the Wednesday hodgepodge

 

Happy Wednesday, friends! I'm here with Joyce again today for the weekly hodgepodge...this is a post that I dearly love; thank you, Joyce, for your inspiring and thought provoking questions each and every week! I'll jump right in. 

1. Do you feel like you have a full plate at the moment? In what way? My life feels like a full plate at the moment, but not in a bad way. I just have a lot going on, honestly, and I'm having to learn to manage my time in a way that won't leave me feeling frazzled or rushed. I knew it would be like this when I started working, and I was right! 🤪 I love it, though. Before I felt like I had too much time on my hands, and now I like the feeling that life is more full and that it's a balancing act. Somehow I'm managing, though, and I'm grateful for the times when I am able to get things accomplished. I feel like I'm doing a decent job of having time to myself, seeing Chris, keeping up with friends, and seeing family. It's a lot of spinning plates, but for now it feels okay. 

2. How did you learn to cook? If you have children, did you teach/encourage them to cook? Do you like to follow a recipe or is your style more, "let's wing it"? I learned to cook from the best: my mom! I helped her in the kitchen from a young age, and by the time I was thirteen, I was a pro at making cornbread. My style is to follow a recipe the first time, and then tweak it to make it my own after that. I will still loosely follow it, but I don't stress about it that much. I remember learning that it's stressful for some people, so I guess I enjoy cooking enough that it never feels like that for me. I'm good at the timing, too; my ex-mom-in-law (good grief, that is so extra sounding) used to be amazed at this quality in me. She never enjoyed cooking, so it was always stressful for her. I would try to make things easier for her when I was around for the holidays, though, and both she and her husband relied on me for that. I've often wondered what it's like there now at their house for the holidays without me there to be a buffer/peacemaker. Things I never thought I would be writing about on my blog...

Moving on to happier topics...

3. Last time you bit off more than you could chew? Elaborate. Just recently I volunteered to help with the student choir at church. I was so excited to do this, but I quickly learned I'd bitten off way more than I could chew, so I stepped down from doing this. I couldn't ever make the time right with work, honestly, and balancing that with eating dinner beforehand and wanting to use Wednesday nights to have dinner with Chris before choir at six. I had such high hopes! But's okay...grace upon grace. 

4. When did you last say, "the more the merrier", and mean it? I feel like I say this and mean it when food and my sons and their friends are involved. I always truly mean that, because to me, the fuller the house, the fuller my heart feels. 

5. Write an acrostic using the word THANKS.

T—treasure the people who make life feel lighter and brighter

H—hold close those moments that shape your heart

A—appreciate grace in both the big and small things in life

N—notice beauty in the ordinary days

K—keep gratitude in the center of your heart

S—share love generously, the way it's been given to you

6. Insert your own random thought here. I'm leaving you with one of my favorite songs; this is called The Thanksgiving Song by Ben Rector. Don't let the lackluster title make you think it's not good...you should definitely listen to this since tomorrow is the big day.

I'm always excited to read your answers to these prompts! Thanks for being here today to read my blog, friends. Love to all! 

Jenn