Welcome or welcome back!! Trying to squeeze in one more blog post before we bid January a fond farewell. Have been working on this all week in little fits and starts. With luck, I will wind it up before the clock strikes midnight and we step into February.
HodgePodge with Joyce
Happily joining my friend Joyce at From Across This Side of the Pond for this week/last week's?? (depending on when I finally get this published!!) HodgePodge.
Every Sunday, Joyce creates a list of 5 thought-provoking questions on a theme and invites readers to share their responses on the following Wednesday. In true form, I am a day (or 2) late and always a dollar short, bringing up the rear with my responses on Friday. Or Saturday. But would you expect anything else of me?
An Icy HodgePodge
1. I (I=Joyce) 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?
Our weather is on the upswing after 4-5 days of wintry weather complete with a very rare 2 days of rain followed by a little snow. The mornings have been cold by El Paso standards but not compared to those in other parts of Texas and the U.S.
Today we were back to a high in the 50s. And there was lots of sunshine. January is our coldest month so we are about out of the woods as far as winter weather goes. If I can't have snow, then bring on spring!!
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?
I do like cabbage. Not in the way that you eat an apple - just taking a big bite out of a head of cabbage. But I like it cooked and in salads. Fish tacos here are often garnished with cabbage. Then there's cole slaw - KFC's is my favorite place for the standard stuff but pineapple cole slaw is even better. I put cabbage in soups quite often, too. And one of my former mother-in-laws made fabulous cabbage cooked with bacon. Delicious but not worth staying in a bad marriage for!!
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?
Cabbage Patch dolls and I go waaaay back. You might remember I was anorexic for a couple of years in high school and college. I lost such a significant amount of weight, I stopped having my menstrual cycle. And that went on long enough that my mother took me to a gynecologist to find out what was going on. The doctor explained that the depletion of my body fat and my low hormone levels had interfered with my cycles. She told me that if I didn't gain weight, I could expect to start growing dark hair all over my body, including facial hair. And that if I didn't get my cycles regulated, I might not ever be able to have children.
The thought of a being a child-less (and probably husband-less) bearded woman was enough to encourage me to start eating more normally. Probably six months later, I had a period. But suffered with irregular cycles for most of my adult life.
So what does that lesson in eating disorders have to do with Cabbage Patch dolls, you might be asking. The fall of my senior year of college, my then boyfriend and I took a road trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. In one of the shops there, I fell in love with the soft, sculpted, fabric baby dolls created by Georgia art student Xavier Roberts. Because I was still afraid I might not be able to have a baby of my own someday, I wanted one of these dolls. But their $40 price tag was more than I could justify spending. I stood admiring those dolls for a long time before my boyfriend dragged me out of the store.
Fast forward 5 years. I was thrilled to be a first time mommy-to-be. And was expecting what I was sure to be a baby boy. Before I delivered, I bought my baby 'boy' a Cabbage Patch baby boy doll of his own. And then my baby turned out to be a girl, Miss Brennyn Alexis!! Ha!!
Maybe because I loved those original Xavier Roberts's dolls in Gatlinburg so much, the only babies I bought my daughters were Cabbage Patch dolls. Well, until they were old enough to play with Barbies. And I bought my grandbabies a Cabbage Patch Doll a piece when they were tiny. I still have a couple of my daughters' dolls here at my house for the grands to play with when they visit.
4. Something you've spent a lot of time doing lately?
Hmmm, trying to stay warm? Watching the "Fargo" series on Hulu? Oh, and painting watercolor flowers via WhatsApp with my sister Valerie. For just $10, we are taking a 5-day-long course with Tracy Weinzapfel entitled "Bold Watercolor Wildflowers." Valerie lives in Tennessee and I am in Texas but we craft together - paint, scrapbook - several times a month. Tonight we are going to be painting a bouquet of blossoms. Here are my finished projects from earlier this week.
5. Somehow it's the last week of January...sum up your month
in just three sentences.
Enjoyable week in Durango with PC, Lauren and her family. Unseasonably warm weather followed by a cold snap; punctuated by several opportunities to sub and pet sit. Much worry for our country and our world.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
We are in the process of a spring holiday to London and Edinburgh. We leave in 84 - count 'em - 84 days!! We have our tours picked out, our accommodations booked and I am getting EXCITED!! Have you traveled to either place? If so, what's something we must see or do?
1 Second A Day
In the past, January has seemed to go on forever. Have you ever felt like that about the first month of the year?
Here's a glimpse of our month. In 1 sec a day.
January Rewind
Here are a couple of the highlights of our January.
- Trip to Durango, Colorado with PC, Lauren, Francisco and the girls where we played in the snow, hiked, enjoyed family game night, walked the grand pups, rode the Polar Express, and the Purgatory mountain coaster.
- Camila Jean's 6th birthday. But they had been sick so we didn't get to celebrate in person with her.
- Four substitute teaching assignments (3rd grade x3, 2nd grade) and 2 Rover.com kitty-sitting opportunities.
- Playdate and dinner with Lucia and Cami. We played dress up, danced, sang and enjoyed a dip in the hot tub.
- We had 2 writing dates, 1 writing group meeting, and at least one date night.
- PC went fishing twice. No fish. Boo.
- Scrapbooked and painted.
- Worked out 12 times at the gym and averaged 7,600 steps a day. Not too bad for being on vacay the first week of the month.
- Cleaned one closet as a part of my winter 2026 goals. Lots more to do!! Read more here.
- Planned our spring trip to London and Edinburgh.
- Delighted in a fleeting snowfall
- My online book club selected our book of the month for February. These are the titles on which we voted. Which book would you pick?
- Got back to tracking my Weight Watchers points.
- And here are some of the recipes I prepared this month.
Air fryer egg rolls and WW chicken fried rice
Pioneer Woman Rotel cream cheese sausage balls
Snickers brownies (decidedly not WW friendly)
I have missed writing my sentences for my old Sentence a Day posts. Maybe I can do some kind of summary of my days at the end of each month here.
Your Turn
Thank you for stopping by to visit. I appreciate your friendship.
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