Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Besides Thanksgiving, something you're looking forward to on your November calendar?

Whoo.  Well, "Thanksgiving" covers a lot of ground on my calendar, because we're travelling to visit my family for Thanksgiving.  I am looking forward to seeing my sister and her family again, and I'm looking forward to the kids' first trip on an airplane (and I'm grateful Sunshine has been medically cleared for air travel!), and I'm looking forward to seeing some old friends, and I'm looking forward to the photo session with my sister and her family and our faaaavorite photographer while we're there.

If you're talking about something other than that weekend, I'm looking forward to my son's first day at baseball clinics.

2.  If I gave you a thank you card right now who would you send it to and why?

Fascinating question.  I had to think about this one for a while, but I think I'd send it to my mother-in-law.  I'd explain why, but this blog is supposed to keep me focused on the positive things, and it's hard to explain how much she's had my back while keeping the bitterness out of it.

3. Of the breads listed, which one's your favorite...bagel, cinnamon, sourdough, garlic, banana, biscuit, pita, Naan, or plain old fashioned white bread?

garlic bread!  I love garlic bread.  (I miss garlic bread.)  There's a store here that sells a loaf of French bread with chunks of roasted garlic baked into it, and despite realizing that gluten and I don't get along, that bread is sorely tempting.

4. What's something you have in abundance? Is that a good thing?

LEAVES.  Oh my goodness.  One oak tree in our back yard, and it's a mess.  I guess I don't mind raking leaves, I just hate having to bag them and drag them to the front yard.

5. November 5th is National Love Your Red Hair Day. Are there any redheads in your family? Who's your favorite redhead?

My grandfather was a redhead back in his younger years.  So were both my uncles (on opposite sides of the family).  Grandpa died when I was 11, but my uncles are both still with us, and they're awesome.  Favorite (non-family) redhead crown has to go to my friend E, who is awesome and hilarious.

6.  The travel website Busbud recently calculated the most Instagrammed spot in every state. Go here to see what made the list where you live. Are you happy with your state's #1? If not what do you think should be the most photographed spot in your state? Have you snapped a photo there? If you live outside the USA answer as it relates to your state, city or province.

Ours is the Pittsburgh Zoo.  I've only been there once, and I'm not sure if I took a picture there or not.  (Probably?)  I have to admit to being surprised that it's there, because there's also Hershey, and Philadelphia, and Valley Forge, and Jumonville, and a whole truckload of other amazing things to see right here in Pittsburgh.  (The clipper fleet?  PNC Park?  The Point?  Mount Washington?  Even without the rest of the state, how did the zoo win the battle in Pittsburgh?)

7. I'm going to try to have something related to gratitude in this spot each week during the month of November. Here's this week's question-

What's something you've learned about yourself this year that you're grateful for?

I have learned that I don't actually give up, even when I want to or when I say I'm going to.  I would much rather just keep going forward.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I am overjoyed that my hometown baseball team won the World Series!  The photos of the victory rally look overwhelming, and rumor has it that the number of attendees is almost double that of the actual population of the city herself, but in a crowd of 800,000 people, if nobody gets hurt and only three of them get arrested, I'm proud to watch how they celebrate by being a community rather than drunken rioting.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Are you comfortable with silence? If you're home alone, do you like silence or do you need regular background noise? Do you seek out times and places to be silent? What's your favorite place to find silence/be silent?

I am.  Eventually, I'll turn on some music or something, but I do enjoy quiet time.  My favorite quiet/silent place is in my home with a good book.

2. October 28th is National Chocolate Day. Can't let that go by without a mention now, can we? Will you celebrate? How? Let's say you can have one of the following right this very minute... a cup of hot chocolate, a strawberry dipped in chocolate, a bowl of plain chocolate ice cream, or a slice of chocolate pie...what's your pleasure?

Probably won't be celebrating.   But if I had to choose right now, I'd go for a cup of hot chocolate.  I'm coming down with some nastiness and would drink all the hot things if I could.

3. How do you feel about blue jeans? Favorite thing in the world to wear or nope, don't own a single pair? How often do you wear blue jeans in a typical week? Do you own a blue jean jacket?

It would be safer to say I almost never wear anything else.  I don't own a jean jacket but I practically live in my blue jeans.  So comfy.

4. Are you superstitious? If so, in what way?

Not really.  But I did see a black cat yesterday when the moon was full, is that anything?

5. If you had to come up with a costume using only things you have on hand right now, what could you come up with? 

Well fortunately, I have a cloak in my closet, and that covers a wide variety of things.  If only I had a wheelbarrow, I could go as the Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride.

6. What scares you a little? What do you do when you feel scared?

Spiders.  When I find them I just vacuum them up.

