Duke’s Mixture 01.07.2022

Sweet friends, it’s the first of the month, which means it’s time for Duke’s Mixture 01.07.2022.  In this first edition of the year, I am joining my friend Anne at In Residence again for her monthly Currently link-up.  Today we are sharing some holiday currentlies – anticipating, organizing, reading, resolving, and scheduling.  And I’m combining Currently with a  little HodgePodge.  I hope these posts are as much fun to read as they are to write!!

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anticipating:

PC’s 4-day weekend next week.  He will be off Friday and Monday for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday.  I am hoping we can slip away overnight or at least have some fun.  We both need a few days of R&R desperately.  What shall we do??

organizing:

nothing yet…except maybe my mind.  Trying to plan my month and here we are on the 5th day already.  Have decided to make the weeks that I don’t help with Lauren’s daughters my ‘writing and crafting’ weeks.  Which means I need to do the shopping, cleaning, laundry, ironing and everything else on the other weeks.  Preparing my grocery list – haven’t been home to go big shopping since the first of November.  Entertaining the idea of starting work on our income tax return.  And contemplating a massive purge of my closet.

reading:

oh, girls, I just keep adding books to my Goodreads to-read shelf.  But before I get to those, are we pals on Goodreads, yet?  If not, please find me here and shoot me a friend request.  How did you do on your Goodreads reading challenge for 2021?  I fell 2 books short of my 53-book goal.  Felt like that wasn’t bad considering the crazy in some of my days.  For 2022 I have set a goal of 54 books.  Probably need to supplement by reading a few picture books with the grands to ensure I am successful.

And what am I reading right now?  Well, my book club just selected our January title, The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley.  We are also reading club member Jo Tracey’s latest book, The Little Cafe by the Lake.

In addition to those titles, I am trying to finish Thin Girls by Diana Clark and The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan.  Have enjoyed both.  Although, Thin Girls deals with eating disorders and has had me pondering my own bout of anorexia in high school and college.  Making it a tough read.  About half-way through The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave.  This one came highly recommended, but the premise has been a little far-fetched for me.

Lauren impressed upon me that I really need to give ole HP another chance so she has loaned me her illustrated copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling.  I am liking it.  Just haven’t read much yet.

Finally, my devotional time includes 2 books beyond the obvious.  Reading The Prayer Journal for Women: 52 Week Scripture, Devotional & Guided Prayer Journal by Shannon Roberts and Happy for No Reason by Marci Shimoff.

 

resolving:

to lose the weight I have gained from a month of emotional eating.  Not off to a grand start yet, but we are back to tracking our Weight Watcher’s points, and I have signed up for 2 StepBet walking challenges.  Going to put together my wellness journey goals for a post this weekend.

scheduling:

LIFE.  But LIFE doesn’t like to be scheduled.  Have just started working as an animal sitter/dog walker through Rover.com.  We used the service to hire someone to watch Purrsimmony and Purrsnickitty while we were in Ft. Worth and I decided ‘hey, I can do this!’  So, I have my first ‘gig’ this weekend.  Hope that this little bit of work will help me feel like I am contributing more to our finances.  And to pay off my Amazon card (again).  Check out my profile, here.

That sums it up for this month’s edition of Currently.  Hope you will pop in to read Anne’s responses and maybe those of some of the other gals linking up this month.  Hope you will come back on February 2 to share what you are currently loving, making, taking, wanting, and wondering.

HodgePodge

 

Every Tuesday my friend Joyce who blogs at From This Side of the Pond poses 5 thoughtful questions for her readers to consider and respond to on the following day.  Her questions are fun to ponder and always make me stop for a moment to reflect.  Here are the hodgepodge questions for this week and my responses.

 

Happiness

1. Share one happy moment/memory from the holiday season.

The birth of my grandson Declan Ashraf Orya on 12.20.2021.  On the same day, just hours later, we almost lost his mama, my daughter Brennyn.  So that happiness was short-lived.  But now, almost 3 weeks later, all is well for mother and baby.

Expectation

2. Let’s be reasonable with our expectations going into this new year, k? What is one thing you’d like to accomplish/improve/complete/do in 2022?

Get into a routine of writing.  And then WRITE.

Word Up

3. Every January 1st (since 1976) Lake Superior University has published a list of words they’d like to see banished from the Queen’s English. Words may be banished due to misuse, overuse or just general uselessness (go here to read more about how the words are chosen). Here are the words/phrases they’d like to see banished in 2022-

wait, what?-no worries-at the end of the day-that being said-asking for a friend-circle back-deep dive-a new normal-you’re on mute-supply chain

Which of these words/phrases do you use regularly? Which of these words would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word/phrase not on the list you’d like to add?

Wow, what does it say about me that I don’t use any of these phrases??  That I am OLD.  Ha!!   I have probably said at the end of the day and that being said and possibly a new normal, all once or twice.  I hear circle back a lot from the President’s (I do realize that word is not capitalized but I don’t understand that) press secretary.  Deep dive is a phrase I’ve read online quite a bit.  Both of those are overused, in my opinion.  They can go away.

And so can my bad and dis.

Foodie

4. Best thing you ate in the month of December?

Delicious Afghan food prepared by my son-in-law Mustafa’s mother Parveen a few days after my brand-new grandson Declan was born.  Rice with meat in it called palow with beef.  Bolani with green onion and potato – kind of like a potato and green onion quesadilla minus the cheese.  Lohla kabobs, chapli kabobs that look a little like a hamburger patty but tastes so much better.  All drizzled with salata, a middle eastern version of pico de gallo or salsa.  So many flavors…savory, citrusy with a bit of spiciness.

Birdie

5. January 5th is National Bird Day. Are you a bird lover? What’s your favorite bird to see in the wild? Choose a phrase from the list that follows and tell us how it relates to your life currently…eat like a bird, bird’s eye view, early bird, bird-brained, free as a bird, a little bird told me, or kill two birds with one stone.  

Nope, not a bird lover.  However, I am learning to tolerate and even appreciate birds a little bit and from a respectable distance.  Christmas before last, the one in 2020, I discovered that seeing a cardinal means a loved one who has died is visiting you.  I kind of like cardinals now.  And hummingbirds.  They are cute.

[source]

Of the expressions listed above, I guess ‘eat like a bird’ is the one that best relates to my life right now.  Although, I am eating more like a condor than a sparrow.  But I am back on Weight Watchers, tracking points and hoping to lose the 6 pounds of emotional weight I picked up In December.

Covid

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I am sick to death of Covid.  We have 1003 new cases in El Paso today.  Will we ever go back to being in public without a mask?

 

Your Turn

 

What would your answers be to the hodgepodge questions?  How ’bout your responses to the currently prompts for this month?  Play along…share your answers in a comment below.

Hoping to get a WOTY and a 2021 year-in-review post written in the next few days and to figure out my wellness goals for the new year.  Also hoping to get by to see all of my blogging buddies.

Thank you for spending a few moments of your day here with me.

Hugs and kisses,