Wednesday, November 11, 2026

It’s Wednesday and Hodgepodge with Joyce day! It’s also Veteran’s Day.

1. Marilyn texted me something that inspired this question, so thank you Marilyn! Of the following sayings, typically associated with the (American) southern way of speaking, which do you most relate to right now? Explain.

Bless your heart~too big for yer britches~ madder than a wet hen~you’re preachin’ to the choir~

knee high to a grasshopper~oh my stars

I am probably thinking “Bless your heart” the most. I don’t envy or want to be that person. I am trying not to be judgy, but it’s hard. I am thinking of the case of someone I know that is in their 50s and still lives off of their parents. This is an extreme form of enabling, no? This person has never had a job or career and if they did it was for a split second after college. The parents bought their house, cars, paid for their kids’ college, international trips, etc. I was talking about this with someone and said “bless their heart” because that is very sad.

2. The Hodgepodge lands on (US) Veterans Day this year. Are you a veteran? Have a family member who’s a veteran? If you answered yes, tell us something about them. Will you do anything to mark the day in some special way?

My Dad and several other family members are veterans.

My Dad (and mom now) are buried in an Indiana Veteran’s Cemetery in our hometown which is very special. The flags they place are very beautiful to me. I decided I will donate to the Christmas wreaths in a nearby Veteran’s cemetery and I do that each year. They also place wreaths where my mom and dad are.

My hometown also did these banners that you could sponsor and my mom did that for several years. I will have to figure out how to continue that. Here are two nieces and a nephew several years ago:

3. Is breakfast for dinner a stroke of genius or a sign of total household collapse? Is breakfast for dinner a regular thing at your house? Are all family members on board?

Breakfast for dinner is more common for us now as empty nesters. I don’t know why I didn’t do it more when the kids were young. We like to have the frozen Pillsbury biscuits, scrambled eggs, and bacon. Sometimes I do baby Crescent roll dough cinnamon rolls for dessert. Breakfast dessert!

4. How do you see the world?

I think I am pretty optimistic. I think that most people are inherently good. I don’t think you should use your bad situation/circumstance as a crutch or an excuse in your life. Some people seem to be dealt a tough hand, and other people seem to attract drama in their lives and almost thrive on it.

I think it would have been harder to be a high school teacher for 31 years had I not thought that most people are inherently good. I had some parents that were tough to deal with. I think it was hard to be young and a woman at times. I had some parents try to bully me. I think it’s easy to become bitter as a teacher, but I didn’t become bitter.

In my early years of teaching, I had a parent tell me that it must be me that was the reason their kid had a D. He said that I must be harboring ill will toward not just his kid but all the kids and that I needed to look deep within myself. Okay… your kid has a D in Spanish 2. It’s not that deep. He can’t conjugate his way out of a box. I’m sure he is a fine 44-year-old today.

There were only a handful of bad things in the thousands of good things, though. I still love teenagers and honestly would rather talk to them than most adults. Find me at the kids’ table!

5. And this week’s gratitude question-what’s something about your surroundings (home, neighborhood, city) you’re grateful for?

Old big trees! Beautiful leaves in red, gold, orange! Sidewalks! So many locally owned places and not just chains! My library! Four distinct seasons! A reasonable cost of living!

6. Insert your own random thought here.

If you haven’t taken a country or country-ish drive, do it! It was so nice on Sunday to see the beautiful sunlight hit the leaves. This photo doesn’t do it justice.

Then, back to my backyard:

Amy