The Wednesday Hodgepodge #53

I hope you are all having a good week. It's Wednesday, which means it's time to join in with the Wednesday Hodgepodge with Joyce who blogs at From This Side of the Pond! Each week there are 6 questions, we answer and then link up. Simple!

1. Are you feeling more reset, restart, or full speed ahead as we move into May? Tell us why.

I'm feeling full speed ahead at the moment. I’ve just got over a cold and I didn’t realise how much it had knocked me and slowed me down until I started feeling normal again. I am now feeling energised and I have a lot of motivation for the week ahead. I’m writing this on a Sunday afternoon and I've just written a list of jobs that I want to get done this week, house things, online things and some jobs around the garden. I was also writing my goals and plans post for May which makes me excited about a new month.

2. Painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, cinema, theatre, music...what's your favorite form of art? Elaborate.

I think cinema and music are my favourite. They feel easy to dip into. I can stick a film on in the evening and be pulled into a different world for a couple of hours or have music playing while I’m cooking, cleaning or even just sitting doing nothing. A song can change your mood so quickly. You can go from feeling a bit meh to suddenly singing along in the kitchen in the best mood. I like that you don’t need to learn how to enjoy cinema or music, with things like painting or sculpting there is more effort involved with learning how to enjoy them. I do feel like I’m slowly getting more into literature due to the discovery of Audiobooks. I know some people turn their nose up at them and say it’s not the same as reading but I don’t really care. It works for me, I can listen while doing other things.

3. What time is dinner at your house? How do you feel about leftovers?

Dinner at our house is usually around quarter to seven, Tuesday to Saturday when Stu gets in from work. On the other days it’s a bit earlier, at around 6pm. It just makes sense for us all to eat together when my fella gets in. I did try doing two sittings at one point. The girls would eat earlier and then Stu and I would eat later when he got in. At the time, it sounded like a good idea but in reality, it just meant I was stuck in the kitchen for way longer than I should have been.

Myself and my family love leftovers. If there’s anything left from tea, my fella will usually take it to work the next day for his lunch. It saves making something else and it’s always nicer than a boring sandwich. Some meals taste better the next day. Things like casseroles always taste so good once everything has had time to sit and soak into each other, pizza is another one and anything that took me ages to cook the first time feels even better when I'm just reheating it.

4. What's the last thing you fell down a rabbit hole investigating?

I saw online that a guy, Darrell Sheets took his own life. I used to watch him on the TV show Storage Wars years ago. That led me down a rabbit hole investigating where the rest of the cast from the show are now. It then got me thinking about the show Ice Road Truckers, which I used to watch around the same time and where all the cast are now.

5. And now for a question from the book Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me... At what are you 'self-taught?'

There is quite a lot when I think about it. Cooking is a big one. I’ve never had any proper training or lessons. It’s just been years of trying recipes, guessing measurements, adjusting things and hoping for the best. Gardening is another. I’ve picked things up over time but a lot of it is trial and error. Blogging is probably the biggest thing I started with no clue. I didn't follow a guide and had no plan when I first started. I just jumped in and figured it out as I went along and I am still figuring it out 13 years later. Then there’s parenting. No one really taught me how to be a parent. I read books, looked things up online, asked for advice but it's one of those things you mostly learn by doing it.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Thanks to writing this blog post, I am now watching Ice Road Truckers. It reminded me to have a look at who was streaming it. I found the first 4 seasons on ITVX which will keep me going for a while. Ice Road Truckers is a reality TV show about truck drivers hauling supplies across frozen lakes and remote winter roads in places like Alaska and Canada. It follows the risks they take, thin ice, brutal weather and long isolated journeys.