• Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 78 other subscribers
  • “Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers” — Isaac Asimov

  • Recent Posts

  • Pages

  • Categories

  • Archives

  • Blog Stats

    • 195,062 hits

A Taxing Hodgepodge? Think Again!

Go ahead and be envious of the creative titles I come up with for my Hodgepodge posts.

heehee

I’m feeling goofy.  Sorry.  It’s been an i-n-t-e-r-e-s-t-i-n-g two weeks at school, and I fear that either pre-menopause or teenage highs and lows are invading my body.

Anyhoo, join in the fun, link up with Joyce, and visit other Hodgepodge bloggers!

1.  It’s that most wonderful time of the year…tax season! Do you complete your own returns or farm that job out to the professionals?

The Mr. was blessed with a math/financial brain, so he does our taxes each year…with a little help from TurboTax.  He’s just about done, in fact.  Now, if only I could find the papers for the cars we bought the kids last year.  Um…see my previous blog post if you’re wondering how I could lose something that important.

2. This next question comes from Kansas Bob…he posed it in his response to something I asked in an earlier Wednesday post and I asked him if I could add it to the Hodgepodge some day. Today’s the day….

Which do you think has changed you more-love or pain?

I think that I would have to say pain.  Last week, during my classes, I shared some of the hard times I experienced during my childhood.  I wanted them to understand that I understand some of the pain they are going through, despite me looking like I have my act together.  I’ve often wondered why I’ve had to endure the things I’ve been through.  Then, I see why later.

The Bible talks about the refining process.  Precious metal cannot be purified without heat lifting the impurities to the surface.

That’s how it’s been in my life, and ultimately, I’m grateful for the times of growth, despite the pain.

3.  Tangerine Tango has been named color of the year for 2012. Your thoughts? Would I find this color anywhere in your house? How about in your closet? If not, will you be adding this color to your life in some way in 2012? If you’re not sure what tangerine tango looks like click here.

While you won’t find this color in my house, you might find it on my fingernails!  What a great spring color!

4.  Are you a collector? What do you collect and does it get admired, used, and/or dusted regularly?

I used to collect Christmas village pieces, but the collection got so large that it takes hours to set up and put away, so I haven’t used it in a while.

Something I do collect that that you will see around my house is…YARN!!

As a knitter, I feel it is my duty to buy it as often as possible and show it off.  Thought I don’t have time to knit much right now, the yarn sits in front of me…in baskets around the house…calling like a siren…”AuburnChick…take a break…knit me into something…”

Yes, I’ve completely lost my marbles.  Don’t judge.  You could be next.

5.  February is National Heart Month…besides a green salad what is one tasty heart healthy dish you like to prepare?

I love the black bean soup recipe I make from the book, The Daniel Fast, which I posted here with the author’s permission.  It’s vegan friendly, which means it’s completely heart friendly!

6.  When was the last time you had car trouble?

I refuse to answer this question because I don’t want to jinx myself.

7.  Have you been more demanding on yourself lately or less? Is that a good trend?

Oh, definitely more demanding of myself!  I’m a perfectionist and a control freak (see my previous post).  It’s my second year teaching, but honestly, I’ve always demanded a lot of myself…in certain areas of my life.

Ultimately, it’s not the best trend because I’m causing myself undue stress.  I’ve cried a lot the last couple of weeks, feeling like I’m letting my students down as well as myself.

It can be quite difficult to live up to unreasonable expectations.

8.  My Random Thought

I’ve reported that I’ve been having some problems with one of my classes.  I asked the advice of my school’s ROTC instructor, and while he asked to mull it over, he did say something that I’ve been chewing on…

“To get respect, you have to give respect.”

I think it’s safe to assume that as adults, we expect…or rather DEMAND respect from those younger than us.  However, how often do we stop to consider if we’re giving those same people…in my case, my students…that which I’m expecting to receive from them.

Oh, it’s not a pretty thing when you look inside of yourself and see another area you need to work on.

A student, one of my favs, called me out on it today too, telling me that I could have told her nicely that she couldn’t go to the bathroom.  Instead, I snapped at her.

She’s been snippy with me, but does that give me the right to snap right back?  What does that say about respect?

I think about my favorite EPI teacher, and I’m reminded how she always addressed us as either “Mr. So-and-So or Ms. So-and-So.”

You know something?  What she did made our relationship formal.  We had business to take care of.  However, it was respectful, and she received respect in return…even from students who had to redo their assignments time after time.

Respect is something I’m giving a lot of thought to right now.

The Results of Guilt

What happens when you blog about being unbalanced and not keeping up with your domestic duties?

