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?

I spoke about this on Monday a little; it is definitely cold here! Tuesday morning it was 24, feels like 16 and today is even colder. The week will be very cold and I am not even sure it’s getting much warmer. I am swayed by the weather but usually only when it’s rainy and gloomy.

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?

Cabbage is fine; I don’t eat it often but I might start weaving it in. I guess in my everyday life, I eat it most as sauerkraut.

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?

I definitely had one, even though I was not much of a doll kid. I honestly cannot think of anything other than Nintendo that I wanted but didn’t get, which makes me sound spoiled but I really only got things on my birthday and Christmas, but my parents definitely went all out then.

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

Working! I have been grading like crazy and devising new assignments and just… so much. But also, we’ve been brewing a lot. We have had events and we have more upcoming, so we’ve been preparing.

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

It has been both warmish and freezing!

Every weekend has been jam-packed full of activity.

I cannot believe it is actually almost over.

6. Insert your own random thought here

Something changed in WordPress and the initial layout for a draft is different. I don’t care for it. Anyway, it’s career day for Catholic Schools Week and we have about 16 speakers that the students will rotate through, one of which I know. They still needed an engineer as of a couple weeks ago so, seeing as how my husband has worked with many an engineer at DOT over the past 2 decades, I reached out. I think it’s a cool idea but also, we’re losing instruction time and now they’re kind of behind on reading Tale of Two Cities. We can’t seem to get any traction on this story.

Ash and I have been doing really well with our keto weeks; eating keto on Monday – Thursday, if not Friday also. Tuesday was teacher appreciation and they gave us bagels so I had to eat nearly zero carbs for dinner to make up for it. I’m aiming for a weekly total of at most, 300. Tuesday I reached 80 in 5 minutes. It’s crazy how much of that we ingest! Today we are getting Glory Days for lunch and hopefully there’s some kind of meat I can grab so as to keep to the proper foods.

In viewing news, we’ve been watching this show called Primal and really liking it. I have complained often that I don’t want to watch TV shows but Elliot got us hooked on this. It has no dialogue and it’s animated, about a caveman and a dinosaur. It’s a little violent but I mean, it takes place during prehistoric times! I recommend it.