An "eggy" hodgepodge

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. You can copy and paste the questions into your blog and link up with Joyce at From This Side of the Pond.

1. The Hodgepodge lands on the last day of March...in ten words or lest bid the month adieu. Farewell! Take your tornadoes and get on out of the door!!

2. March 31st is National Tater Day...your favorite way to have a potato? Given a choice would you opt for sweet, white, or red? How often are potatoes on your menu in one form or another? Ever been to Idaho? If not, is that a state you'd like to visit someday? I love French fries the best. In reality, I love potatoes but we try not to eat them very often. I love a good baked potato with butter and sour cream. I love a good stuffed potato from the local BBQ restaurant. My husband ALWAYS prefers sweet potato over white potato. I love mashed potatoes. I've never been to Idaho and as of right now, I don't have any desire to go to Idaho BUT after a year of no travel, I would go just about anywhere including Idaho.

3. Last time someone or something 'rained on your parade'? Explain. I can't think of any examples where someone has rained on my parade recently. 

4. Put all your eggs in one basket, get cracking, nest egg, bad egg, good egg, egg on, have egg on your face, or walk on eggshells...choose a phrase from the list that applies to something in your life currently and tell us how or why. There are a couple of people in my life that I feel like I always have to walk on eggshells around. I have to edit every word before it comes out of my mouth.

5. If I visited your home would I find a lot of baskets there? Something you like to keep in a basket? I don't have a lot of baskets because they are dust catchers!! I love the way they look in other people's homes. I have one basket that I really love that a former pastor brought from Africa. I have children's books in that basket. I have a wire "basket" in one of our upstairs rooms where I keep all of our Christmas cards. I put them on a ring each year and save them to look back at how children have grown and families have changed. I thought I only had two baskets and went to take a picture! Joke is on me...egg on my face!

metal basket with Christmas cards

basket for fruit

basket from Africa filled
with children's books

baskets in guest room closet
with extra lines and random
stuff

I can't believe I forgot my favorite
basket -- my fisherman's basket.
My sister bought it for me as a gift.
Sometimes I put flowers in it and
sometimes I fill it with Christmas
ornaments, etc.

the toy basket for the granddaughters

6. Insert your own random thought here.  I'm so excited about this weekend. We are going to our church Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning with both of our granddaughters. We signed up for a 45 minute time slots with a few other families. We will be wearing masks. The children's ministry team will disinfect everything before the next group comes in. I'm just so happy to do something normal. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law are coming into town and we will have Easter lunch at my mother-in-law's. Last Easter was just so sad - we couldn't see our family. Mark and I will both be working on Easter morning. I'm working the welcome desk at the stadium where we are having worship and Mark will be working in the parking lot. I may be putting all of my eggs in one basket regarding this weekend :-).

Sunday Stealing

Linking up with Bev for today's questions.

1.  How often do you make food and eat it? We eat breakfast and dinner at home most days and take our lunches. I usually do some meal prep on Sunday afternoons for the week. I eat either a salad with lean protein or a meat and a couple of veggies for lunch. Mark eats a chunky peanut butter and raisin sandwich for lunch. He only buys one brand of peanut butter right now . . .and no, I'm not receiving payment for sharing this. Skippy has no idea we exist :-)

2.  Do you consider toasting bread, preparing instant noodles, or boiling an egg to be cooking? Why or why not? I’m not sure that toasting bread should be considered cooking but maybe someone with limited skills in the kitchen would consider it so. For some reason, I do think of boiling eggs as cooking. I don't really eat instant noodles - ramen, right? - except in a great slaw recipe and they are simply toasted, not cooked in water.

3.  What’s your favorite dish to make? My favorite food to make is food that people enjoy eating! Seriously! I love to serve a good meal and sit around our dining room table and laugh and talk!!

4.  Cooking or baking: what’s more fun? What’s more difficult? I think I like cooking over baking but as I'm typing those words, I'm not so sure. The things I bake are definitely fun to eat. I tend to follow the recipe when baking and when cooking, I add and change as I go.

