Wednesday Hodgepodge

Happy June Y’All, glad you stopped by to Hodgepodge with us!!! if you would like to link up, click on the button below to head over to Joyce’s.

1. Tell us about one fun thing on your June calendar.

After the April and May I had, June is mercifully light! We have some things planned for the other summer months, but June is shaping up to be calm. One fun thing is we are trying something different with our small group Bible study. We typically start the year in September and end in May, but we didn’t even get started this year until after Christmas. We have decided to try and continue meeting throughout the summer, but we will do social things. Honey and I usually host throughout the year, but for the summer others will be able to plan and host BBQ’s, outings, movie or game nights, golfing and what have you. We are looking forward to switching things up! 

2. How careful are you in the sun? Do you tan or burn? Do you make it a point to see the dermatologist every year?

I am not careful in Michigan, I don’t think I ever put on sunscreen when doing yard work, and i usually just get tan. My face lotion does have 30 SPF. I am much more careful on vacation to a warmer climate, as I am usually much whiter because it’s winter in The Mitten! I like to read in the sun, so I will put on some SPF 15 to prevent crisping. I tan fairly well but I would rather not spend a vacation suffering with a painful burn. Been there, done that.

I have never been to a dermatologist but have considered going. My Father and his Father had some suspicious skin removed over their lives, so it wouldn’t be unwarranted. I do not appear to have their skin type though. I was a bit of a sun worshipper back in the day so it would be better to be safe than sorry.

3. Describe a time when you wanted to ‘throw in the towel’?

Hmmm, so many to choose from. Health problems, disappointments, relationships, large tasks. Often you want to just chuck the dang thing out a nearby window and be done with the whole kit and caboodle. Unfortunately, throwing in the towel is rarely an option. Perseverance is usually required. This is what I tend to do when I am in prime towel throwing mode.

Hebrews 4:16

God helps you fold that impossibly bunched up towel and put it back in the linen closet. Ready to try again another day.

4. What’s a song you love that has a day of the week in the title or lyrics?

The first one that came to mind was Monday Morning by Fleetwood Mac. I surely did love Fleetwood Mac.

5. Are you a fan of berries? Which one’s your favorite? What’s the most recent berry dish you’ve eaten? Which blueberry breakfast food appeals to you most-blueberry pancakes, blueberry yogurt, or a blueberry muffin?

BIG fan of the berry here! My favorite is probably the strawberry. The most recent berry dish I’ve eaten was a triple berry pie with vanilla ice cream down at Mrs. Schmenkman’s house in Virginia! We did extensive damage to that pie! De-licious!

I like to have blueberries and strawberries in my yogurt. MMMMmmm, tomorrows breakfast!

6. What’s something you want to do before your next birthday?

Honey wants to go down to South Carolina and check out a few areas he has had his eye on for possible retirement landing. It would be nice to do that before my birthday in September, I would like to do it before all the fall activities get under way. We have only been there once, years ago, and he wants to explore it further. We will slide in a little vaca there too!

7. June 1st is National Say Something Nice Day, so let’s all say something nice here.

I want to say something nice to this guy!!! For 21 years now Honey has sent me to visit Mrs. Schmenkman around Memorial Day weekend, where ever she might be living. As a tired Mama of 3, it was always such a treat, and as a gal on the other side of the Mama hill, I’m here to tell you it is STILL such a treat!!!!!

Mrs. Schmenkman and I always say that we married KEEPERS! Thanks for the trip Honey, loved it, LOVE YOU!!!!!

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

Do you have room for me to say one more nice thing? Thank you to Schmenky, for having me down yonder to Sassy Cat Hill in Virginia!  We had a discussion over lunch that we have been dear friends for 28 years, that’s even before I had children! Who knew when she came to work with us at the salon, that we would still feature so prominently in each others lives almost 3 decades later!!!!

While shopping this weekend, I called her over to listen to a couple of sweet older ladies who were chatting away as they shopped together. They were so cute, holding things up for the other to see, thinking it might be something the other would like. I said look, us in another 20 years!!!

Thanks for being my friend Schmenky! Love youuuuuuuu!

Hope everyone has a wonderful June!

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Way Back When-sday Hodgepodge

Here we are at the last Hodgepodge of March, where did this month go??!! If you would like to link up, click on the button below to head over to Joyce’s.