7. Perhaps today will be the day I ______________________________.

finish putting the laundry away.  It was quite a weekend, so it didn't get done then...

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Scout's science class just wrapped up a unit on biology.  For the last few weeks, they've been raising African Dwarf Frogs and Fiddler Crabs in class.  Early last week, we got a letter from the teacher saying that the animals were going to be up for adoption and if they weren't adopted, she would have to dispose of them.

Scout would not hear of it.  And that is how we wound up with Billy Bob, the African Dwarf Frog.

Billy Bob likes to hide.  I can't get pictures of him because any time he senses me coming, he hides under his moss ball.  But he's cute and Scout is happy to have rescued the little guy.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. October 21, 2015 is Back to the Future Day. Did you see the movie? The sequels? In the second film, Doc takes Marty into the future to prevent Marty's future son from making a mistake. They leave 1985 and land on a 'skyway' on October 21st, 2015. So tell us, what were you doing in the fall of 1985?

In the fall of 1985, I was in kindergarten.  So I genuinely have no clear memories of anything in particular I was doing.  Filling out letter books, playing on the playground, that sort of thing.

2.  If time travel were possible, would you want to go to the future? The past?

The past.  I love history and I would love to witness it.

3. We're not flying cars, but some of the technology imagined in the 80's film has indeed come to pass in real life 2015-flat screen TVs on the wall, tablets, fingerprint recognition, video conferencing, online banking, 3-D movies, motion controlled video games, drone cameras, and smart glasses (Google glass).  Do you worry technology is growing at a rate so fast we'll soon be unable to keep up with it's demands? Do you think the Internet does more harm than good? 

No, I think any demands technology has will be within our capability to handle.  If not, it's ours to control.  And I think the Internet definitely does more good than harm--it makes keeping in touch with my distant family easy and makes finding out answers to the random questions that my kids come up with easy and it makes finding new recipes easy.  Love it.

4. Your favorite dish prepared in a slow-cooker? Your favorite fast food?

Slow cooker:  tortilla soup.  Fast food:....does Chipotle count?  I'm not all that into fast food...

5. No time like the present, down time, face time, pressed for time, in the nick of time, make time, mark time, or just in time...which timely saying most relates to your life right now? 

No time like the present.  I like to get things DONE so I can relax with my family and not panic, say, on Saturday when the house is still a mess and our friends are coming over to help us eat food on sticks.  (Side note! if anyone has good ideas for what to include on a veggie kabob that doesn't include mushrooms, let me know!)

6. Tell us about a place you went as a child or younger person that's no longer there or is now something else. How does that make you feel?

It's a weird thing to cross my mind, but my mom used to work at this little convenience store when I was a kid.  They moved to a new building, and for a while, the old one was kind of cursed--nothing lasted there for very long before going out of business.  I never knew why.  Then someone came in and opened our little town's only restaurant, and it was a great restaurant.

My first week away at college, the restaurant caught fire.  The owner was undaunted; he rebuilt and reopened with the community's help.  A few years ago, he'd sold the place to a couple young punks who wanted to run it "the right way", and when it caught fire again, they lost their nerve.  The building is still there, though no longer open.

The original owner is still in the barbecue business, and that's a very good thing.

7. Describe your comfort zone.
Someplace where shoes are optional and laughter is abundant.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Tomorrow we remember my mother, who passed fifteen days after my daughter was born.  She was so grateful she got a chance to meet Sunshine.  I've no pictures of the two of them together, because Mom would not have appreciated it, but I have a very clear memory of Mom lying in bed, with Sunshine in her arms.

Colder weather is here!

Scout's scout pack held their annual fall campout last night.  It got cold enough that the tent was covered in frost by morning.

So, of course, our furnace went out.  And apparently it's been nonfunctioning since Thursday and we never knew.

Since I'm supposed to be using this space to keep myself positive, let's hear it for:

• fuzzy socks!
• broccoli cheese soup!
• hot cider!
• slightly warmer weather on the way!
• banana bread!

note to self: go to store tomorrow, buy the stuff to make banana bread.

second note to self: find Grandma's banana bread recipe.  (I've tried lots of others, none quite compare to hers.)

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. What's something that has recently 'tried your patience'?

Traffic.  The roads in our community aren't well laid out for alternate routes to most places, so when there's construction, things get chaotic.

2. Do you think patience comes to us naturally or is it something you have to learn as you grow? On a scale of 1-10 generally how patient are you? (1=I blow up at the drop of a hat and 10=I've got all the time in the world).

I think it's both.  Some people are just calmer, but I think people can learn to not sweat the small stuff.  On a scale of 1-10, in general I'm probably around a 6.  As patient as I try to be, once things start piling up it just doesn't work anymore.