5.  Who did most of the cooking in your house when you were growing up? My mom did all of the cooking until she got sick with cancer. She died when I was a sophomore in high school. After that, one of my jobs was to start supper when I came in from school. I was living with my sister and her now ex-husband at the time and I remember him asking me to please make something that didn't have a tomato sauce base - I knew how to make chili and spaghetti and a few other things and evidently was repeating those things over and over. I actually moved back in with my daddy at some point and he had taught himself how to cook several things!

6.  How have you learned the cooking skills that you have? I've learned a lot by trial and error. I cannot begin to tell you how many pans I have burned up over the years. To be honest, I was meal prepping this afternoon and talking to our daughter on the phone . . .and burned the onions I was sautéing. I'm talking about black charred had to throw in the trash can burned!! My mother-in-law has also taught me how to make several things.

7.   Have you ever taken a cooking course? If so, what did you learn? If not, would you like to do one? What would you like to learn? I took Home Ec in middle school - what do they call it now? I think it is something like Family and Consumer Science?? I still remember one of the things we cooked -- I think the name of the recipe was BBQ cups. You browned hamburger meat and probably added BBQ sauce to the meat. You put a canned biscuit in muffin tin and shaped it like a cup. Then you added a little meat to the "cup" and sprinkled cheese on top and popped them in the oven until bubbly. I probably made those for my sister and brother-in-law, too!! I've never taken a cooking class as an adult. A young woman in our church makes gorgeous iced cookies in all sorts of fun shapes and I would love to take a class from her and learn how to decorate those cookies! I have an excellent cookie recipe but my icing skills need assistance.

8.   Have you tried cooking food from another culture? What did you prepare? How was it? We eat Mexican food often. Does that count? Just last night we had nachos made with 99% fat free ground turkey and they were awesome. I've tried to make a few Asian dishes and they taste ok but not like the food from the local restaurant. Hubby loves curry and he has made curry a couple of times. I've made Falafel and it was delicious.

9.   Is it cost-effective to do your own cooking? Can you save money by cooking? I think it is probably more cost effective to cook our meals at home. I will tell you that I spend WAY TOO MUCH on groceries each week but I love having a full pantry and fridge. Unless you eat fast food for lunch, I definitely think it is cheaper to prepare lunch at home and take it to work.

10.  Would you rather do the cooking or do the washing up afterwards? Most of the time, I do the cooking and Mark washes the dishes afterwards. This seems to work well in our empty nest!

11.  Do you use recipes to cook? If so, where do you get the best recipes? Do you get them from friends, family, online, or from cookbooks? I do use recipes but make changes to personalize the food. When we got married in 1984, one of the showers was a recipe shower. I still use some of those recipes. I love PoundDropper's website and use a lot of her recipes. Pre-internet, I had a TON of cookbooks but 6 1/2 years ago when we moved into this house, I gave most of them to the Salvation Army. I have a few I love and I kept those. I use recipes out of this one all of the time. It is recipes from our church members.

12.  Have you ever tried to prepare some food and just totally ruined it? What happened? I made a slaw recipe one time that was just inedible. We threw it away.
13. Do you prefer cooking at home or eating out at a restaurant? Why? I love eating in a restaurant but even pre-covid, we normally eat at home at least 4-5 out of 7 nights.
14. Is cooking a social activity for you? Do you like to do it with other people, or do your prefer to do it alone? I've helped prepare meals at a homeless shelter here in town and it is fun to be in a kitchen with other people. For our meals, I think I prefer to be alone but actually, I don't think I've ever cooked in a group except in a situation like the homeless shelter. 
15. Do you have a lot of cooking equipment? How often do you use it all? Do you have any pieces of equipment that you rarely ever use? I have a decent amount of equipment. We have All Clad pots, pans, and skillets and they are excellent. We have a Williams Sonoma waffle iron that we use often. I have a little food processor and a big one and I use both of them. I have several crockpots and use those A LOT! I have a smaller air fryer and I really like it!! I rarely use my blender and we have a bullet for making smoothies and we rarely use it.

Just FYI, starting on April 1 I will be blogging about food every day for a month (except Sundays). I will start with A and work my way through Z. I'll be linking up with a lot of other people who will be blogging about all sorts of topics from A to Z. 

