Wednesday HodgePodge

Do you find yourself influencing your world, or is it more the other way around? 

I imagine the world influences me . . .but I don’t like those words when I type them.  As a Christian, I try to live in this world but to keep my heart and mind on spiritual things – you know there is an old saying about being a spiritual being in an earthly body (or something like that . . .I should probably look it up . ..but I’m not going to do so!)  Maybe I have some influence.  My young adult children are rarely influenced by my opinion – neither is my husband!!J.  I am one of the older employees in our office so I do have some institutional memory that might influence someone or might influence a decision.  I teach an adult Sunday School class and facilitate a young adult study . . .maybe I have some influence but I am not really sure.

July 14th is National Tape Measure Day...the device was patented on this date in 1868. When did you last use a tape measure? Do you always know where to find one in your house? Tell us one way in which you feel blessed 'beyond measure'. 

How in the world do you find out these fun facts to know and tell?  Do you have an app that tells you something special about each day?  I am so amazed that there is even such a thing as National Tape Measure Day!  I’m always measuring something – from fabric to paper to space.  I usually keep a tape measure in my purse and in my desk and I keep a yard stick in the laundry room and a ruler in my craft room (along with another tape measure!!).

I needed that question about blessed “beyond measure” because I’ve been looking for blessings over the last few days.  I am blessed beyond measure with good health and an awesome family and a new grandbaby girl and a job I love.  I am blessed beyond measure with good friends – a couple of those friends love me warts and all (I don’t have any warts but you know what I mean!).

The Plaza Hotel (Eloise), The Land of Oz (The Wizard of Oz), Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia), The Hundred Acre Wood (Winnie the Pooh), Wonderland (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), or Never Never Land (Peter Pan)...which storybook land (on this list!) would you most like to visit and why? 

I love them all.  Do I have to pick just one?  There are six storybook lands on your list.  Couldn’t I visit one every other month?  Please!  I think I might choose Never Never Land with Peter Pan or maybe I would choose The Hundred Acre Wood . . . it sounds so very peaceful.

Where and when do you get your best ideas? 

I get most of my best ideas in the middle of the night!  Really!!  I think my mind finally slows down enough to just think over the things I have seen throughout the day.  I like to find an idea – be it in a magazine or pinterest or some other website – and make that idea my own by changing it to suit my taste.

So what have you been watching on TV this summer? Anything good?  

This weekend we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding Two and I really enjoyed it.  Mark watched with me but I don’t think he enjoyed it NEARLY as much as I did.  I never get to pick what we watch so I really really enjoyed the movie.  Laura was home and she and I watched some of the Olympic trials – we watched some track and field events and the gymnastics and really enjoyed both!  (I actually don’t watch a lot of tv – I have three or four shows that I enjoy.  Mark watches lots of “boy tv” so I read or look at facebook, etc. just so we can be in the same room at the same time.

'Don't swim for an hour after you eat', 'Dog days of summer', 'Knee high by the Fourth of July'...choose a summer saying from the list or share one of your own, then tell us what image or memory comes to mind when you hear it spoken.

“You need to either go outside or stay inside, but STOP slamming that door.”  I can hear my parents saying that to me when I was a kid.  Back then, we didn’t have central air throughout our home.  We had a window unit in the front of the house and one in the back of the house.  It is hot in Alabama in the summertime and they were trying to keep that cool air inside!!

In a single sentence, sum up one life lesson you've learned.  

Don’t grab onto an electric fence when the power is turned on!  (you probably were asking for a serious answer – that’s all I’ve got today!)

Insert your own random thought here. 

I think I’ve mentioned this before.  We have signed up for a few Blue Apron boxes and have really enjoyed cooking together.  We received a shipment on Saturday.  On Sunday night, Laura was home so we cooked while the thunder storm raged around our house.  The dish was a shrimp and pearl couscous dish and I didn’t put all the seasoning on the shrimp because I was afraid it would be too hot (one recipe was hot previously).  I SHOULD have put all the seasoning on the shrimp.  It was an ok dinner – but not my favorite – BUT it did stretch three ways easily.  I don't usually like any kind of tomato based sauce cooked in with my shrimp but this was such a small amount that it was good.

Last night, it was once again raining (doesn’t really matter – just thought that was odd!) and we made the beef empanadas.  We really enjoyed those.  It was my first time to make empanadas and I loved how the pastry was so flaky.  We also had a cucumber and tomato salad (neither are Mark’s favs) but you made a dressing with lime juice and olive oil and it was delicious.  The other thing included in our box was crème fraiche.  You added lime zest and lime juice to the crème fraiche . . .oh my goodness, it was good.  Mark always asks the waiter at the Mexican restaurant to omit sour cream so I thought he wouldn’t eat the crème fraiche . . .he loved it.  It was so delicious on the empanadas.  We scraped the bowl completely clean!  (explanation for the little pile of meat . . .at the end of the recipe, it said something like this, "there will be extra filling" -- I looked at Mark and said, "well, let's just put it on our plate."  Why didn't they include another empanada wrapper??)