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Hodge Podge: A bit about March, celery, and historical farm shows

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 15 Comments

I decided to join up with Joyce this week for the Hodge Podge, a feature I like to do but haven’t done in a long time.

  1. What do you love most about March? 

March has never really stood out to me as a month I like for any reason other than I know it will lead us out of winter and toward Spring. I have to be careful saying that, though, because there have been some months of March over the years where we have gotten nailed by a snowstorm — sometimes at the end of the month even! One year we got a couple of feet of snow on March 30th!

What I do like about March is that usually we start to see flowers like Daffodils blooming and we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with food they don’t actually eat in Ireland, but we like anyhow. Ha!

2. Hey! Did you know March is National Celery Month? Do you like celery? What’s something you make (or like to order out) that calls for celery? 

I did not know that March is National Celery Month. I do like celery. I don’t like that it is sometimes stringy and gets stuck in my throat.  I love it with peanut butter.

My mom used to make an amazing chicken salad for chicken salad sandwiches and it required celery. I mean REQUIRED. It had to be in there. It just tasted so much better with it. For a long time, we didn’t make this chicken salad because I couldn’t find a mayonnaise I could eat because of my allergy to corn (don’t ask. It’s a long story.) and because my mom simply stopped making it.

I have discovered that I can eat Duke’s Mayonnaise now so I can make chicken salad again! With celery! I should get on that! Also, if you are going to eat chicken salad, I highly recommend eating it on potato bread. So good. We ate chicken salad on potato bread all the way to North Carolina one year while we traveled to my grandparents.

3. _______________ is the soundtrack to my life right now.  is the soundtrack to my life right now.

Victorian Farm and all the other historical British farm shows (Edwardian Farm, Tudor Farm, Tales from the Green Valley) is the soundtrack to my life right now.  I swear I always have an episode running in the background to distract my racing brain, even when I am writing blog posts. I found Tales From The Green Valley on YouTube and started watching it today.

4. Share a favorite motivational quote for overcoming challenges. 

“I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages”
― Charles H. Spurgeon

(I have not actually learned this lesson, but I really do like the quote)

5. The Hodgepodge lands on Ash Wednesday this year. Do you participate in Lent in some way? If so tell us more. 

I don’t really participate in Lent other than to recognize that we are getting closer to Easter. I absolutely love the idea of Lent and giving up something for it, though, and in the past I have participate by giving up sugar, social media, news, or similar things.

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

My cats are inside/outside cats. They absolutely love being outside and exploring, but at night they usually come in to eat, sleep, and get their pets in. In the winter they aren’t very interested in going outside at all and this winter they have definitely not been interested because it has been so bitter cold. I thought our younger cat, Scout, would venture out despite the cold but even she has preferred laying near the woodstove or curled up on a blanket to exploring and hunting outside.

Our older cat, Pixel, loves to be outside during the warmer months but doesn’t hunt as much as the younger one anymore. She mainly sits on the back porch and looks out over the backyard, watching what I am not sure.

She and the younger cat don’t really get along. She slaps Scout whenever Scout walks near her. At the end of this past summer, though, I started to notice that Pixel wanted to stay outside if Scout was still outside. She would sit on the porch, looking out into the darkness, as if waiting for Scout to come home.

My parents have a pair of cats and the female cat does wait for the male cat to come before she will eat. They are not siblings either. Sometimes, the female cat will even call for the male cat.

Pixel doesn’t call for Scout, as far as I have ever heard, but she does seem to wait for her. I always think they will bump noses and rub against each other when Scout does come, but instead, Pixel just slaps her again as if she’s angry at her. Maybe she’s scolding her for being out late since Scout has been known to stay out  all night at times, leaving me inside, awake in the middle of the night hoping a fox didn’t get her.

Pixel likes to look in the kitchen window when she wants to be let in. She stands on the back of our deck chairs.