1. What are two or three expectations you have of yourself?

It is my desired expectation to finish this life strong. To continue growing in the Lord, being transformed and having my mind renewed. Our study in Revelation last week was about sanctification.

***The generic meaning of sanctification is “the state of proper functioning.” To sanctify someone or something is to set that person or thing apart for the use intended by its designer. A pen is “sanctified” when used to write. Eyeglasses are “sanctified” when used to improve sight. In the theological sense, things are sanctified when they are used for the purpose God intends. A human being is sanctified, therefore, when he or she lives according to God’s design and purpose.***

That’s it, I want to be used for the purpose God intends, and I am expecting He will help me accomplish it.

2. In what way does your outdoor space need sprucing up this spring?

Oh goodness, I have mentioned a time or seven that we need to do something with our deck. We keep going back and forth between repairing and painting it or a complete teardown and rebuild with a Trex like product. As of right now the plan is to repair and repaint. Our house could be on the market in the next several years and the new owners might not need the ramps. We will let them decide what they want to do.

3. According to this site (Roadtrippers), six of North America’s most wondrous waterfalls are-Webster’s Falls in Ontario, Upper Whitewater Falls in North Carolina, Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon, Multnomah Falls in Oregon, The Lower Yellowstone Falls, and Niagara.  Have you seen any on the list? Which one on the list would you most like to visit? Prettiest waterfall not on the list that you’ve seen in person?

Have only been to Niagara Falls. I would be more than happy to visit any of them!

4. Looking back, what’s something you wish you’d done as a teenager?

Learned how to cook? My Mom and Grandma were good cooks and I could have learned a thing or two but I was not inclined. I came into marriage with the skills I picked up from my junior high HomEc classes. Scary, I know.

5. Ham…yes please or no thank you? If you said yes please which of the following do you like best-baked ham with all the trimmings, a ham and cheese sandwich, prosciutto with melon, a ham biscuit, a bowl of split pea and ham soup, or a slice of pizza topped with ham and pineapple?

I do like ham. Probably would enjoy it with all the trimmings the best. I waffled between that and the pizza, but I think I just have a hankering for pizza!
6. Are you typical of your generation? How so?

I think this is a hard question, I don’t really know what is typical of my generation. I seem to be typical of a lot of people I know. We have families, homes, are involved in serving the Lord at church and elsewhere, are coming up on retirement,  are not happy with our weight. I guess I am typical!

7. April rolls in at the end of the week, and in keeping with that theme…’act the fool’, ‘nobody’s fool’ ‘a fool’s errand’, ‘could have fooled me’…which foolish idiom most recently applies to you?

I frequently get involved in a fool’s errand. Sometimes because of my own forgetfulness, usually because the place I went doesn’t have what I need, which results in looking all over the place, and sometimes returning home empty handed. Fools errand, starring me as Fool.

 8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Here is the Way Back When-sday part of the post.

April 1 would have been my parents 45th wedding anniversary. Look at that hair, on both of them!!!! My Mom’s was seriously teased and my Dad’s was so black and there!!!! I just cut his hair this weekend and I can tell you he would dearly LOVE to have that head of hair now!!!!

I was 9 and my brother Beeve was 5. I remember my Mother’s icy blue dress and that’s about it. In hindsight, it was a pretty good day, we got Dad!

My Mom’s been gone for 6 years now but I will always remember the date as their day.

As an afterthought, did anyone else have that giant fork and spoon adorning their walls in the 70s? It was a very common thing when I was growing up!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Still Snapping

Still enjoying the Snapchat. I sometimes feel sorry for Honey, Mousey and the Capri’s L and D.

Snapsterpiece, that’s a great word!

Introduced it to my Dad yesterday.

He’s a fox.

For some reason I couldn’t forward the picture from Honey’s phone like I did with mine.. But as my Grandma and Mom used to say, there is more than one way to skin a cat, I took a picture of Honey’s screen with my phone and sent it along. By the way, that skin a cat saying is awful! Why are people skinning cats??? Ewww.

So many chins.

Quite possibly my all time favorite.

 

So far!

Way Back When-sday Hodgepodge

Howdy! Glad you stopped by! My thanks to Joyce for gathering us all together and giving us something to talk about!

