Hodgepodge Wednesday: Most Grateful of All

 I'm joining in with Joyce for another Hodgepodge Wednesday. This week our questions run a wide gamut of topics. I love that I just never know what to expect with these. Let's just dive in. 

 


1. What does patriotism mean to you?  

To me patriotism is the love and pride one has for one's country. 

2. September-October-November...your favorite fall month? Tell us why. If you live in the southern hemisphere use these months but sub spring for the word fall. 

 Gosh I do love them all... but I'd have to say my favorite time of fall is when our leaves at their peak (which can hit anywhere between mid-Sept. and mid- October) and the weather is just right.... so typically October. September these past few years feels too warm to feel truly like fall and while I do not mind that in the least since I'll take the warm weather for however long it wants to lasts, my favorite fall month has to be October.  




3. A song you love with the word thanks (or some form of that word)  in the title or lyrics? 

I'm not great with songs or song lyrics but after a few Google searches the only one I could really come up with was Thank You For Being a Friend by Andrew Gold. Not only do I have such fond memories of watching the Golden Girls but I remember my middle school chorus singing this song for one of our concerts too.


4. November is National Peanut Butter Month. Are you a fan? What's the last peanut butter bite you had? Fill in the blank: peanut butter and _____________________ . Oh, and you can't say jelly. 

I do like peanut butter even if I don't eat it all that often. I think the last peanut butter thing I had was a bit of peanut butter with an apple. I like to spread peanut butter on an apple half and coat it with coconut.


 My favorite peanut butter pairing is chocolate!


5. This week's gratitude question-What event from this past year are you most grateful for? 

 So far in 2025 I am most thankful for our trip to Glacier National Park. 





 If we're talking about from last November to this November I think our family trip to Hawaii might eek out Glacier just for the fact that the boys were there. Both felt like once in a lifetime types of trips and I am so very grateful that we can afford to do these types of things.  



 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Weirdly my random thought this week is about language and the word grateful--- when I look at word meanings I don't understand why we came up with grateful. The base word grate refers to either a metal drain cover/fireplace grate, to make something small like grating cheese, or to annoy or irritate. Whereas the word great is associated with things like wonderful, good, to an extreme degree, etc... so why isn't it greatful? Of course Google helps makes better sense of it. Our English language is just so difficult to teach (and learn) because it's made up of bits and pieces of so many other languages-- like grateful which stems from the old Latin words and meanings.   

Linking up with:  

 

Comments

  1. Maria RineerNovember 12, 2025 at 5:32 AM

    Thank You For Being a Friend is a really good song. I'd forgotten all about it. October and peanut butter and chocolate were two of my answers, too! Have a great day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AuburnChickNovember 12, 2025 at 6:13 AM

    I have never seen a single episode of The Golden Girls. Shocking, isn’t it? I think I’m going to have to look up the etymology of the word grateful. I’m very curious now!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amy ScottNovember 12, 2025 at 6:26 AM

    Yes, the English language is way harder to teach than Spanish! I always told my students to be happy that they were native speakers of English.
    Great photos and great trip to Glacier. Having the whole family in Hawaii is something we don't take for granted as our kids get older, right? I am not sure we have another whole family trip in our future, but we will see.

    ReplyDelete
  4. HollyNovember 12, 2025 at 6:34 AM

    Hawaii was definitely a dream trip- still on my bucket list here! Don't blame you for your favorite time for fall - you are so right about the beauty of it all during that month or so!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kim CarberryNovember 12, 2025 at 6:52 AM

    You live in such a beautiful area, I can see why you like to see the trees and leaves change.
    I had a look on Google for the Thanks song and there wasn't as many as I expected. The Golden Girls was such a great show, I remember watching it years ago.
    You have been on some fantastic trips! The photos are stunning!