I can just imagine Pixel saying to her, “What are you doing? Worrying Mom like that? She loves you! And you’re out there gallivanting around like a stupid little kitten.”

That’s my Hodge Podge for this week. How would you answer some of these questions?

10 on 10 for June: Would You Rather . . .

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 19 Comments

I am late today but I’m going to squeeze in a 10 for 10 with Marsha In The Middle today because it is fun!

  1. Would you rather go camping in a camper (your pick on the style) or stay at a five-star resort? Ummm…of course I would rather stay at a 5-star resort. I am not a camping person. I like the comfort of my own space and I don’t want my own space to include the possibility of being bitten by scary bugs, stung by bees, or eaten by a bear. I love nature and I love being in it, but not necessarily overnight

2. Would you rather watch a movie in the backyard of a good friend or go to your favorite band’s concert with your worst enemy? I would definitely rather watch a movie in the backyard of a good friend. See, as I mentioned above, I like the outside as long as I am not sleeping in it. As for going to the concert of my favorite band with my worst enemy – no thank you. I’d rather listen to my favorite band and not deal with the crowds and the urge to kill said enemy.

3. Would you rather have chub rub because you forgot your protective gear or a big blister on your heel because you’re wearing cute but new shoes?  I had to look up the term “chub rub” as I had never heard it before but after looking it up and finding out it is essentially chaffing of body parts, I decided I’d rather have the blister. I could move my foot around or slide the shoes off the heel and still manage to wear them but with the chaffing, there isn’t much you can do until you can get some cream or ointment on it.

4. Would you rather meet your great-great-grandparent or your great-great-grandchild? If I can live longer and meet my great-great-grandchild then I would go with that answer but I truly would like to meet my great-great-grandfather, especially on my dad’s side because I need him to tell me who his dad was and which part of Scotland he came from so I can finally make that connection in our family tree on Ancestry.com

5. Would you rather be hot and sweaty in the humid outdoors or cold and shivering in an overly air-conditioned room? Definitely cold and shivering. I hate being hot and sweaty or hot at all. I would rather be cold and since this question doesn’t say whether we can have a blanket or not I am going to say I’d rather have a blanket in the room with the AC on full blast! Being all chilly makes me feel like it is autumn which is my favorite time of the year because it is perfect for curling up under a blanket with a good book.

6. Would you rather eat a melted candy bar or a piece of cold pizza? I don’t mind cold pizza at all and sometimes I find it tastes quite good if the sauce is good but I’d probably choose the melted candy bar as long as it was pure chocolate. I don’t care if chocolate is all melted and gooey, I’ll eat it anyhow.

7. Would you rather go for a day without access to any social media or emails or would you have to remain on social media all day long? Oh I would rather go for a day without access to social media and email for sure. I’ve mentioned on here before how much social media stresses me out. I use it to promote my books and connect with other writers and some friends and family but a day without it? Bring it on. I know my anxiety level reduces immensely when I am off social media, even if I normally post positive and fun things.

8. Would you rather dress like a person from the 1950s or the 2050s? Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. What were you smoking when you created these questions? *wink* Seriously, 1950s because I have a feeling that outfits in the 2050s are going to get super, super weird.

9. Would you rather eat ice cream covered in pizza sauce or a pizza covered in chocolate sauce?  Both of these sound so gross but I am going with number two because Marsha didn’t say the pizza had to be a savory/traditional pizza. Hee. Hee. I’ll make one with chocolate chip cookie dough covered with chocolate sauce.

10. Would you rather fly like Superman or swim like Aquaman?

I would rather fly like Superman because there are all kinds of dangers underwater – sharks and Man O’ War jellyfish (or whatever they are called) and gross seaweed and oil spills. I could get hit with a plane while flying like Superman but I’ll take that chance. I was watching the first Superman movie from the 1970s with Christoper Reeve the other week with The Husband and thinking about what a huge crush I had on Christopher when I was a kid. I would have loved to have flown with him if he had really been Superman – and he kind of was one in many ways.