1. Share one thing that really makes your day.

A good conversation with Honey or the kids can be a bright spot! Connection and laughter are my favorites.

2. Lots of these kinds of lists out there, but one found here says the fifteen most colorful places on earth are:

Vernazza, Cinque Terre, Italy~Burano, Italy~Havana, Cuba~Rio de Janiero, Brazil~Chefchaouen, Morocco~Balat, Istanbul, Turkey~Menton, France~Jodhpur, India~La Baca, Buenos Aires, Argentina~Guanajuato, Mexico~Capetown, South Africa~Valparaiso, Chile~Wroclaw, Poland~San Francisco, California~and Pelourhino, Salvador, Brazil. 

Of those listed which would you most like to see up close and in person? Of all the places you’ve seen or traveled in your own life, what would you say was one of the most colorful?

I don’t have a huge desire to go to some of those places, such as Turkey, at the moment. Let’s say Italy because we have been wanting to visit the land of Honey’s people anyway.

3.“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” Jack Canfield  In general, would you agree or disagree with that statement? Why?

I do not agree. I don’t even really understand it. The things I want are not on the other side of fear. Is this supposed to be advice to people fearful of going after a dream or goal? Bravely pushing through to your desired achievement? Some people are just fraidy cats, so maybe everything they want is on the other side of fear.

The Lord tells me not to fear.

Isaiah 41:13

For I am the Lord your God
who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you.

I would be lying if I said I had no fears, because of course I do. Some are unrealistic and some are the reality of my life. Sharks, quicksand, poisonous snakes and velociraptors are unlikely to be a deterrent to my happiness. Issues with safety, accidents, fears of brutality against my loved ones, these are real fears, but I don’t think they rule my life. They don’t keep me from what I want, and I don’t feel I need to push through them. They are concerns that I regularly take to the Lord.

  I have learned through experience in the darkest hours of my life, when there was great cause for fear, the Lord is faithful, was holding our hands and helping us, and will indeed be our firm foundation.

4. Imagine you’re stranded on a desert island and dessert appears…what do you hope it is? Do you ever struggle to remember which spelling is desert and which is dessert?

I think I used to have that struggle, but not in a long time  🙂

Hmmmm, i am not known to have a set in stone favorite dessert, I like to say that I am an equal opportunity dessert eater. But the last few years I have really enjoyed Mrs. Davis’ coconut pound cake an inordinate amount!

5. What song almost always makes you cry?

I used to cry every time I heard I’ll Be Home For Christmas, and then it just stopped! There Goes My Life by Kenny Chesney can get me sometimes.. Some worship songs are particularly emotional depending on what is going on in my life.

6. January is National Soup Month.  Everything from soup to nuts, in the soup, thick as pea soup, souped up…which saying most recently applies to your life in some way? Explain.

We have had some fog and snow lately that have been as thick as pea soup!
7. Write a two word note to your younger self. What does it say?

Buy Microsoft!!!!
8. Insert your own random thought here.

On this Way Back When-sday we go back to when little Mousey girl fell asleep on her Mama! Heart, heart, H.E.A.R.T.!

Thanks for stopping by!

The Weekly Sy PLUS

Plus other stuff. I was looking through my phone pictures and found our dear friends The Hostlers from Christmas Eve! And I thought I didn’t take any photos! Jona-fin was looking festive and spiffy as Buddy the Elf. He wins, all the rest of us can do is try.

Read this in the BSF notes this morning. We serve an on time God, can I get an amen? Sent this to a loved one undergoing tests this morning and now it is shown to you.

My car, Juanita, had a health crisis yesterday. She drove me to BSF just like she always does, but when I got back in to leave, she just clicked at me. Or ticked. With each little click and or tick she was repeating; no, no, no, no. One of the pastors from the church where we meet tried to give me a jump, but she was not receiving it.

Dear Sandra graciously brought me home and Honey and I headed back over later in the afternoon. Juanita was resolute in her insistence that she was not starting, so we took her battery in and the good man at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts confirmed that The Force was not with her. After installing her newly purchased battery she started right up like the reliable gal I know her to be! I am thanking, thanking, THANKING the Lord that it was just a bum battery and not a towable offense!!!

I think this is the first Weekly Sy of 2016!

Have you seen that expression “if it fits, it sits”? Seymour has many places to lounge in our home, so I was surprised to see him in this long, narrow basket given to me one Christmas by my friend Pam. He barely fit.

