The Wednesday Hodgepodge! New For Me!

I have never done the Wednesday Hodgepodge before, but this one sounded interesting to me so I thought I might give it a try!  Joyce over at From This Side of the Pond blog is our hostess, and I've been reading other blogging friends' posts from this weekly meme for a long time, but never got around to joining in until now.  I always thought it was interesting that she writes "From This Side of the Pond", and I live on a pond, albeit a very dry pond at the moment.  So here we go...

 The Wednesday Hodgepodge

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 638

Here are the questions to this week's Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then skate back here on Wednesday (January 28th) to add your link to the party. See you there!


1. I live in the south so we're pretty much only talking about the weather right now. Give us a weather report from where you live. Does the kind of weather you're having today affect your mood in some way?
As I am typing this, here in north central Florida, it is currently 30 degrees.  We will be having freezing temperatures every morning for the next week, and only warming up into the 50's mostly.  This winter has been unusual for us here in Florida already!  As far as affecting my mood? Well, I will be thankful when the freezing temperatures are over and we can get back to our normal kind of winter with cooler days and plenty of sunshine,  although we need rain desperately here on MY side of the pond!  (For those of you who are new to my blog, I live on a small pond that I've named "Still Waters Pond",  and it has been completely dry this past fall and winter due to no rain in our area to speak of for quite a while. So we keep praying for some good rain to fill it back up!)


2. Avocados, kale, cauliflower and cottage cheese have all had their time to shine. 2026 brings us the year of the cabbage. Is this a vegetable you like? If so, what are some of your favorite dishes that call for cabbage?

Yes, I do like cooked cabbage as well as cole slaw made with raw cabbage.  This receipe below is one of our old family favorites, and it's extra good right now during these very cold days! I made a big pot of this last week, and we enjoyed finishing up the leftovers a couple of days ago.  Here's the receipe in case you're wondering what to make for dinner at your house today:

Hobo Stew

Cook a couple of slices of bacon, chopped into smaller pieces, in the bottom of a large soup kettle or dutch oven.

Brown 2 lbs. ground chuck in the pot, and drain off fat.

Add 1 medium chopped onion to the meat and cover and cook until onion is tender

Add 1 can diced stewed tomatoes (I used the ones with green pepper & onion and celery added)

Add approximately 3 cups of water to the pot, cover and let simmer while you chop up the next ingredients:

Add four medium, peeled and cut potatoes

Add four or five peeled and sliced carrots

Add two cups of chopped cabbage.

Add salt and pepper and garlic powder to season.

If needed, add more water, cover and let cook until all vegetables are tender.

(All ingredients can be added according to how much you want to make! This will make a nice dutch oven pot full of stew)

Serve with fresh, hot cornbread. We like to crumble our corn bread onto the stew.

We used to make this in Girl Scouts, and would put all ingredients in a large metal coffee can, cover tightly with foil, and bury under the coals of our campfire and let it cook all day. It would be delicious for supper!

3. Was a Cabbage Patch Doll a part of your childhood? Or maybe your children's childhood? What's a toy trend from your childhood you remember wanting for your own?

I am too old to have had a Cabbage Patch doll in my "first childhood", but I was given one for Christmas one year by my brother in law in my "second childhood".   And I still have her today:

She was one of the "Little Astronauts", and I named her Robin Noel, because she has "red" hair, and I always said if I had a little girl with red hair I would name her Robin Noel. I ended up with three sons, all with brown hair like their daddy, so this is my little red headed girl. LOL. And also, with three boys, I had no good excuse to buy dolls for my children.  

As far as from my own real childhood, I had a Tiny Tears Doll.  And I still have her, although she is quite a bit worse for the wear...but she's over 70 years old, so what do you expect for a rubber baby doll? She was once stored in the attic at my parents' home (in hot Florida), so that is why the rubber on her arms and legs became cracked from the heat.  But I just can't bear to throw her away, since I've had her this long. I'll leave that up to my adults sons someday.

I also had one of the first original Barbie dolls (yes, I'm that old). HERE's a link to a post I wrote about her.

4. Something you've spent a lot of time doing lately?

Chasing around our outdoor cat named Blackie, who is trying his best to become an indoor cat, and we are working at that very gradually, especially with these very cold nights.  He comes inside to sleep in a kennel/crate, and then we let him out in the morning to eat and walk around the house inside until it warms up a bit outside.  However, I must stay it feels a LOT like following a two year old toddler around, watching out for where he goes and what he might decide to get into.

He also likes to play "hide and seek", and he thinks he's hiding from me under this rolling cart in our kitchen! LOL.

And here he is, waiting outside our bedroom doors for my hubby to come out.  Even though hubby is a reluctant participant in this experiment, Blackie is doing his best to win him over. LOL.

5. Somehow it's the last week of January...sum up your month in just three sentences.

We started out the New Year getting over bad colds that interrupted our Christmas holidays, but thankfully we are fine now. It's also been rather expensive due to some dental issues that had to be resolved. We are ending up the month with frigid temperatures and are hoping February will be healthier and warmer and filled with happy blessings.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Yesterday morning, on a chilly ride to the dentist to get my permanent crown put on, (which was another episode all its own), 

I learned something new and wonderful about our new to us car that we bought last year in the summertime...

That little symbol on the dash that looks like this picture below is actually a button for a heated seat!!!  We did not know we  had heated seats in this car, and boy, was that ever a welcome surprise!!!  Here in Florida we've seldom needed such a gadget, but let me tell you, it sure feels wonderful!!!!! Woo Hoo! Now I find myself looking forward to taking a ride just so I can turn that thing on! LOL. 

Okay friends, old and new, this was fun for my first go-round on the Wednesday Hodgepodge! Not sure if I will make it a weekly event, but we shall see how things are going by this time next week.  Until then, take care and stay safe and warm, wherever you are!! Thank you, Joyce, for allowing me the joy of joining up today!

Quick Friday Post on a Chilly Day

 Well, yes it did get down to 29 degrees early this morning here in north central Florida.  It's currently 54 at 2:00 p.m., and bright and sunny. 

My current view

There was frost everywhere this morning...That's the top of our car as seen through the window early this  morning.  I didn't take anymore pictures of the frost outside, because that would've require going outside, and I didn't want to do that!

However, I do have a story to tell you.  You remember that I showed you this lovely "tent" HERE the other day...  and I had such high hopes that it would be a good solution for a place to bring Blackie indoors and out of the freezing cold and safe from being able to roam freely throughout the house while we were sleeping since he's not yet a trained house cat...

This is the "pet playpen", which I purchased at Walmart.  It really looked like a great solution.

However, first of all, Blackie didn't want to go inside it last evening when we were getting ready to go to bed.  He would explore it, but run back out as soon as I tried to zip him in there.  Finally I decided to just let him go back outside and sleep in his nice warm chair with a blanket draped over it and his self-warming cushion underneath his body, which does keep him quite warm. There he is right now, but this picture was taken through the window and it's not real clear. He's kind of half under the glass table on the porch, and cozied up in the chair and sound asleep.

I decided last night that I would wait until the temperature really started dropping and then I would go out and get him off the porch and put him in the tent inside until morning.  And that's what I did. Around 2:30 in the morning I looked at the weather app on my phone and it said the temperature was down to 32, which is freezing. So I bundled myself up (no pictures of me with my hoodie  and sweatpants over my nightgown), and when I opened up the back door Blackie got down out of his chair and ran right to me. So I scooped him up and brought him inside and placed him in the tent and before he could object I had the door zipped up tight.  He kind of paced back and forth for a minute, but he didn't meow a word.  I reassured him he would be nice and safe and warm in there and I told him he should just lay down and go back to sleep. And then I headed back to bed myself and prayed that he would do just that.  

I did finally get a couple of hours of sleep, but at 5:00 a.m. I thought I'd better tiptoe out there and check on him. As soon as I opened our bedroom door I could hear him meowing rather plaintively, so I rushed to see what was the matter.  I didn't have my camera with me, but I wouldn't have had time to take a picture anyway. The poor kitty was crying because the stupid 'pop up tent" decided to collapse in on top of him (thankfully it is very lightweight), and he was trapped inside with no way to escape. The tent came in that box shown above, all wound up tightly and "spring loaded", so that when you open the box and undo the tie on the tent, it springs open into that full size tent. Well, I wondered how the sides would keep from springing back down because there was no way to secure them. And apparently when Blackie leaned against one of the sides, it triggered the spring system and it just all came down on top of him.  Of course the zippered door ended up underneath him, so I had to roll him around inside of that thing until I could get to the zipper to open the door and let him out. You can imagine how he bolted out of there like a cat out of....well, you know what I mean. The poor kitty was so scared. Thankfully he allowed me to pick him back up and comfort him, but he was one frightened kitty.

So, thankfully I still have my receipt and the tent is not damaged (and no, he did not "dirty it up" one bit, which is miraculous under the circumstances!), but I can't get it back into that box, so I will take it back to Walmart as is and let THEM figure it out.  Word to the wise, don't go buying one of those things, okay?  

I fed him his breakfast and let him go outside for a while to do whatever cats do, (and I did actually set up a litter box for him, but he wasn't interested in that and wanted to go out) but then I brought him back inside and just held him for long time. He was purring so loudly. 

And yes, I do have other clothes besides that red flannel shirt, but that is what I grab to put on when I am chilled and I don't want Blackie to snag or get hairs or fleas on something good. Thankfully I think the flea treatment has helped him, but still, I'm not taking too many chances.

Oh, hubby wanted me to take a picture of him wearing his "Blackie" suit...a nice fleecy blanket that is black on one side and has a design on the other, but he was a bit jealous of all the attention Blackie was getting so he thought he'd try to look like Blackie. LOL.  Yes, we are a little crazy here, especially so early in the morning and after not having much sleep...

Not sure what we will do about Blackie tonight.  It's not going to be quite as cold, but I'm out of other options for tonight, so he will probably just have to stay on the porch in his nice cozy chair.  It really is warm with that warming mat underneath him.  We'll see what develops.

On another note, yesterday I did have the dental appointment for the rest of the deep cleaning and then the root canal and temporary crown. I was there for three hours. Thankfully things went pretty smoothly and I was impressed with the skill of not only the young dentist, but his dental assistant, and all of the very modern technology they have now to do their work.  It really was almost completely "pain free", and I didn't have any really bad after effects after the numbness wore off. I am very THANKFUL! I still have to go back in a couple of weeks for the permanent crown, but that shouldn't be all that big of a deal. 

So, thank you all for your kind words the past few days regarding all of these things before they happened. 

Here's some words of hope and encouragment for today:

Matthew 21:21-22 NKJV

21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. 22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

Matthew 19:26 NKJV

26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, 

“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

What things do YOU need to believe that God can do for you today?  ...All things are possible with God!