Life in a Small Town

Friday Fotos 2026: #1

Friday Fotos is a post where I can dump some photos from the previous week. The goal is to make me more aware of the beauty and fun in my everyday life. It's not even quite the end of January and I've managed to take some pictures!

Friday, I tried out this new recipe for "Veggie Stew"...except I added some stew meat to it. It's a keeper!

The girls and I spent Saturday lounging, reading, and enjoying a "fire" (courtesy of YouTube) in my office.

I used the remainder of my bird seed from last year and looked out in time to see this cardinal.

We ended up with a dusting of snow when I woke up on Sunday morning. We had some sleet/freezing rain, then quite a bit of rain on Saturday.

Not very many pictures, but enough to do a quick post!

Gold Mine Hodgepodge

Joyce asks the questions, and we provide the answers. See how others answered at From This Side of the Pond.

1. I live in the south so we're pretty much only talking about the weather right now. Give us a weather report from where you live. Does the kind of weather you're having today affect your mood in some way?

As I write this on Tuesday at 11:00 a.m., it's 17 degrees F in the Knoxville area. I woke up to 10 degrees, so the warm-up is on its way! Thank goodness we didn't get all of the ice that Nashville did. In my county, there were no reported power outages. I went to Mass Monday morning; the roads were okay except for ramps on/off a US highway. Since I live on a main road, if I can get out of my driveway, then I'm okay.

2. Avocados, kale, cauliflower and cottage cheese have all had their time to shine. 2026 brings us the year of the cabbage. Is this a vegetable you like? If so, what are some of your favorite dishes that call for cabbage?

Raw cabbage: yes. Cooked cabbage: EWWW. I like a good coleslaw. My mom used to make it with vinegar, salt, and pepper. I'm not sure if she added anything else to it.

3. Was a Cabbage Patch Doll a part of your childhood? Or maybe your children's childhood? What's a toy trend from your childhood you remember wanting for your own?

Cabbage Patch Dolls were a "thing" after my childhood, and my boys definitely weren't interested in it. I wanted an Easy Bake Oven something fierce, but never had one. Maybe Daddy was afraid I'd burn down the house? A childhood friend who lived up the street got one for Christmas, but I don't think she was very interested in it.

4. Something you've spent a lot of time doing lately?

Reading. Which isn't a bad thing at all! I've read a couple of books this month that have been in my Kindle Unlimited for a long time; I've got to clear them out so I can load more.

5. Somehow it's the last week of January...sum up your month in just three sentences.

I'm establishing a routine.

I've been able to stay warm

I've done a lot of reading

6. Insert your own random thought here.

When I googled Cabbage Patch Dolls to see when they were popular, this popped up:

So if you've got one still in the box, you have a gold mine!

Flashback to 2016

As I wrote the answers to the Wednesday Hodgepodge one week, one of the questions was to post a picture from 10 years ago. This seems to be a trend on social media right now. When I looked back, I realized what a really good year that was, and I had trouble deciding on just one picture. (I actually snuck in 2, but only 1 was from 2016.) That gave me an idea for this post.

January

We started off the year quietly at home

February

We made a trip to Baton Rouge to visit MS for the Law School's First Year Parent Weekend

March

We spent Spring Break camping at Edisto State Park, SC

This is one of my favorite pictures of Laika. This was her first trip to the beach.

April

I met Father Leo Patalinghug during the Council of Catholic Women's Convention. He is also known as the "cooking priest"; he won a "throwdown with Bobby Flay".