This cat tree is one of his favorite places to sit. We used to call it his sassy spot because he was spicy and naughty in it, like it was his own personal perch of misbehavior. He has come a long way in his year with us. He is about 80% less bitey and can actually be touched when on his sassy tree. He has decided that he loves everyone in the house, and has his own quirky relationships with us all.

There’s our #prettyguysy!

He continues to save his best love and special devotion for Abby. But he is basically promiscuous, he will sleep on and with anyone.

The elder felines continue to hate him with every ounce in their bodies. And if you knew them, that is a lot.

Have a good weekend.

Way Back When-sday Hodgepodge

Happy New Year! Thanks for stopping by and a special thanks to our hostess Joyce who gathers us together each week and gives us something to talk about! Click on the button below if you would like to join us.

1. Are you ready for new? Is 2016 likely to be very different than 2015? Do you want it to be?

I am ready for new! I would hope it would be some different. We will be one year closer to Honey’s retirement and one year older and wiser! There are some things I have been praying about in 2015 that I hope will come to fruition. Waiting can be hard, but God regularly lets me know that His timing is not my timing.
2. January 6th is National Technology Day. Currently, what is your single biggest struggle or frustration when it comes to technology?

It may seem a little broad, but it frustrates me greatly when the computer won’t let me do what I want to do! There must be a technological way of thinking that I do not possess. Some things just plain do not make sense or else you need information that you learned in some secret club to pull it all together.

Here is a for instance. Our computer shut down to do a little maintenance last month and when it came back on it makes me log in EVERY SINGLE time I go to use it. It did not do that before and I have looked and looked to find out where I might disable that annoying feature but alas, no idea where that might be. Why wouldn’t it be where you can change other things on your desktop?? See? Makes no sense!

3. It’s that time again…time for Lake Superior University to present a list of words (or phrases) they’d like to see banished (for over-use, mis-use, and general uselessness) in 2016. You can read more about the decision making process here, but this year’s top vote getters are-
So (at the start of every single sentence), conversation (as in hotly debated topics where we’re invited to ‘join the conversation’), problematic, stakeholder, price point, secret sauce, break the Internet, walk it back, presser, manspreading (common in larger cities where some men take up the entire bus or train seat by sitting wide), vape, giving me life (refers to anything that may excite a person or make them laugh), and physicality
Which of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word not on the list you’d like to add?

I am even more out of touch than I might have imagined. I have only heard of two of these! I know what vaping is and I unfortunately know what “break the Internet” is because of a certain classless woman and her backside. I guess I would get rid of that one because of that.

4. Share one of your current health related goals.

I would greatly enjoy losing about 15 pounds. Honey is looking to join me so hopefully we can spur each on! It’s good to have goals.

5. Let’s talk fifty shades of gray. As in the color. Gray is currently a popular color in home decor, paint, wardrobes, hair, wedding party attire, and more. Are you a fan? Do you have the color in some variation in your home or wardrobe?  Gray hair, the old gray mare, gray matter, gray area…which gray idiom can you most relate to right now?

I like to wear grey but other than that, not so much. Honey and I had grey in our first three homes, and while I can like it fine in yours, I am not excited to have it again in mine. I also spend time every month banishing a line of silver grey from my hair.

I have used the idiom “the old grey mare, she ain’t what she used to be” many times describing myself! All those things I took for granted! Eating whatever I wanted, a flat tummy, SLEEPING, not sweating, many less aches and pains, the above mentioned grey hairs! I just keep telling myself that Jesus is renewing my mind. It will have to do.

6. Certain foods are considered ‘lucky’ if eaten on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. Cooked greens to bring economic fortune, black-eyed peas or lentils also symbolize money, pork which symbolizes progress, fish for good luck, and if you’re in Spain 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight. Did you eat any lucky foods on the first day of the year? Is that a tradition in your home? Of the foods listed, which most appeals to you?

We did not have a single lucky food! Wait, I take it back, we all had a little halibut when we had our fondue on New Years Day! It was yummy!
7. What’s the single biggest time waster in your life and what, if anything, will you do about it this year?

