Wednesday Hodgepodge on Friday . . .again

 check out From This Side of the Pond - she has fun questions - my answers, not so much!!

1. This is the last Hodgepodge in April. Share something you learned this month.  I am sure that I have learned something . . .let’s see . . .I have learned that I love a good party.  I already knew that!!  Let’s see . . .I have learned that I LOVE being a gran!!  I kept sweet baby girl last Friday night and I just kept staring at her.  I have learned that Mark loves being Pop – I wasn’t too sure about that one before she arrived in this world.

2.  It's National Poetry Month, and we all know you can't escape an April Hodgepodge without a little poetry. Keeping the first line as is, change the rest of the wording in this familiar rhyme to make it your own - 'Hickory Dickory Dock...I cannot write poetry . . .hickory dickory dock – I just googled Hickory Dickory Dock – did you know that there is a restaurant by that name in North Carolina? What rhymes with dock? Clock, of course . . .mock . . .jock . . .bach . . . hock . . .frock . . Hickory Dickory Dock – I need a new frock.  Lord, help!

3. What were one or two rules in the home you grew up in? Growing up, did you feel your parents were strict? Looking back do you still see it that way?  We did not talk back to our parents.  We couldn’t put our elbows on the table.  Our curfew was really early.  My mom died when I was a sophomore in high school, so my dad and sister (Becky) had to take over the parenting.  I became a wild child around that time.  My dad could have been stricter at that time.  To be honest, I probably would have broken every rule anyway.  That is really odd because I’m a rule follower now!

4. Tell us about a kitchen or cooking disaster or mishap you've experienced. Do you have many from which to choose?  We have been getting a few Blue Apron boxes (so cool!!).  We received one a couple of weeks ago and the flour had opened in transit and there was flour everywhere – that was a mess!  (just fyi – Blue Apron has incredible customer service and they gave us a free box!)  My own personal mishap was last week.  I put some olive oil in my little skillet and turned on the flame.  I opened a can of black beans and rinsed and drained them in my little hand held strainer (I think it might be a tea strainer??).  When I started pouring the beans into the skillet, the water (from rinsing) made the oil in the skillet go crazy.  I jerked my arm and black beans went all over the kitchen.

5. Plant a kiss, plant doubt, plant a tree, plant yourself somewhere...which on the list have you most recently planted?  I’ve planted a kiss on that grandbaby’s head!  We’ve planted plants in our lovely courtyard.  Last week, I wrote a note to my sister-in-law and I told her that I am so proud of her because she has had to move a lot and she has bloomed EVERYWHERE that she has been “planted.”

6. What's your most worn item of clothing this time of year? Are you tired of it?  I’ve been on a “kick” lately – I’ve been trying to see how many days I can go wearing different things from my closet.  Almost every week, I wear my black pleated skirt and my denim skirt – just different shirts!!  I have a pair of navy knit shorts and a pair of denim shorts and I wear one of those almost every single day after work.

7. I'm wrapping up the A-Z Blog Challenge this month and our Hodgepodge lands on letter W. What's one word beginning with W that describes you in some way? How about a word to describe your home, also beginning with W?  Walls!  My maiden name was (is?) Walls!!  I’m also white (that is not a racial statement) – I have NO tan so my skin is pasty!!  Our home is warm (not temperature but feelings) and I have a white comforter from Pottery Barn.  I just happen to be looking out the window at our screen porch and the trim is “sort of” white.  We’ve planted tons of hydrangeas and some of those may be white!!

8. Insert your own random thought here.   We are having a fish fry tonight.  Glenn and Mark have the fryers out on the porch (same screen porch as above!) – they are going to fry fish, hush puppies, corn nuggets, and whatever else they can throw in the pot.  We’ve invited just a few friends over to eat with us.  The fish was caught in our own private lake so it is good clean fish – bass, I believe.  I love some of the decorations for tonight:

I especially love the dining room centerpieces.  Our cat wanted to help make them because there are cattails in the arrangement - he thinks they are for him!!

I put several inches of small birdseed into the bottom of the vase and then used cattails and grasses.  I typed hemp cord around the neck of the vase.  Mark hung antique fishing flies amongst the cattails.