Wednesday, March 18, 2026

It’s Hodgepodge day with Joyce!

1. St. Patrick’s Day lands on March 17th. Do you believe in luck? Are there things you do thinking they’ll  bring good luck or  things you avoid because they’re considered bad luck? 

This is a tough one to answer if you are a spiritual person, I think. I used to tell my Dad I was lucky because of something that had happened and he would tell me it wasn’t luck, but rather it was based on my own ability, but then it’s also not my own ability if it’s my God-given ability. This also goes into the conversation of free will or pre-ordainment. Did you truly have choices in life or is everything pre-ordained?

When you have a bit of age on you, you can see how so many pieces of your life’s puzzle have come together. I had twin imaginary friends as a child named Yoki and Boki. They might have been Japanese. When I found out I was pregnant for the first and only time in my life, twins didn’t even cross my mind until my ultrasound where I found out I was having twins! Were Yoki and Boki foreshadowing? I was obsessed with playing school as a child and played with my stuffed animals, my sisters, and my neighborhood friends. One neighbor girl never let me be the teacher. Joke’s on her. I became one and she didn’t.

But I also think feeling lucky can just be about perspective. I feel lucky because of certain things I have been given, which is good perspective on my life, which leads to contentment and happiness.

I don’t think Joyce will give me an A for that answer as I was all over the place!

2. Forest-lime-sage-mint-olive-emerald…what’s your favorite shade of green? 

Green has always been a favorite color. I love lime green in the summer. I love kelly green in the spring. Green is a calming color to me.

In my 30s I had bright green pants in my teacher wardrobe. The students lovingly(?) made fun of them. Someone made a piñata of me wearing my green pants and then wanted to beat me/the piñata after stuffing me with candy. The abuse that high school teachers have to endure, am I right?

3. In Ireland the meal on this day is often a hearty beef or lamb stew served with colcannon (mashed potato mixed with cabbage and leeks). In the US corned beef and cabbage is the more typical St. Patty’s Day meal. Will you/did you mark the day with one of these dishes? Baked-fried-roasted-mashed…what’s your favorite way to eat a potato?

My friend Victoria made colcannon on Saturday and I am going to get her recipe. She had a St. Patrick’s Day parade party because she lives on the parade route.

I decided to go ahead and do Jen’s crockpot meal on Sunday because I like a crockpot going on a weekend for some reason. I plan to have leftovers on Tuesday. I also got the idea from a blog to make Reuben sandwiches and Reuben quesadillas. I was thinking I could then put the corned beef in the freezer and bring it out to make corned beef hash.

I have never met a potato I didn’t like. I think it’s one of the best foods on God’s green earth. Mashed potatoes will always be special to me because my grandma taught me how to make them. She thought it was so funny that when everyone else asked for dessert later in the evening after the meal that I wanted mashed potatoes instead. Germans love a potato and we are part German. My husband is half German but he had potato overload as a child. My mom rarely made potatoes. Isn’t that funny?

Lately I am loving the sweet potato. I mostly have it for breakfast/brunch.

I often wonder how young people can learn to feed themselves economically when they get out on their own. We just don’t do a good job with teaching this in high school. Bring back home ec! If you buy potatoes, eggs, beans, rice, tomatoes, bananas, carrots, corn, and minimal meat, you can eat very cheaply and very healthy.

4. What color of the rainbow best represents your personality/mood today? Tell us why. 

I would like to think yellow? I hope that I am a bright light to people.

5. Which ‘lucky’ quote resonates with you. Elaborate. 

 ‘Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.’ E.B. White 

‘Diligence is the mother of good luck.” Benjamin Franklin 

‘Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.’ Seneca 

‘Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.’ Ralph Waldo Emerson 

I think the two that I have put in bold type resonate with me and kind of go with my answer to question #1 as well. I always try to work hard at anything I do, and I always try to be prepared.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I was in low key awe of Tom Sunday. He really knows how to do so many things. He was building this fence using a technique that I thought was interesting where he nailed a block of wood to get the slats laid before nailing them to the post and I asked how he learned to do it. Also, he put the boards up and then will cut the gate from the boards that are up because he said that is the easier way to do it. I found that so interesting. I think he thought I was being sarcastic, but I was genuinely intrigued. I’m not sure I explained that very well. I helped hold boards, hand him things, and just kept him company. A lot of my friends say they wish their husbands were handy, but when your husband is handy you can’t pay someone to get something done fast. Does that make sense? Ha!

What would you say to any of these questions today?

Amy