The iPad for sure. By the time I check the blogs I read, Instagram, Facebook, the news, and email, a lot of time could have been wasted. And that’s not even including Pinterest, Words With Friends or a couple quick games of Rainbow Jewels, Jewel Quest or Penguin Solitaire. YIKES.

I should probably set some limits for myself. I have to say though, the above is nor every day. Lots of days are busy and I don’t do the majority of it. But when I do……
8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Here is the Way Back When-sday part of the post. Let’s go back around 1986, to the GREY couch we had in our first 3 houses.

There’s my purty Mama on Christmas Eve in our first home in Windsor, Ontario, Canada! This is how I often picture her, laughing. I have no idea what she was finding hilarious!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a good January!

F-List

I have a Friday list for your viewing pleasure.

We have Caregroup tonight for the first time in what feels like a coons age.

What is a coons age? A long time.

Do raccoons live a long time or something? Another phrase I have used my whole life and do not really understand.

Honey is OFF on Saturday!!!!!!!

The Ab-Cat is insistent that we go and see the new Avengers movie this weekend. She loves all things superhero. In her heart she is a teenage boy.

It is supposed to be in the 70s on Sunday, WOO HOO!!!!!!!

This was our last class week at BSF.

This is always a bittersweet time of year. While we leaders are always glad for a break, there are always some leaders and class members who will not be returning for various reasons. Sometimes you never see those friends again. And that is why when we sing “God Be With You Till We Meet Again”, it always makes me cry.

Till we meet, till we meet,
till we meet at Jesus’ feet;
till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again.

Just yesterday we learned that a beloved class member had passed away. In all the years I have known Sister Ann her response to “how are you today?”, was always, “I am blessed and highly favored”.

Every.Single.Time.

Such a lovely woman who loved the Lord..

Today is shaping up to be a beautimous day!!

Keelyody and I walked this morning, solved some world problems, commiserated about our health and weight and generally agreed that we are just putting out fires and hoping we will figure out the right combination of exercise/supplements/food to help us get through this uncertain, changing, traitorous time in the life of our bodies.

When we walk I keep my head down, looking where I walk. I fear tripping. Keelyody evidently keeps her head up so she can see where we are going. This is why I was able to be helpful when she asked in a horrified tone, “Please tell me I didn’t stand on something dead!!”. I knew she had only walked on an old wet, knit hat on the side of the road.

I help when I can.

Happy May Y’All!

Have a good weekend.

Post Big Kahuna

The Mitten is having a second snow day! I think it was really more for the sake of the school busses than anything. The Ab-Cat ventured out for BSF last night and Honey went back to work.

This was during the first plow, before things really got ramped up. That’s my boyfriend, looking like a terrorist. He plowed 3 times and decided we had over 16 inches of powder.

 

It was piling up.

Half a tree piled up!

The next day dawned sunny and super bright. Like blink your eyes bright.

Honey said I should come out and take a picture, the house looked pretty!

I like these two tree brothers.

 

Cement Katie was in up to her snout.

The snow has quit, now we are in the deep freeze. 8 degrees, but at least still sunny.

The garbage men just came, their groove was thrown off yesterday. Honey just mentioned he told them to take our sad, broken garbage can, so that means a trip to Lowes or Home Depot is in my future.

On another note, the blog is coming along! Honey finally got the Windows Live Writer downloaded and I finally figured out the picture download thingy, we are now up and at’em! Which I used to think was up and Adam, and that made NO sense at all.

The one thing that is bugging me right now is the blog roll is not alphabetical. It is on the dashboard, but comes out all willy nilly on the home page. Is that a hill to die on? I go back and forth between there should be a way and let it go.

I think I will go out today. I have been in the house since I got home from my errands on Saturday afternoon, before the Big Kahuna storm. That’s not what they are calling it, that’s what I am calling it.

I went to Gordon’s Food Service to get the naan bread we use for pizza crust, down to New Mexico to get salsa for Honey and Mousey, then unfortunately had to run in to Meijer, where I found our entire town and there was not an empty cart in sight.

I think it was the perfect trifecta of events that caused the stampede. Weekend shoppers, the coming Kahuna and the Superbowl. I was glad to get out of that mad house.

After that experience I was glad to be socked in at home, but now I am ready to rejoin the masses.Maybe Sam’s, maybe we gals can go pick up our new glasses! That sounds like fun!

I’ll let you know how it goes down. Have a fun day!