It's Truly a Hodgepodge

I'm joining up with Joyce and friends for this week's hodgepodge. Thank you to Joyce for the questions each week!!

1. What's worth standing in line for? 

When our kids were younger, we stood in line for new releases of Beanie Babies. When our kids were in college, they stood in line to get into the stadium for football games. As an adult, I will stand in a line to see my granddaughters!! I will stand in line to get on an airplane to travel to fun locations! I've written about patience before -- I prayed for patience and the very next month . . .I found out I was pregnant with twins. God has such a sense of humor! Mark has VERY LITTLE patience. Just last night, our daughter sent the meme below to me and to our son, Glenn, and said, "What in the Mark Elliott is this?' That would definitely be Mark. He HATES standing in line.

2. Tell us about a favorite food related memory. 

I remember being at our grandparent's house and they would cut open a chilled watermelon and give us all a big piece. It was always so sweet and juicy! Another food related memory - it was a "thing" in the Elliott family that they bought a huge amount of Silver Queen Corn every summer. The family then gathered in their kitchen and we cut the corn from the cob and milked the cob and then froze the corn to be used for Sunday lunches throughout the year. We hated doing it at the time but it is actually a very fond memory now.

3. What are some things you find particularly peaceful or calming? 

If I need to calm down, I close my eyes and I imagine I'm at the beach. I think about how the sun feels beating down on my skin. I make myself "listen" for the waves and for the seabird calls. It usually works. I also do the breathing exercise where you breathe in for a certain number of seconds, hold for a certain number of seconds, exhale for a certain number of seconds. Both of those are tried and true for me. Now, if you were asking what things I like to do that are peaceful or calming -- sitting on a beach is one. Also, sitting on a pier on the lake or on a boat out on the lake at sunset -- yes! Depending on "why" I need to calm down, sometimes riding my stationary bike helps me calm down.

4. Is there something you do now that gets you just as excited as it did when you were a child? 

I could not think of an answer . . . and then I remembered . . .NEW SCHOOL SUPPLIES. I love new crayons and new pens and pencils and new notebooks!

5. To what degree are you in touch with friends from grade school? high school? college if you attended college? 

Let's see . . .I have lunch with two friends from church/youth group/high school (they are a year older) once or twice a year. When we are together, time slips away! I'm friends with quite a few people from elementary and high school -- on facebook! We don't socialize with anyone from my childhood or high school days. Most of our "people" now are friends we have together - either friends from church (the majority) or friends from the neighborhood.

6. Insert your own random thought here. I have mentioned that we are going on a river cruise in October from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland. We are almost to the point where we can choose our excursions. I'm beginning to get excited. Have any of you cruised on an AMAwaterways cruise? We've been checking out the weather in October and I think it might be cool on our trip -- maybe I need some new clothes! I've been following AMA on social media and yesterday someone asked about souvenirs. There were some great answers and the ones that really interested me were about the things people wished they had purchased and didn't. or the things they had purchased and wished they had purchased more.