Wednesday Hodgepodge

It's time for Wednesday Hodgepodge with Joyce, who blogs at From This Side of The Pond.  Each week she'll pose some questions for us to answer. What a great way to journal life.

1. Do you complete your own tax returns or hire out? When we were in ministry we hired our taxes out. Even when we were out, for quite a few years we had the same genteman do it, but then decided we could do it on our own. I've done it the last 2 or 3 years. This year was such a pain. I e-filed and 3 times it was rejected. I had to call for support two times, and finally got it right. Ughh! Something you've found taxing lately? I'm not sure. I can't really think of anything. You know, I LOVE to cook, but sometimes, having to cook all the time, especially when I work 3 days, can be taxing. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy planning the meals for the week, making the grocery list, etc...but sometimes it's a struggle, especially when I'm trying to make choices that work with how my hubby wants to eat and what does well with his body. 
Oh, and hot flashes....hot flashes are taxing. I'm tired of them. I'm already a "warm" person. At night, I'm kicking covers off and on. During the times when I'm home, I live in a tank top and shorts, or workout pants and I have a cardigan handy if I get chilled. When I'm at work, I wear short sleeve because everyone else is cold..haha. 

2. It's spring (in the northern hemisphere anyway)...would you rather spend the day hiking in the great outdoors or planting a garden? Since I don't have a garden, I'm going to say hiking. Do you/will you have a garden this year? Flowers, vegetables, or a bit of both?  I don't have a garden or landscaping at the moment. It wasn't high on the priority list when building and then finishing our house, at least for my hubby. I do have some containers to fill, and I have a blueberry patch. I have about 10 bushes and they give me so many blueberries each year. Enough to last the whole year. 

3. Do you consider yourself a patient person? Yes, I think for the most part I am patient. However, if I'm waiting for something I've been anticipating, I'm not so patient. Or if I'm waiting on hold, that tests my patience. In what sort of situation is patience not desirable? Hmmm I'm not sure on that one. Are you happy with the degree of patience you have in your daily life? I think so. I also think I'm very aware of times when I am being impatient (like with grandkids), and I'm fairly quick to shift gears. If not, what can you do to cultivate more of this quality in your life? When I do struggle with patience, I try to keep things in perspective. If it's impatience with another person, I try to think of why it is that might be causing them to do the thing I'm being impatient about, and why am I even impatient. Is it really their fault? 

4. Do you like the flavor cinnamon? yes, but it has to be subtle for the most part. I don't care for it in beverages (though I've made an apple pie/pumpkin pie protein shake with it and that's amazing)...so it has to be in something it fits with if that makes sense. If so what's your favorite something made with cinnamon? Obviously cinnamon rolls, monkey bread, snickerdoodles, coffee cakes, and the protein smoothies I mentioned above. 

5. Learn by watching or learn by doing? A little of both. Elaborate. I usually want to watch something first, maybe even a few times, and then I want to do it. The first times, I'll take notes, etc. For example at work, when it came to certain tasks, I would watch, take notes, and then the next time ask to do it myself. If I'm learning a new skill, I want to watch as I go (say drawing something or taking a paint and sip class...) I do better if I watch a step and then repeat the step. I recently went to a ceramic studio with a friend and we each picked out an item to paint and sat down to go for it. I had no real clue what to do, other than paint 2-3 coats on. I struggled. I thought choosing a simple pot would be easy, but I should have chosen something like an animal, because I at least could work with colors I knew to use. The pot was this blank thing, and I just wasn't sure what to do with it. We haven't gotten them back yet so we'll see how I did. I remember looking around at examples, but then thinking, but how did they do that. There wasn't really someone walking around asking if we needed help or advice. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. I'm typing my answers on Tuesday. Yay, I'm ahead of things. I always look forward to my two days off during the week. Tuesdays are the day I hang out with the grandkids, and Wednesdays are my own to do as I wish. I don't think it's supposed to rain today but then be dry the rest of the week, so I'm hoping to go out and get some things done outside. 

Today, I'm taking Pepper to a makeup gymnastics class in the city, so I'll take advantage of that and run some errands. Now I'm finishing this on Wednesday, and I have to chuckle, because when we got to gymnastics class yesterday she decided she didn't want to go in with the class...she can be quite stubborn. It was a great opportunity to exercise patience. I ended up staying in the class with her, kind of following along so she would participate. Giving thumbs up when she looked over at me. There was another little girl in the class having a hard time too, so her mom was a part as well. I told her she did a good job, and didn't dwell on the reason she didn't want to go in...she's 3, it could be any number of reasons, and all could be valid in her little mind.

Well, I have a long list of things to do today, so I better go get started. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin