

 

Social media has made y'all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it. - Mike Tyson

 

Don't train like you're having a panic attack and your psychiatrist is not around. - Dr. Mike Israetel, Exercise Scientist 

 

I'm thinking about...

 

Nasty gym rats:  This is a mini rant, but it needs to be said.  I went to the community center gym the other day.  Green Mountain has two stationary bikes that don't cause taint trauma.  BTW--I tagged the city recreation department in my first post about this when I shared the link on Facebook.  All I've gotten is crickets.  Very tacky.

 

Anyway...

 

A patron was cleaning off one bike (the center provides disinfecting spray and paper towels).  As I adjust and prep the bike for use, I watched the patron on the other bike get off, walk away, and NEVER come back to clean it.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep in mind gyms, community centers, and YMCAs providing some means of cleaning off equipment has been the norm for a long time.  So, after everything we went through during "the thing" with sickness, viruses, quarantine, masks, and death, who in his right mind gets off a piece of publicly used equipment and doesn't clean his germy goo and butt sweat off the machine?  There's spray and paper towels on BOTH ends of the cardio room. 

Why?  Just.  Why?  

 

To the nasty gym rat:  May a rabid dog bite you and pee on your leg and may a sick toddler sneeze directly into your mouth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 Chew and swallow it, you big nasty! 

   

What I've read since the last digest...

• The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.  ✮✮✮✮   (Category:  Kiddie Lit)  
• Changes that Heal by Henry Cloud ✮✮✮✮
• The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson ✮✮✮✮ (Category:  Glorious Reread)  
• How to Be Filled With the Holy Spirit by A. W. Tozer ✮✮✮✮  
• The New American Standard Bible ✮✮✮✮    
• The Dangers of a Shallow Faith by A. W. Tozer  ✮✮✮1/2  
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain  ✮✮✮✮ 
• Real Artists Don't Starve by Jeff Goins ✮✮✮✮ (a glorious reread).  Please see my review here.
• A Theory of Everything (That Matters) by Alister McGrath ✮✮✮1/2 (An impulse read). 
• Experiencing Prayer with Jesus by Henry and Norman Blackaby ✮✮   (An impulse read). 

I'm currently reading...

• Silence by Shusaku Endo
• Mansions of the Heart by R. Thomas Ashbrook 
• Streams of Living Water by Richard J. Foster 
• Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend 
• On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior
• Faith's Checkbook by Charles Spurgeon
  
• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
  
• Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster

Recent blog posts...

• My previous digest, "Reset the Play Clock'" is here.
  
• First Line Friday #38: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard is here. 
• Sometime In the Morning:  The Weekly Hodgepodge is here. 
• My "25 for 2025" challenge is here. (Updated regularly)
• My "I Can Only Blame MyShelf" reading challenge is here.  (Updated regularly). 

From the Workshop... 

I am thankful for...

• Street sweepers.
• This weekend's sermon.
• Honest mechanics.
• IKEA.
• Insulated car mugs that are actually insulated and keep things hot or cold longer than eight seconds.
• Colored pencils.
• Journals with paper thick enough that I can write on both sides without bleed through. 
• My prize for completing Jefferson County Public Library's summer reading program.