You guilt yourself into planning meals…

going shopping…at two different stores…

Breaking apart large meat packages and freezing everything in single-serve packages…

And even cooking…perhaps quadrupling a favorite Black Bean Soup recipe so a friend can be repaid for a kindness, or two, or three over the last couple of years…


Dag nab it for personal reflections!

Wednesday Hodgepodge

It’s time for Joyce’s Hodgepodge!  I love the fun, thought-provoking questions she gives us each week!  Thanks for all you do to keep this going, Joyce!

1.  If you could work for any one government agency, which would you choose and why?

Ok.  So I googled to find a list of government agencies, and there are a TON!  I decided, without going through the entire alphabet, on the United States Memorial Museum.  I read Corrie ten Boom’s book, The Hiding Place, when I was a child, and several times afterward, and I was moved by the struggle of the Jews and Christians who were persecuted during WWII.  This agency’s mission is to preserve, with dignity, the memories of those who have suffered unjustly from a number of atrocities around the world.  What an amazing mission!

2.  How difficult is it for you to forgive someone who refuses to apologize?

Ok.  Confession time.  One thing I have learned about myself over the years is that I have a difficult time forgiving people.  I am not proud of myself, let me tell you, but I have to be honest.  God has revealed this to me.  It’s been hard to face up to.  I tend to hold on to grudges…old hurts and injustices.  If someone asks me to forgive them (which doesn’t happen too often, by the way), I do find it easier to forgive them, but I think that sometimes I’m only paying lip service to the act while feelings of anger and resentment linger on…sometimes for years.  If someone doesn’t ask me to forgive them, forgiveness is even more difficult.  I think it’s the lack of acknowledgement that the person did anything wrong that is the hardest to forgive.

I am trying, though, and in some ways, I am making progress.  Praise the Lord that He isn’t finished with me yet.

3.  What is your favorite meatless supper?

Yay!  A question I can sink my teeth into…pun intended!!  Ok.  My favorite meatless supper is Black Bean Soup, which I make from scratch.  The recipe I use is in the book The Daniel Fast.  I posted this recipe several months ago, with the permission of the author.  Click on this link to find it.  It is, quite honestly, the BEST soup I’ve ever made or tasted.  My friend, Barbara, hails from New Orleans, and she can back up my claim.  YUM!  It’s a vegan’s dream come true!!

4.  Wednesday, August 10th, is National Lazy Day.  Will you be celebrating?  If so, tell us how so we can be lazy too.

Really, Joyce?  I had no idea!!!  Well, since my school’s board of directors recently decided to delay our start of school (making my first pre-planning day the 17th), I think I WILL celebrate!  A couple of months ago, Chicky went shopping with the Mr. and brought back a surprise for me…the movie Gone With the Wind (my favorite) on DVD.  I kept promising myself that I would have a pajama day and would watch it.  That hasn’t happened yet.  So, to celebrate this most prestigious holiday (and the fact that I passed my Professional Ed exam last week), I will sit my my rear end on the couch, warm up homemade split pea soup (another recipe from the book mentioned above), and will have myself a lazy, movie party!  Woo Hoo!

5.  As a child, did you have any special back-to-school traditions and, if so, what were they?  If you’re a parent, did you carry on those traditions with your own children?

I don’t remember a lot of traditions from my childhood.  I think I remember a couple of summers in which we did some shopping for blue jeans.  As a mom, yes, I have continued this.  Kids grow like weeds during the summer.  It must be all of the late nights and junk food that make them sprout up.  My children always needed new shoes and blue jeans by August.  The tradition continues…even as my Chicky starts her second year of college.

6.  Write a summer tongue twister.

Summertime silliness soon will cease, followed by frenetic fall festivities and fun.

7.  Would you be interested in observing a surgery or do you turn away when the nurse brings out a needle?

I have needlephobia.  Seriously.  I also have bloodphobia and phobias related to anything related to pain or medicine.  I remember when I had to be put into triage when I was pregnant with Chicky.  I was in preterm labor.  I was 21 years old and had not been a patient in a hospital since my own birth.  As the nurse tried to put in an IV, I cried my heart out.  Coupon Queen was with me, and I think she was beside herself as she watched the nurse butcher my arm (I have good veins, but this nurse was not good at this facet of her job).  Then, all horrors, I had other uncomfortable things done to me.  It’s no wonder I have a fear of needles and such.  I would never willingly witness a surgery.

8.  My Random Thought

I have grown to loathe politics.  Politics are present everywhere…in the government…in the working world…even in the animal kingdom, from what I’ve observed.

Call me naive.  I don’t care.  People should do what’s right without hurting people in the process.  Politics is about power and scratching each others’ backs.

I just don’t get it.

Why not do what you say you’re going to do…what is ethically correct…and let the chips fall where they may.  At least you can sleep soundly at night knowing you’ve acted properly and with honor.

Grrr…