    ReplyDelete
  6. JoyceNovember 12, 2025 at 7:02 AM

    I'm interested in the word now too. Hmmm...English is complicated. Your pictures from Glacier are beautiful! I always struggle when someone asks what's my favorite trip because there are many factors. Having the whole family together can make a less than ideal location still feel like a favorite just because of the memories made there. And of course Hawaii is NOT a less than ideal location : ) We had two days of winter weather this week and even a little spitting snow. Heading back into the 60's today-yay!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Favorite TV Shows Growing Up in the 80's and early 90's

Image
Do you remember the TGIF lineups on Friday nights? I can remember planning sleepovers and time with friends around TV Show lineups of our favorite shows... or else trying to set the VCR to record our favorite shows if we weren't going to be home. And through the years I had SO MANY favorites! Growing pains aired in 1985 which put me around age 8 and it stayed on the air until I was 15 or so; I'm pretty sure most people in my age group watched mostly for Kirk Cameron and all his antics.  I still have a soft spot for family sit-coms!  The Facts of Life aired when I was just 2  and stayed on the air until I was 11 so I'm sure the episodes I remember so fondly were either some of the later ones and then reruns shown later on when I was old enough to watch from the beginning. I think everyone would have loved an Edna Garret in their lives.   Benson another sitcom that began airing when I was just 2 and was done by the time I was 9 (another one I must have watched mai...
Read more

Things That Make Me Laugh

Image
I loved the challenge of this week's list for our 26 lists link up.  I don't know about you but I really need to laugh more lately.  It's such a great stress reliever. 1.  Books-- I love a good funny book that makes me laugh out loud.  I haven't read one in a while but if you have any recommendations I'm all ears.  The last book I can remember making me laugh was the Un-Honeymooners. 2  The boys being silly. 3.  Watching shows like America's Funniest Videos or Family Feud. 4. My husband.  Most people don't realize it but he's actually pretty funny and often makes me laugh. 5.  Whenever my sisters/ family get together and we get to reminiscing (particularly if my Aunt Elaine is around) we end up laughing so hard at all the old family stories that we are all in tears by the end of the night.  It's fabulous. 6. Movies like Mom's Night Out, Christmas Vacation, and Grown Ups make me laugh out loud. 7.  When my ...
Read more

10 Most Popular Posts of All Time

Image
Each year near the end of December/ beginning of January I share the top 10 posts of the year but this year, in particular, I have noticed some much older posts that are still bringing in lots of pageviews and thought it would be fun to look back and see a top 10 list of all time.  I started my blog in June of 2012 and while so many of my first posts were long blocky, chunky rambles without any real photos of us and our family I just can't bring myself to delete any of them as I really do enjoy looking back and seeing how my blog has change and grown over time. Not surprisingly all my top 10 posts are from more recent years.  I love to look at what is popular and try to figure out WHY each post is so popular. Most of the time I can't but I love to speculate anyway.  10. Our 2022 Disney/Universal Trip Day 1 & 2 has almost 2000 views. Who doesn't love Disney and the Magic Kingdom? 😊 9. My Would You rather; Fall Edition had well over 3,000 pageview. I do, however, thi...
Read more

15 Family Restaurant Games

Image
When my boys were little and we'd take them out to eat I kept a small bag of toys in the car to grab on our way into any restaurant.  That way they would be entertained and a bit quieter while we enjoyed our meal. Now that the boys are older we don't keep a bag of toys handy but we do have few games we use to keep the boys occupied if they start getting bored or squirmy while we're waiting for our food or our check. While there are many phone apps, portable gaming systems and electronic games that could occupy my kids we prefer to use the time together at restaurants to connect with one another and so we tend to play games like: Hangman--   any restaurant that has paper place mats works well for this.  We take turns picking  a word and drawing our hangman stand then take turns calling out letters and seeing if we can solve the puzzle.   Tic Tac Toe-- This works best with pen on paper place mats but we have played making a grid with butter knives ...
Read more

Share Our Lives; How I Make Time for Reading

Image
This month for Share Our lives we're talking about how we make time for reading. For as far back as I can remember reading has been a priority in my life. I have been known to sneak off in a party and read a book quietly somewhere... Oh if there ever was a blog prompt that was made for me; this is it! I LITERALLY always have a book on me either in my purse or in my car. I read all the time. I am typically reading 2-3 or even 4 books at a time and have another one on audio that I'm listening to.    In the morning I prop open a book on the counter and read while I brush my teeth, blow dry my hair, get dressed.    I read while I eat breakfast and most days while I eat lunch too.    though this time of year I really miss sitting out here to read and eat breakfast!     I read when I'm in the doctor's, dentist, hairdresser, etc. Any time I am waiting in line I probably have a book open.    I listen to an audiobook when I clean the house, prep ...
Read more