The Fab Five

If you are my friend on Facebook, you've seen the reminders I post each week for our Tuesday night group. We've been hosting the group since 2010. Mark and I think of all of the young professionals who have walked through our front door as "ours." There have been a couple of weddings after folks met around our dining room table (pre-covid). There have also been friendships that have forged and remain strong. Our daughter has a group of friends and they all met on random Tuesday nights and they call themselves the Fab Five. They were all single and carefree when they met. Life is in constant motion and now 3 are married; 2 have children; 2 are in relationships; and one is about to become a mother. Laura and I hosted a drive through baby shower on Saturday afternoon for the mommy-to-be. Laura purchased the party supplies and left them at our house. Mark and I spent time putting together decorations and favors on Friday afternoon and evening.

Have you ever made a balloon arch? This was our first one and a friend had told me to order an electric balloon pump. Thank goodness for wonderful advice!! There were balloons everywhere and they kept popping. . . .all evening long. We would be busy doing something else and POP! I jumped every time!

Mark measured and we had a 12 foot long column of balloons!! We tried to keep the balloons away from the rugs because we wondered if the rug fibers were causing the balloons to pop. Just FYI - no, the rug had nothing to do with it! I could not have managed this without Mark. Well, I guess I could have but it was much easier because of his help!!

We ordered a 6.5 gallon tin of gourmet popcorn from The Popcorn Factory and we purchased a tag from an Etsy shop that said, "Thanks for popping by."

These pictures show a gorgeous day and it was BUT it was so windy and a tad cool. Just in case you are wondering, the balloons continued to pop all day!

In addition to the popcorn, we ordered mini cupcakes from Ashley Mac's. One of the Fab Five is married to one of the chefs for Ashley Mac's!! Our mommy-to-be loves bling so we had shiny gold boxes for the mini cupcakes. We tied pink and white ribbons on the bottles of water.

Friends and family drove around our U-shaped street and were able to stop in front of our house and visit with the mommy-to-be for a minute or two. The baby's grandmother and great grandmother came and stayed throughout the party.

Who would have ever imagined that in 2021 we would be hosting drive through showers where we gathered outside and were seated 6 feet apart and wore masks (except for a few quick pictures)?

The Fab Five in all of their glory with mommy-to-be in the middle! They've been through lots of life together - from anxiety to cancer to grief to weddings and babies. They are wonderful and interesting young adults and Mark and I love them all!!

Here in the deep south, it is customary for the honoree to give a little hostess gift to the hostesses. Because of allergies, I normally have a hard time with scents BUT this candle smells like coffee and it doesn't bother me!! yay!! I think this is such a sweet gift!!

Even with chairs on the sidewalk, masks around our ears, and distance between our chairs we still had a wonderful time showering baby and mommy.

Hope Springs Eternal Hodgepodge

1. "Hope springs eternal"...discuss. I can't imagine living life without hope. Hope is often the thing that keeps us moving forward. Thinking about this past year, we've had hope that the pandemic would eventually end. I personally have hope that after my next vaccination and the time required afterwards, I will be protected from a terrible case of covid at least for a while! I have hope that maybe soon our supper club can be together around our dining room table sharing a meal and we can gather with other friends in restaurants. I have hope that we can all come back to church. 

Hope

Springs

Eternal

 

I do have a funny story about "hope" and this story was actually what I thought of when I read Joyce's prompt. Quite a few years ago, we saw the HGTV dream home sweepstakes advertised. Our kids were probably middle schoolers, and the internet was not as readily available to us as it is today. I think we had internet access and email addresses, but we weren't consumed with spending hours per day on our computers. Our family actually went to the post office and bought a BUNCH (at least 100 - maybe more) of pre-stamped postcards and sat around our kitchen table filling them out. We had "hope" that we were going to win the HGTV dream home that year. Just FYI - we didn't win.

 

2. Last time you needed to 'spring into action' or 'spring to someone's defense'...explain. When our granddaughters are around, I feel like we need to spring into action quite often. We have a playground with a slide and swings in front of our house and I feel like I've "sprung into action" (is sprung right? Auto correct wants me to use sprang) to keep one of the girls from going over the side of the slide, etc.

