Hodge Podge Wednesday

1.  Besides leftover Easter Candy, what is something currently kept in a basket at your house?  A cat, perhaps??  Let's see . . .we moved into a new house last summer and I don't know if we kept any baskets.  Yes, we did!  There are some baskets in my craft room - they hold an assortment of items from a label maker to a canvas painting of an angel . . .There are two baskets in our upstairs loft area.  They are empty.

2.  "The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." Michelangelo Buonarroti

So which one are you . . .the one who aims too high, or the one who aims too low?  Have you ever seen the Sistine Chapel?  Did you know Michelangelo's surname prior to answer this question?

I don't think I aim high enough sometimes.  I think I need to make a bigger and better (and higher!) list of goals but I sometimes have a hard time seeing the big picture.  It is great that I get to work with people who aim high . . .I get to go with them!!

I've never seen the Sistine Chapel but I sure would like to see it some day. Regarding the last name, I just googled Michelangelo, the teenage mutant ninja turtle, to see if he had a last name.  I watched it so much with my kids when they were young that I thought surely his last name would be the same.  Not.

3.  April 7th is National Beer Day.  Wonder how that is celebrated?  Do you like beer?  Have a favorite?  If you're not a beer drinker do you have any recipes you enjoy cooking that call for beer?

I don't drink beer.  I wish I liked it but I don't.  My husband (and kids) LOVE beer.  Mark's new favorite beer is Miss Fancy's Tripel - made in a local brewery.  Read about it here.  It is interesting!!  I used to make great fried mushrooms and the batter was beer batter.  Yuuuummmy!  You dipped them in a horseradish sauce.  I need to find that recipe and make some!!

4.  When did you last travel somewhere new?  Tell us where?  How'd it go?

Well dang - I haven't been on a good trip in quite a few years.  Summer before last, I did drive to North Carolina (by myself) for a really cool conference.  It was great.  I was proud of myself for driving that far by myself.  I made some new friends.  I learned a lot.  I NEED to get out more!  I wanted to go to a conference in Las Vegas this year for administrative assistants who work for senior pastors of large churches BUT we have a work conflict.  Isn't there something humorous about having that type of conference in Las Vegas?  I've been there once.  I've been to most of the Virgin Islands -- St. Martin; St. John.  I've been to Puerto Rico and to Nassau and to a good many different states (mostly as a chaperone on youth choir trips!!).  That is about the extent of my travelling.  I would love to go to Panama and Africa on a mission trip with our church before I'm too old.

5.  The value of ________________________ is greatly overrated.

wow - that is hard.  How about . . the value of SOME CLOTHING LINES is greatly overrated.  My husband went into a store the other day and he told me later that this company thinks awfully highly of their shirts.  (high $$)

6.  What's a pet peeve of yours when it comes to restaurant dining?

I can name a couple . . .one would be poor service in an expensive restaurant.  It doesn't happen often but it does happen every once in a while.  I, too (like a couple of other bloggers), struggle with unruly children.  We have twins and they were not very good in restaurants . . .so we didn't take them often.  We kept taking them to less expensive, loud places until they learned to behave.  We recently dined at Hot and Hot Fish Club for our kid's birthday.  There were six of us and we were pretty loud.  Chef Chris Hastings came to our table and introduced himself and I apologized because we were so loud.  He informed us that he wanted the patrons of the restaurant to have a good time and that we weren't too loud!  My point is that we didn't have any little children with us and we were still loud :-)  (those of you that know us well know that several of us are loud)

7.  It's Poetry Month (really?  I didn't know that!!) . . .share a favorite poem, either the title, a few lines you find meaningful, or the whole kit and caboodle.  I was asked to read this at the funeral of the mother of a friend (actually three sisters and I were friends).  It is the only poem that comes to mind at this moment:

Gone From My Sight
by Henry Van Dyke

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone"

Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.
And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"

And that is dying...

Death comes in its own time, in its own way.
Death is as unique as the individual experiencing it

8.  Insert your own random thought here.  We started a new Bible/book/DVD study last night with our group of young adults.  The title is Ask It by Andy Stanley.  The first lesson was really great.  We had over 20 people last night and we had some great discussion.  The group is for those in their 20's, out of college and not married.  Mark and I have been hosting this group (people have come and gone and even come back again) for over 5 years now.

You are welcome to join the Hodgepodge on Wednesdays and link up on this wonderful page.