Snowy Hodgepodge! :-)

It's that time of the week again when Joyce at From This Side of the Pond hosts Wednesday Hodgepodge. Just go to her blog and join in, if you like and make some new friends or get better acquainted with some old ones!! Happy Snowy Wednesday!!! :-)

1. 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 mis-use, over-use or just general uselessness and they receive over 1000 nominations. Here are the fourteen words/phrases they'd like to see banished in 2011-viral, epic, fail, wow factor, a-ha moment, back story, BFF, man up, refudiate, Mama Grizzlies, The American People, facebook/google when used as verbs, I'm just sayin', and Live life to the fullest.
What word or phrase would you like to see banished from our everyday vocabulary in 2011? You can choose one from the 'official list' or you can get creative and come up with your own.
PHENOMENAL - I just think it is so overused when you consider that it is meant to describe something highly extraordinary according to dictionary.com and Webster's. I mean, I kind of cringe when I hear people use it! :-) What can I say?

2. Do you consider opportunity something that comes to you or something you create for yourself?

Wellllll......I think the way we live our lives has much to do with opportunities coming our way. So, I would say that it is a bit of both. :-) People do watch us and the way we live our lives on a day-to-day basis. So does the Lord, of course. :-) BUT, having said THAT, we do have a responsibility to take advantage of opportunity when it comes our way, if indeed it is something that we have desired to do.

3. Since we're all eating healthy this month, ahem, what's included in your favorite salad? Is there dressing?
We are? :-0 Oh my. :-) Where do I begin? Lettuce, as in romaine, leaf, a little iceberg, tad of spinach. Tomatoes. Onions. Cucumbers. Radishes. Green Pepper. Carrots. Dill pickle. I also like alfalfa sprouts. Boiled Egg. Crumbled Bacon. I don't care for cheese on my salad. My favorite dressing is Asian Sesame. I love, love, love it! I also like 1000 Island.

Bob Evan's has a luscious hot bacon dressing that is to die for! Oh my! :-)

Oh, and I do like grilled chicken on my salad, too!

I know, I know....I do have to be careful because salad CAN become a not-so-healthy thing! :-/

4. The fourth Monday in January is said to be Blue Monday...aka the most depressing day of the year. The date was calculated using many factors including weather, debt level, time since Christmas, time since we've failed at our new year resolutions, low motivation and feeling a need to take action. Do you get the blues this time of year and if so what is something you do to lift your spirits?
Yessss, I usually do. Believe it or not, having snow on the ground helps me alot. It makes everything so pretty and takes away the drabbiness of winter for me. Also, getting outside, whether the sun is shining or not, and breathing in the fresh air and walking around really helps, too.

My friend Barbara posted a very good article about combatting those winter blues at her blog Stray Thoughts!


5. Do you wear a watch? Any other everyday jewelry essentials?
No, I don't wear a watch, though I have one that I like very much. Actually, I have two. You see, I had just bought myself a watch from Avon that I really liked because it had large numbers on the face of it.

Well, lo and behold if my sister Debbie didn't buy me one almost identical to it! AND I had bought one for her, too!!! :-) Cahrazzzyyy, hm? :-)

Maybe it is because I've not worn one enough to get used to it, but it just kind of bugs me, having it on my wrist. I use my cellphone for checking the time. The only other jewelry I wear is my wedding ring which has been on my finger for 25 years this Feb. 15!!! :-)


6. What is something useful you learned in high school?

Typing and sewing. I use both of these skills all of the time. When I was teaching a computer class at the library, I had quite a few students who wished they had taken typing in school. Not knowing how to type really frustrated them in learning to use the computer but most of them stuck it out and pushed onward! :-)

I learned the basics of pattern reading and sewing in Home Economics, which I am so thankful for. My older sister Bev taught me many, many sewing skills and sewing shortcuts later in life.

7. Do you use an accountant when completing and filing your income tax returns or do you attempt to muddle through all by yourself?
Hmmmm.....I use a friend who is an accountant. :-) NOW, I have done our taxes in years past but I do not like math or numbers so it was a real chore for me. When I work with numbers like that I feel like my brain is being squeezed! Yuck! Sooooo, though I COULD do them, I would much rather PAY my friend to do them. It is also just one less thing I have to do, you know? :-)

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Another year I enter,

Its history unknown;

Oh, how my feet would tremble

To tread its paths alone!

But I have heard God's whisper -

I know I shall be blest -

"My presence shall go with you,

And I will give you rest."

What will the New Year bring me?

I may not, must not know.

Will it be love and rapture,

Or loneliness and woe?

Hush! Hush! I hear His whisper -

I surely shall be blest -

"My presence shall go with you,

And I will give you rest."

~author unknown~