 

3. Tulips or daffodils? baby birds or baby bunnies? The cherry tree or the dogwood tree? Jellybeans or peeps? March madness or spring training? Peas or carrots? I love daffodils but tulips are pretty, too! I think I would choose baby bunnies! We have lots of dogwood trees in Alabama and they are beautiful! Our family tends to eat jellybeans more than peeps - though my oldest granddaughter had a peep the other day and she didn't know what it was called and when she described it, I immediately knew it was a peep. She enjoyed it! I'm not really into March madness or spring training. I love peas and carrots together!

 

4. I read an article here on the South's best cities on the rise. They are-Baton Rouge Louisiana, Fayetteville Arkansas, Greenville South Carolina, Huntsville Alabama, Lexington Kentucky, Norfolk Virginia, Tulsa Oklahoma, Waco Texas, Wilmington North Carolina, and Winston-Salem North Carolina. Of the cities listed how many have you seen in person? Which one on the list would you most like to see? Have you spent much time in the southern states (USA)? Any spring road trips on your calendar? I've been to Huntsville many times and it is indeed a growing city as are the suburbs around it. I've driven through some of the other cities, but I don't think I've ever stayed in any of the other cities. I would like to go to Waco, Texas! I live in Alabama in the middle of the deep south, and I love it. I have lived here my whole life. We have two tiny road trips planned for later in the spring - a wedding weekend in Franklin, TN and a wedding weekend in Oxford, MS.

Great Mexican restaurant in Huntsville - Huntsville is the
halfway point where we can meet our friends
from Nashville

The "rocket" in Huntsville, AL

5. Tell us how your outdoor space needs sprucing up this spring? Which do you enjoy more (or hate the least-ha!) yard work or housework? Mark has been working on sprucing up our outdoor spaces because we had a drive through baby shower on Saturday. He painted our picket fence and trimmed shrubs and edged the sidewalk. Do you want me to be honest? I don't particularly enjoy yard work or housework!!

 

6. Insert your own random thought here.  Our church has secured the local football stadium for our Easter service so that we can all be together. I know that it is too early to truly predict the weather for that day but right now there is a 24% chance of rain that day. We need no rain that day. It is going to be so awesome to be in the same place with many of our church family. We will be wearing masks and social distancing as much as possible. One of my close friends said she couldn't decide whether to buy an Easter dress or wear her son's football jersey. Either one would be just fine!

 

Sunday Stealing

Thanks to Bev at Sunday Stealing for the questions!

 

1. An unforgettable day in my life. I sat here a few minutes trying to decide. I've had several unforgettable days - some good and some bad. I was 14 when my mom died and that day is etched in my memory. The day our twins were born and then each of their wedding days were also pretty amazing! I also attended a spiritual weekend called an Emmaus Walk back when I was a young mother and it was 3 unforgettable days.

2. My favorite snacks  - I eat fruit every day. I also love salty snacks. I actually have to count out my mini saltines into serving size baggies. I also love carrots and hummus. If I were thin and health didn't matter, I would eat french fries for every snack and every meal!

3. My biggest fashion accessory - my daughter has always loved great accessories from scarves to necklaces that make a statement. I'm going to be honest -- I'm doing great to have on clothes that match and earrings! I did wear this on Sunday for my granddaughter!! I think it was quite fashionable and I even had accessories! hahahaha!

4. My biggest celebrity crush - I don't have one but I could say that since I drive a Lincoln, it is Matthew McConaughey! 

5. One Hobby I would like to learn - I love calligraphy and other beautiful lettering styles. I took a mini workshop on calligraphy last year and really enjoyed it. This was my progress that day!

6. My OCD habits - I'm a germaphobe but I don't think I'm OCD about it. I also like to eat one thing at a time and move around my plate but I don't think that is OCD either - I think it is just weird!!

7. If I could eat one last meal - see #2 above - french fries! Ha! Actually, I would want German Chocolate cake (mother-in-law's recipe) for dessert. I'm not sure what I would want as the main course - I love shrimp but if it were my last meal, I might choose a really tender steak and a fluffy baked potato with real butter and sour cream. 

My mother-in-law's German Chocolate

Cake recipe - made by me! We have

lots of the coconut pecan filling in

between the layers and then we

make this wonderful fudgy icing!

8. Working on my fitness every single day! I start the day with 30-35 minutes on the treadmill and end the day with 30-35 minutes on the stationary bike . . .and I've exercised every single day for 352 days.

9. What I spend money on - I love to spend money! Amazon orders and groceries would probably top the list! My husband laughingly asks if I'm having an affair with the delivery man!

10. My favorite recipe - my most used recipe is brown sugar brownies. I love that German Chocolate cake I mentioned above. What is funny is I haven't eaten sweets in 3 years. I love Chicken Divan and Poppyseed chicken. I love Pioneer Woman's Lasagna recipe, too! I just like to eat :-).

11. The best part of each season is new school supplies - just kidding - sort of! I love seasonal decorations. I also love the change in weather and the change in light patterns from the sun.

12. A life lesson I’ve learned - my husband would say, "no good deed goes unpunished!" Mine would probably be -- "if you want to have friends, you first have to BE a friend."

13. My inspiration to blog - One reason is that I'm hoping my kids will read my blog posts some day when I'm long gone and know a little more about me. I also love the sense of community that comes when we link up together!

14. What’s inside my closet? Not enough room! Our old house had two walk in closets in the master bedroom and now we have to share!! There are clothes, shoes, purses, a box of "travel" supplies, a bag of old letters, and LOTS OF dust bunnies and probably a few cat hair tumble weeds.                           

15. Let me brag a minute. I have the two cutest granddaughters in the world! I know we all think that :-).

Green Hodgepodge

Joyce writes the questions and we answer on our own blogs. We join up on Wednesdays to share answers!

1. This week's Hodgepodge lands on St. Patrick's Day. Will you wear green? Eat corned beef and cabbage? Drink green beer? Have you ever been to Ireland? Is it on your travel 'bucket list'? I wore green to church on Sunday (yes! I went to in person worship!! I told my husband that I was desperate for "in person" Jesus. I felt very safe). I think that is my only green dress and besides t-shirts, I'm not sure I have a green shirt. I love cabbage - I might add it to tonight's menu. I'm not fond of corned beef. I don't like beer but if I did, green beer sounds fun! I've never been to Ireland but it is definitely on my bucket list. I had always assumed that I had some Irish blood in me due to my paternal grandmother's name and some of the words she used. When I did 23 and me, I found out I have a good bit of Irish blood!

2. Something you think is 'worth its weight in gold'? My husband has two new "tools" that he might say are worth their weight in gold. He bought a paint sprayer and painted our white picket fence on Sunday. By hand, this is a very tedious job. The paint sprayer slashed that time down to a couple of hours and that included figuring it out and cleaning it up afterwards. He also has a leaf vacuum. It is a Black and Decker and he loves it! After this past year, toilet paper might just be worth its weight in gold!  

3. Something that makes you 'green around the gills'? On Saturday we attended our granddaughter's birthday party. There was a "ride" in the Play Place that you could spin like the tea cups at Disney World. A couple of the kids wanted to do it over and over again. At one point, I was pretty sure one of the little boys was going to throw up. If ANYONE else throws up, I do, too. Just watching it made me "green around the gills" and then there was a possibility of a kid throwing up . . .I left that spot in a hurry!

Not my photo - this was a stock photo on their

website BUT THOSE are the tea cups!!

4. What puts a 'spring in your step' these days? I'm on day 347 of my goal to exercise every day for 365 days. About 5 weeks ago, I had what felt like plantar fasciitis so I read about it online and bought some squishy heel cups. I've been wearing walking shoes to work (yes, with a dress) for 5 weeks now. My heel is beginning to feel better and I've noticed that I have a spring in my step again! Also, our days are getting longer with more daylight and that always puts a spring in my step.

5. Write a limerick using one of the following as your theme....March, St. Patrick's Day, Covid, 2020 and/or 2021, the color green, or life lately. Yes, you can do it. This is so far out of my comfort zone and this is something for which I have NO skills.

Along came Covid-19

My hands were never so clean.

Toilet paper, paper towels, and wipes

When I couldn’t find them, I began to gripe.

Now I can’t wait to be seen.

 -- or --

Never a hugger I’d be

When other people I’d see

Along came covid-19

No hugs, no gathering, hands clean

From now on, a hugger I’ll be

-- or this is my best effort below:

I had a zoom meeting with Gert

Who wore a really nice shirt

Her dog needed to go out

she opened the door with a shout

and realized she had on no skirt!

6. Insert your own random thought here. I've been thinking about doing a few blog posts "around the house." I love to read about and see pictures of other houses. Have any of you done blog posts about the different rooms in your house? I loved reading Libby's posts on her blog when she got a new house. Our house is almost 7 years old but I love thinking about the things in our rooms that have special meaning.

Christmas on the Circle

10 Things to Love about Spring in Alabama

Today is the 10th of March and the prompt is "10 things to love about spring" and I added "in Alabama."

1. Fresh strawberries will be here soon! Our Alabama strawberries are smaller than the ones from Florida that we get in the grocery store and they are so sweet!

2. Speaking of berries . . .toward the end of Spring, it will be blueberry season in Alabama. Last year, Mark and I had been cooped up for months and we drove to a local blueberry farm and it was so wonderful to be outside. I, of course, got tired and hot much quicker than Mark did and he hasn't let me forget it.

3. Another wonderful thing about spring in Alabama is the plethora of Farmer's Markets. Several churches in our area host farmers in their parking lots so we can buy fresh tomatoes, corn on the cob, strawberries, peaches, fresh honey, fresh eggs, and other goodies. The one closest to my house opens in about a week.

4. Alabama is gorgeous in the spring. We have flowers and bushes and trees with blossoms. I have horrible allergies and I am thankful for allergy shots, Zyrtec, Singulair, two different nasal sprays and an inhaler (and an epi pen just in case). 

5. I may be wrong but our skies are some of the bluest you've ever seen in the spring with big, white, fluffy clouds.

6. I want to tell you that the temps in Alabama are perfect in the spring but the truth is that today the sky is blue and the sun is shining and there are fluffy clouds in the sky and the temp is in the 70's BUT I will NOT be surprised if we have another cold spell or two. The cold spells will only last a day or two and then nice weather will return. Even though our weather might change in a matter of hours, I still love the weather in the spring.

7. One of my favorite things about spring in Alabama is I can wear my flip flops. Those who know me well will say that I sometimes wear them year round and that is true but I stop feeling guilty about wearing them when spring arrives. 

8. During spring, we also have every shade of green imaginable. In our area of the state, we have lots of evergreens so we always have a little green year round but in the spring, we have pale green as leaves begin to pop out and every other shade of green, too. Twenty plus years ago I had lasix surgery on my eyes IN THE SPRING and the morning after my surgery, I walked to the kitchen window and was truly amazed at all of the different shades of green. I had been missing out!!

9. We have a few wonderful days in the spring where we don't have to run our air conditioner or heat. I get a notice from the power company telling me how much energy I use each day. We only used $2 worth yesterday because no heat nor air was needed! Yay! We could enjoy more days if I didn't have allergies. Some people throw open their doors and windows and allow the air to blow through . . .but just FYI, that air contains lots of pollen! achoo!

10. Once the trees finish pollinating (or as my friend's husband says for pollinating, "the trees are having sex"), we will be able to clean off the screen porch and sit outside and enjoy! Mark can do that now and he and the cat have been known to take a nap or two in a puddle of sunshine!

  

Overdone at the Hodgepodge

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop over to Joyce's blog to share answers with the rest of the world wide webbers. See you there! 

1. March 9th is National Get Over It Day...what's something you need to 'just get over already'? Let's see . . . This sounds silly, but I need to get over the fact that while teaching Sunday School or facilitating our Tuesday night study via Zoom, the internet ALWAYS decides to act up. For some reason, when that happens, I am mortified!!

Mark snapped this photo of me a week ago

while teaching Sunday School when the

computer froze for the umpteenth time. I'm 

hoping that no "non-Sunday School" words

escaped my mouth.

(Not really haha! - borrowed cartoon from the internet)

2. Something you're currently 'over the moon' about? I'm always "over the moon" about our granddaughters. I know I'm biased but I think they are the cutest and the smartest girls around and I will get to see both of them this weekend!

This girl will be 5 in just a

few days - time has flown!

This little sweetie is 20 months old

today! She had to come to Children's

Hospital last week to check out

her hips - all is well!

3. What's something you're 'chewing over' these days? (meaning-thinking over carefully) We are reading the Gospel of Luke during Lent and I've been teaching a passage on Sunday mornings and facilitating a pre-recorded teaching session and discussion on Tuesday nights so I guess I've been "chewing over" the scripture and several commentaries. I'm not sure that is the answer you were looking for. In addition to the actual scripture, I have two books on Luke by N.T. Wright (love him), a Barclay commentary (love him, too) and my Life Application Bible Commentary. I am definitely "chewing over" the things they write.

4. The last thing you cooked or ate that was overdone? My husband would tell you that I'm notorious for overcooking meat - especially chicken and ground beef patties. I've been trying to use the meat thermometer and not overcook them. I also have a tendency to overcook roasted vegetables. I know this sounds crazy but I actually like some char on the veggies. I really like to roast my asparagus until it is crunchy.

5. In celebration of hitting volume 411 in the weekly Hodgepodge, give us the 411 on something happening in your life in the next 30 days. This is the first thing that came to my mind -- Does anyone else remember dialing 411 for directory assistance? Back to the real question . . .Let's see - we will attend a birthday party for our sweet 5 year old (pictured above) and it is at an indoor play place and I'm going to wear double masks. My daughter and I are hosting a drive by baby shower for her friend, Brooke. We love Brooke as if she were our own daughter!! I am clueless how this is going to work but I know a lot of other people have been hosting drive by showers during covid and it has worked just fine. Also, I work in a church and Holy Week and Easter are quickly approaching. We are making plans (different than any other year) in order for as many people as possible to safely gather together and worship as the body of Christ. Ask me again in a week and I can give you LOTS of details.

6. Insert your own random thought here. As a church staff we've been trying to make as many connections as possible with people since everyone is not able to come back to worship together yet. I was able to run a report in our database and entered all of the streets in our neighborhood. I pulled the names and addresses of other Trinity folks and made a cute little care package that Mark and I dropped off on front porches. We included two Trinity face masks and a bag of microwave popcorn and a note that said we were "just popping in to introduce ourselves." If we already knew the family, we wrote a little note on there. Hey Neighbor is our "saying" for our church and we have t-shirts and face masks and other items with those words because Jesus said we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Then the man asked him, "who is my neighbor?" and Jesus proceeded to tell the story we all know as "The Good Samaritan." Everyone is our neighbor so "HEY NEIGHBOR!

April A to Z theme reveal

Happy Monday to all! Today is the theme reveal for the April A to Z blog challenge. I participated in the challenge in 2018 and you can read the first post here. The challenge was fun and definitely lived up to its name - blogging every day is a challenge. I am going to participate this year and I will be writing about the food we've eaten during covid. I'll be sharing some recipes because for the last year we have not eaten inside a restaurant. We have ordered take out a few times and we have driven through Chick-Fil-A but that is about it!

Just in case we've never "met" before, let me introduce myself. When I started writing this blog I was a middle aged mom. I wrote the first post in June of 2009. Our son had just finished his undergrad and was working in Arkansas for the summer before beginning his Master's program. Our daughter was finishing up undergrad with an internship before pursuing her Master's.

I've been married to Mark since 1984 and we have twins (mentioned above) - a son and a daughter. They are both married and each couple has a little girl.

I'm now a grandmother - eek! I still feel young at heart.  We also have a cat whose name is Harvey and he is spoiled rotten. 

Please come back and visit me soon! 

This is us with Mark's side of the family and was

taken before granddaughter #2 was even a

twinkle in her parent's eyes. We are also

missing one nephew who is a doctor in

New York.

Sunday Stealing

I jumped over to grab the questions for Sunday Stealing. 

 

1. Do you put ketchup on hot dogs? I love ketchup and I do love it on hot dogs!! I also like it on hamburgers and on fries. I actually buy Heinz ketchup with no sugar added because I don't want to feel guilty about eating ketchup.

2. How many TVs in your house? Inside the house are 2 TVs and then we have a TV in the garage, too. We've never had a TV in our bedroom (except once when I was recovering from surgery) and we didn't allow our kids to have TVs in their rooms. Mark always felt strongly that having TVs in all of the bedrooms encourages a family to spend less time together and he is right.

3. Do you put salt on watermelon? When I was growing up, we salted our watermelon and sometimes my husband salts his. He thinks it makes it taste sweeter? I actually bought a container of cut up watermelon yesterday because one of our granddaughters spent the night and she loves it. I have no idea where this watermelon was grown at this time of the year. Farmers grow watermelons in Alabama and around the 4th of July they are so sweet and juicy and yummy.

4. Can you swim? I don't swim well. My sister and I even took swim lessons as young adult women from this guy at the YMCA and I can still remember him shaking his head at us . . .and I think he had to save us a couple of times. Mark and our kids are strong swimmers and our oldest granddaughter is working on her swim lessons now and our daughter told me today that she has signed her baby up for a mommy and me class at the Y to get her used to the water.

5. Are your parents still alive? My parents have been dead for longer than I knew either one. Mark's momma will be 96 this year (do not tell her I told that on here!) and she has been a mother to me for longer than either of my parents were able to parent me. This was in August (she turned 95 in July) and she had baked 3 cakes for the birthdays of her sons! These aren't cake mix cakes these are cakes from scratch!

6. First car? My daddy bought a 1970 something (not sure of exact year) Mercury comet for us. Becky and I had to share a car. It was white with a rust colored top and I called it Vomit the Comet. I just googled 4 door comets 1975 and the two door comets were actually cool . . .but the 4 door not so much. I borrowed this picture from the internet. I couldn't even find a picture of a white one with that weird color top like we had.

7. Surgeries? I've had my wisdom teeth removed. Before you say, "that is not surgery" just know that mine was. I was literally admitted to the hospital (St. Vincent's) and had the surgery and stayed over night. I kid you not. I had a C-section with our twins and then I had a hysterectomy at 42. The hysterectomy was my husband's favorite surgery because he said . . .and I quote . . ."they cut the meanness right out of her."

8. What do you drink in the morning? I have a diet pepsi almost as soon as my eyes open!

9. Can you do 100 push ups? hahahahaha! Nope. It would be cool if I could. I could probably hurt you you with my legs because those muscles are so developed but when it comes to upper body strength . . .I was evidently absent when they handed that out.

10. Can you change a tire? It seems like I knew how to change a tire at one time. I think my daddy taught me how. Of course, that was over 35 years ago and I haven't changed one since. I think I would have to pull up youtube and get instructions.

11. Tattoos? Nope. Daughter and daughter-in-law both have tattoos but I do not.

12. Do you wear sunglasses? This is so embarrassing but I can't wear sunglasses. They make me motion sick. I have tried cheap ones. I have tried expensive ones. I have tried mid-priced ones. I have tried brand name ones. None of them work for me and I have green eyes so I should probably be protecting my eyes. Yes, I have crinkle lines from squinting in the sun.

13. Do you have a phobia? I started to tell you no but then I realized I do! I guess this is a phobia. I freak out when someone throws up. I don't even like to talk about someone being sick. I don't like to throw up myself. I actually tremble if someone throws up near me. I freak out even when it is on TV . . .and why do they need to show someone throwing up on TV. That is not entertainment in any form or fashion.

14. Do you have a nickname? I don't think so. My daddy use to call me "hoss" - don't ask. We watched a lot of Bonanza back then. I'm "Gran" to the granddaughters. Mark just calls me "hey you" - not really!

15. Are you a picky eater? I don't think so. There are a few things that I don't like -- salmon croquettes . ..yuck. I'm not sure I could be polite and even pretend to eat them. I don't particularly like salmon - the real kind (over the canned kind you use to make salmon croquettes). Over this pandemic year, I've tried to learn to like salmon and I can get down a couple of bites and that is about it. I also do not like beets - in any form or fashion - pickled or fresh. They are such a beautiful color and I really want to like them but as Mark said about beet juice when we were in Israel, "it tastes like dirt" and I agree. I borrowed another picture from the internet -- beets are so pretty!