Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Wednesday Hodgepodge: Moonlight and Serenade Edition

From this Side of the Pond

1. 'Hurry less, worry less'...what's your strategy for making that happen this holiday season? How's it going so far?

The biggest secret weapon I have is that (as often happens), I don't know till the last minute what we're doing or how many people or what we'll eat. That may not sound relaxing, but it least it means we don't focus too much on planning things like Christmas dinner; or flip out if plans change.

The other helpful thing is that we now live beside a store. So, aside from when it's closed on the actual holidays, we're pretty much covered for small emergencies.
That's me in the front.
(Illustration from The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel))

2. Do you have a list of to-dos that need accomplishing in order to prepare your home and/or property for the winter season? What are some of the jobs on your list? Are you a do-it-yourselfer or do you hire someone to accomplish these tasks?

You already know what the answer to that one is.
And it's a relief.

3. According to dietitians surveyed, the most popular health foods for 2018 will be -turmeric, sprouted foods (bean sprouts, breads with sprouted grains, etc), veggies in place of grains, dairy free milk, and pulses (lentils, chickpeas, etc).  What's the first thought that ran through your head when you read this list? Of the foods listed which one might you add to your regular diet? Also, can milk really be dairy free? Is it still milk?

The first thought that ran through my head was "that sounds like the big food book, you know which one, that I bought a few years ago at a homeschool conference and resold soon afterwards to someone else." I had friends who loved that book, but it just wasn't my thing.

4. The Pantone Color of the Year for 2018 is Ultra Violet. According to the Pantone site 'Ultra Violet communicates originality, ingenuity, and visionary thinking pointing us to the future.' What say you? Do you like the color purple? Did you see the movie or read the book-ha!?  Is purple a color you wear often? Describe for us one purple item in your home without using the word purple.  If you were in charge of such things what color would you select for 2018?
Good book for purple fans

Pantone's descriptions are a bit too mystical for me, but I'd agree that purple is a nice change from all-things-green. I like the reference to the evening sky.
Moonlight 1915, Tom Thomson
I like purple (but not as much as Mrs. Carillon)

5. Favorite book read this year?

Until recently I would have said Renaissance by Os Guinness, but the sudden year-end out-of-nowhere winner is Soul Keeping by John Ortberg. The runner-up is maybe To Be Where You Are by Jan Karon.

On a practical level, probably Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

An interesting perk of our hi-tech age is being able to "stream" music. Recently we've had Andy Williams, Tony Bennett, Roger Whittaker singing German Christmas carols, and Bill Leslie's Mitford Christmas album (which I had never gotten to hear before). I'm hoping Mr. Fixit can find us some Finest Kind (Canadian folkies). Here's one of their songs.

Linked from the Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

3 comments:

Mrs.T said...

Happy Hodgepodge! I enjoyed reading your answers today and especially that painting that you showed to illustrate the color purple. Beautiful!

Mama Squirrel said...

Thank you, Mrs. T!

Amy Marie said...

I loved reading this! Interesting idea about NOT knowing how many you'll have coming for dinner. :) I'll have to think on that. My husband's family is HUGE and we usually have way too much food so it would probably work just fine. For me it's the different foods/special traditions that need a bit of planning as I don't have those on hand. Good point about living near a grocery store. I live like 35 to 40 minutes from a big store. ;) So I shop in huge chunks and have to make due with what I have unless my hubby is going into a bigger town.

I like the idea, though.