3. Share about a time when you felt like you could fly. Or a time you wished you could fly. Or a time you felt like you were flying.

Every time we're on a road trip I wish I could fly there (mostly like a bird, since I'm not a fan of planes either).  Seems like it'd be easier than dealing with traffic (see #1).

4. Your favorite song with the word fly in the title or lyrics, or your favorite song that relates to flying in some way?

At the moment, it's probably "Fly Away" by Lenny Kravitz.

5. What's in your fall picnic basket and where are we picnicking in your neck of the woods this time of year?

Well if I had a fall picnic basket, it'd contain cider, sausages, stuff for peanut butter sandwiches, or anything else that could be heated up over a campfire.  Because there's gonna be a campfire, right...?

We'd probably have our picnic somewhere near Jumonville.  It's a beautiful area this time of year.

6.  Carpentry, electrical, plumbing, landscaping...which skill would you most like to possess and how would you put that skill to use today?

Landscaping.  There's this big rock garden in my front yard that was probably really nice once upon a time, except now it's crumbling and I'm a little fed up with the fact that it blocks so much of my driveway.  That thing has got to go, and the retaining wall needs to be moved back about eighteen inches.  All I need is the knowledge to get rid of it and replace it with...something.

7. What's something you think is too expensive to justify buying lately?

A new van.  Or some of the stuff at the grocery store.  

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Grateful for the cooler weather.  The older I get, the more I realize summer is simply not my thing.

The last few days

OOF.

I spent the weekend at a scrapbooking retreat, which was a fun little getaway.  I spent most of it making Christmas cards, which will look something like this...

It's a work in progress.

But it was fun, and apparently I sullied my reputation, because I went along for the ride on Friday night when the lady who was running it went to pick up dinner, and when we got back, I was sitting next to someone I've actually known for a while.  After a few minutes, she asked me if I was doing shots, and yes.  Yes, I was.

ANYWAY.  The cards are all cut out (unless I decide I need more...?) and ready to assemble.  NOTHING made me tired of looking at this project like picking out all the tiny scraps of paper.

The last week has been full of things.  Between my MIL's visit, my daughter's birthday, my FIL's visit, and my husband getting some surprising good news from the doctor, it's been tiring.  I'm ready for tomorrow, when I'll have the house to myself, the quilting frame up and ready to go, and all the time I need to make wedding soup and baked apples for dinner.

Wednesday Hodgepodge (Thursday Edition)

1. It's October so let's get this out there first thing...have you jumped on the all-things-pumpkin bandwagon? How so?

Not yet...though I wouldn't mind a slice of pumpkin bread, if a good gluten-free version exists.

2.  "We have more power than will; and it is often by way of excuse to ourselves that we fancy things are impossible." Francois Duc De la Rochefoucauld  

What's something you once thought impossible, but in hindsight see as more a matter of lack of will?

Not sure, honestly.  I like to think goals are a matter of continuing to move forward, most of the time.

3. The rose is America's National Flower, but every state also has its own (click hereto see the list). Are you happy with yours? If you were in charge what would you declare your state's flower? If you're outside the U.S. what bloom would you like to see labeled as your country's national flower?

Our state flower is the mountain laurel, and sure, it's a pretty flower (and there do seem to be a lot of them in the woodland areas).  My home state's flower is the sunflower, and that one is also definitely fitting.

4. What have you lost interest in recently?

Hard to say.  I guess a couple of the shows I used to watch.  They were fun at first, but so many seasons later and really.  It's time to move on.

5. In your opinion, who's the best living musician?

I don't like having to choose favorites.  There's so many wonderful ones.  But since I've been listening to a lot of his music lately, and since I can, I'll say Neil Young.

6. S'mores-love 'em or no? Ever make them indoors? Last time you sat around an outdoor fire? Are making s'mores and sitting round a fire pit on your autumn bucket list? Do you have an autumn bucket list?

I love s'mores!  And I love a fire pit!  I would greatly enjoy a chance to go camping, but I think my only chance to do that this fall is going to be with all the boy scouts and all their families, and...I'm not going to lie, I'd rather go for something quieter.

7. Your favorite small town? Why?

I liked the town I grew up in.  A lot of people grumbled about it for various reasons, but I've come to realize that proximity to a grocery store and hero-worshipping of high school athletes is an everywhere thing.  I liked our small town, the people there were friendly and everyone helped one another and everyone loved one another.  Mostly.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

It's true, I'm late this week.  But Sunshine turned six yesterday.  I've always felt a little sorry for her, because every time her birthday rolls around, I can't help but think, "And that means it's also been [this many years] since everything else happened..."

But for now, we celebrate the good things.  And that means: