Sunday Stealing

 

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

These journal prompts were stolen from CountryDew, who originally posted them in February 2021. She undoubtedly stole them from another blogger, but we're not busting her. Here at Sunday Stealing we encourage theft. 

Prompts and More Prompts

1) How do you show others love? What makes you feel loved? I cook for people as a sign of my love. I tell them I love them. I send text messages to check on my friends and family. My husband's love language is acts of service so I try to do things for him. My love language is words of affirmation. I also feel loved when one of the granddaughters gives me a giant hug or a friend stops by my office or sends a text to check on me.

2) Who is someone you admire? Why? I admire quite a few people. I admire Mary Liz who had a dream of feeding the hungry. She started a ministry in her yard . . .and then we hired her . . .and she runs The Hub (where Mark volunteers each week) and feeds hundreds of families each week. She also develops relationships with the families. I admire another co-worker who is a single mom.

3) Do you have the qualities you value in a friend? I value the following qualities in a friend and I try to have those same qualities. A good friend is someone who listens; who loves; who can keep a confidence; who has a sense of humor; who is honest.

4) What is something you enjoyed doing when you were younger but don't do anymore? Why did you stop doing it? I loved riding a bike outside. I don't have an outside bike, but I do ride a recumbent indoor bike. I was never very good at it, but I also loved to roller skate at the skating rink. I don't roller skate because I do not need a broken hip or a broken anything. I also loved to play kickball and was pretty darn good at it. There are several reasons why I don't do that anymore.

5) What is something other people think is fun but you don't? Some people love to camp and think it is great fun. I've been camping two or three times. It was ok, not necessarily fun. Mark loves to tramp around the farm and thinks fishing is the best hobby ever. I'm glad he feels that way and has a place to go. Some people seem to think that being cruel is fun. I do not.

Time for the Hodgepodge

 

1. Joyce writes the Hodgepodge questions so they'll post on Sunday, which sometimes throws her off in terms of what day it is. St. Patrick's Day was celebrated on Monday, March 17th. Did you mark the day in some way? Wear green? Make a special meal? Watch or participate in a parade? I wore green to church on Sunday and to work on Monday! I looked at my ancestry.com and 23 and me results (again) to verify that I do indeed have Irish blood!! I did not make a special meal (I don't like corned beef) and I didn't celebrate. I did think about Ireland!!

2. Do you think luck plays a part in your life? Explain. I have really mixed emotions about "luck." I do think somethings are just "luck of the draw." I won a bottle of Pappy several years ago and that was just plain luck - my golden ticket was drawn from thousands. I think that every once in a while, we might be somewhere and see something fun and interesting and maybe we were just "lucky" to be there. Mark and I are people of faith and so we tend to look at many things as blessings, rather than luck, and the path of our life is guided by God through the Holy Spirit. I do want to say that we do believe in free will - we don't think we are pieces on a chess board that God moves hither and yon.

3. Of the 15 green foods listed, which one is your favorite and how do you like it prepared? Any on the list that are a hard no for you? In general do you like fruits and veggies? As a kid did you eat them willingly or did you hide peas in your napkin hoping your momma wouldn't see? 

Asparagus - I love it roasted, 

avocado - I love it sliced and I love it in guac, 

broccoli - I eat it and sometimes I love it; sometimes I eat it because it is good for me, 

celery - I like it on a crudite tray or stuffed with pimento cheese or cream cheese and olives or peanut butter with raisins on top, 

cucumber - I enjoy cucumbers, 

grape - we've been eating grapes all week, 

green bean - I eat them and I guess I like them haha, 

kale - I love Chick-Fil-A's kale salad - yum yum!, 

kiwi - I love ripe kiwi - to me, kiwi tastes like a cross of banana and strawberry, 

lettuce - I enjoy a good salad, 

lime - I love a lime margarita! 

pear - I like pears just fine, 

peas - I do like green peas; especially LeSueur brand, 

pistachios - I do like pistachios, 

spinach - I like raw spinach, but I only tolerate cooked spinach.

I love most fruits and veggies. We grew up eating lots of fruit. My granddaddy and my daddy always had a garden, so we always had fresh veggies. My momma did fry lots of things - squash and okra and green tomatoes. I don't remember hiding any fruit or veggie in a napkin but my mom made Salmon Croquettes and I would cry and cry. I still don't eat them and that experience plays a part in the fact that I can't eat salmon now. There was a starchy veggie that I didn't like and would cry about eating-- it was some sort of a large white bean. I love just about all beans now. Whatever mama cooked and served, we were expected to eat. She didn't make separate meals for us.

4. What's something that makes you 'turn green'? (with envy or with illness... whichever way you want to run with it) I don't do well if anyone throws up -- I turn green . . . and vacate the premises as quickly as possible.

5. Did you spend a lot of time outdoors as a child? Doing what? Do you spend a lot of time outdoors now? Doing what? When the weather was nice, we spent a lot of time outside. We had swings and would swing high. We played kick ball and we played baseball/softball. There were 17 kids in our neighborhood and we played lots of outside games. We rode our bikes everywhere. As an adult, I love the outdoors BUT I do not spend much time outside due to allergies. I'm on shots and oral meds but still have trouble. My eyes are so itchy right now as I'm typing this!!

This is just the girls from our neighborhood.
I'm second from left on front row.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

meme courtesy of someone's pinterest page

Week (and weekend) in review

Last week I received some swag from Samford - I'm going to be honest. I was a little giddy! Never in a million years did I dream that I would possibly some day (in my old age) receive a degree at all, much less from an amazing university like Samford. I'm registered for two mini terms this summer.

Our daughter sent us this photo on Thursday morning. I bought these two pieces of clothing from our church consignment sale - Lil Lambs! I knew she would love it!

Back up a day to Wednesday -- I worked at The Hub, which is our church's outreach center. I've written about it before -- we feed over 600 families a week; ESOL classes on Monday night; and so many other good things. It was Staff Serve week so many of our church staff volunteered - we actually have a day or two built into our PTO for service opportunities. My job was to sort linens and package them into sets.

Here I am with two of our regular volunteers.

On Thursday night, we met 8 friends at Seasons 52 for dinner. I had shrimp and grits along with a Cosmopolitan! The photo below is the only photo I took!!

On Friday morning, I finally had time to get a pedicure and it was much needed. I actually studied while I was there. It is so nice that I can access my textbook on my phone.

On Friday night, we headed to MJ and Dan's for a dessert party. We now have at least 12 couples/families who live in our neighborhood and who all go to Trinity UMC. Trinity is located in Homewood which is about 15 minutes away. MJ said she would host if I would help her get the invitation list together. I also made a fruit tray and dip.

We had a great time! Several of the couples are in the same Sunday School class that Mark and I are in and we've traveled with quite a few of the other folks. Several of the folks work at the Hub during the week so Mark knows them. We had a great time.

The weather was so nice that we drove the golf cart to their house. We could have walked but it would have been hard to juggle that giant tray of fruit. Look at the moon! It was gorgeous that night.

Saturday brought the threat of bad weather and lots of tornadoes to our state (and other states). Our oldest grand celebrated her 9th birthday. We were supposed to meet them for dinner but cancelled due to the threat of bad weather.

To make up for missing her dinner (which made me very sad), we have plans to take her to dinner on Thursday night and it will be just the three of us.

James Spann is our local celebrity weather man. He keeps us all informed. At one point, a tornado was headed straight towards our son's community. We called them and they were sheltered in their basement room. They are safe and the tornado didn't touch down near them but there were other communities in our state that suffered damage and loss of life. Most folks in our neighborhood have more than one car and due to the threat of large hail, etc. most everyone took their extra cars/Sprinter vans/etc. to the Galleria parking deck. It is less than 10 minutes away. As soon as the main threat was gone (about 9:30 p.m.) I drove Mark to get his vehicle because I go to work so early on Sunday mornings and we didn't want to have to cram one more thing into our Sunday morning time frame.

Sunday morning found us both at Trinity UMC. I worked and taught Sunday School and Mark went to worship and Sunday School. We are trying to continue the family Sunday lunch tradition and everyone came to our house for Chicken Spaghetti. We talked through Bill's memorial service which will be this weekend. Alice had bought a giant bag of Gummi Bears for Bill and he died before they were opened. He loved Gummi bears! Susie, Alice, and I put Gummi Bears into tiny bags and we are going to have them in a basket to give to people at the end of the service. Mark's mother always loved a party favor. Mark walked into the dining room while we were putting the bags together and said, "Seriously - are you making party favors for the funeral?" Later I was telling our son and he asked, "Y'all made funeral favors?" I don't know why I find this so hilarious. I guess it is the body, mind, and soul's way of coping with grief. Sometimes things are just funny.

Thieving on a Sunday afternoon!

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Cheers to all of us thieves!

This week, we're stealing from Steph, aka Cry Baby. She loves Taco Bell and asking questions like these.

I tried to answer these questions on Saturday, like I normally do, but I just couldn't get my act together!

1) Think about the last person you forgave. How long did it take you to forgive them? I'm sure I have forgiven people for smaller things over the last few years, but I must admit that there is a thing for which I had to forgive someone that was HUGE. It took me years and years and more years to be able to forgive this person. It also took therapy. I was finally able to forgive the person, but I never wanted to be reconciled with that person. I actually talked about this incident just this morning when I was teaching Sunday School. I realized that the offender could have cared less whether or not I ever forgave them BUT the angst/anger of holding on to the lack of forgiveness was eating me up from the inside out. I forgave the person for my own well being. I don't think Mark was ever able to forgive the person, but as he said today -- the person is now dead. I also used this story from NPR this morning. It is worth a read and it is a powerful story of forgiveness.

 

2) Steph's favorite fast food is Taco Bell. What's yours? On his blog, Roger said that he liked Wendy's. I do think Wendy's has a great cheeseburger (hold the onions). My favorite french fries are from Milo's and I need several of their dipping sauces because I want to dip each fry - sometimes more than once. Mark nor I eat a lot of fast food but we both love the salads at Chick Fil A. If we "pick up" food, we might get a meat and three from the local Piggly Wiggly (grocery store) deli or we might grab some chicken salad from Ashley Mac's. I love Papa John's pizza but I only order it if Mark isn't home or if I'm ordering it for our Young Adult group. We have several "fast food/casual" places where we like to eat like Taco Mama or Urban Cookhouse. Those are places where we can grab a healthier version of to go food or we can actually go inside.

 

3) Who was the last friend you hung out with? What did you do? We hung out with several different friends and family members over the last week. I will recap all of that in my week/weekend in review tomorrow.

 

4) Did you do anything this past week that will still seem important a year from now? Yesterday, I was leaving my WW (Weight Watchers) meeting and one of the other ladies fell. I called 911 and several of us waited with her until the paramedics arrived. Her husband is partially disabled and she is raising her 16 year old grandson. One of the other ladies drove her to the ER where the doctors had to use 8 stitches to put her pinky finger back together. She busted (burst?) her lip and she texted us that she has three broken bones and will see an ortho doctor this week. All I did was run to her as I dialed 911 . . .but that might still seem important next week.

 

5) Will this coming week be better than last week? How so? I hope so. Our family is ready for some good days.

The Ides of March Hodgepodge

I love joining up with Joyce and the gang every Wednesday. I would love to know your answers if you aren't playing along. Please feel free to write a comment!

1. March 15th is known as The Ides of March, the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C....have you ever been to Rome? If so what did you love most about the city? If not, is this a place you'd like to visit? I have been to Rome! I loved all of it but I really loved the Catacombs. I also loved the rooftop bar at night. Vatican City was pretty amazing, too.

They wouldn't allow us to take any photos inside the Catacombs. These are pictures from the internet inside the Catacombs we visited . . .which is interesting since they wouldn't allow photos.

Here we are on the rooftop - this was the perfect
place to unwind after walking a MILLION
steps and the view was gorgeous.

It was HOT! The Colosseum was pretty
cool.

This was in front of the Opera House -
We were being so silly

2. 'Rome wasn't built in a day.' What project/activity/improvement (of any kind) do you have going on right now to which this saying might be applied? Mark has been working on our front porch steps. He redid them and then promptly tumbled down them. He is ok - just hurt his good knee a little. He has been measuring to see if they are regulation size (they are).

3. Let's do a little this or that with some Italian foods...

• Caprese salad or Prosciutto with melon? Proscuitto with melon
• Bruschetta or Antipasto? Antipasto
• lasagne or ravioli? I love both
• bolognese or Carbonara? I love both, but I guess I'll choose bolognese. The best pasta I have ever eaten was this . . .in Rome

• 

  Mark doesn't like pasta, but even HE liked this pasta!

  
  
  
• Risotto or gnocchi? Risotto
• tiramisu~gelato~cannoli? I don't eat sweets, but if I did I would choose gelato

4. Of the colors red, white, and green which would I find most prevalent in your home? Which one do you think is most flattering to you in terms of your wardrobe? Have you ever had your colors done? Is that something you'd be interested in doing? We have touches of red throughout our house. 

The reflection in the granite is
tricky!!

Green is the most flattering and I love to wear green dresses! I did have my colors done A MILLION years ago!! Having your colors done was popular when I was in my early 20's. I think it is cool that it has come "round again."

5. Life would be boring without? Friends and laughter

6. Insert your own random thought here. We have a busy week planned, which is good.  When I was ordering groceries, I realized that we will only be home one night this week. I'm writing this on Monday night and I've been fighting sadness for a couple of days. Mark's sister is planning the memorial service for Bill. Since he was cremated, we didn't have to be in a rush. I think the time change (which I will eventually love), is messing up my emotions as well as my sleep. Add that to all of the loss we've experienced in the last 8 months and it is a lot! I apologize -- that was a word dump and is way more than ONE random thought.

The Week. . .more than just a weekend

I shared photos from the Mardi Gras parade last week. It was a lot of fun. I also decorated inside for the Young Adults.

I had decorations on the mantle.

and hanging from the light fixture over the island

and on the dining room table and on the lantern over the table

and on the entry hall table.

Since the young adults were coming on Fat Tuesday, we served pancakes, sausage squares, bacon, and more. We didn't tell the young adults that Bill had died eaerlier that day until we shared prayer requests right before everyone went home.

Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. This is a horrible picture of me, but I had already worked about 10 hours that day and I was tired. There is a weird shadow under my nose - it wasn't really red!

On Thursday, Amalie came to work and hung out with all of us. She is growing so fast.

Thursday night, we crashed in front of the fire.

I drove to Columbiana on Friday morning for a haircut and to have my roots touched up. I did a quick run in to the Dollar General and then headed back to Homewood for our monthly lunch with my three friends.

On Saturday morning, bright and early, we met our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter #1 in the Publix Parking lot and we all headed south to our daughter's fixer upper. Remember I said I went into the Dollar General? I bought $60 worth of paper and art supplies for the big girls. I hung out with them on the porch while everyone else worked inside.

There is a HUGE magnolia tree in their new yard. It is sooo cool. The girls were all under the tree and climbing it.

They've removed some walls and have stripped the paneling and sheetrock from the walls and basically jack-hammered the tile from the floor. They have a LOT of work to do.

After her nap, Grandma (the other grandmother) brought the silly goose over for a visit. Look at that smile!!

We headed home and I made Egg Roll in a bowl for the two of us. The time changed on Saturday night/Sunday morning which made getting up at 5:00 a.m. to go to work on Sunday morning tough! I worked and then taught Sunday School on atonement.

It was a rainy afternoon and we just hung out at home. I did some homework and some laundry and ran the dishwasher. We had a fairly low-key weekend which is good because the coming week is a very busy one!

What did you do this weekend? or last week?

 

The Real Sunday Stealing is back.

Sunday Stealing questions are back live - yay! We've missed our prompts each week. I've been "stealing" others just so I would keep posting.

COUNTDOWN FROM 5. Stolen from Kwizgiver, ca. 2011. She originally counted down from 10, but we are not that ambitious.

FIVE people who mean the world to you.

1. Mark

2.Laura (and Scott)

3 Glenn (and Lauren) -- I can't leave off my daughter-in-law nor son-in-law (#2)

4. granddaughter #1

5. granddaughters #2 & 3 (yes, I know I'm cheating . . .but it is my blog. Also, my list of people who mean the world to me includes others. I definitely could have used at least 5 more spots on top of the list above)

FOUR things you fear. There are things I don't like, but I'm not sure I "fear" them.

1. I don't like spiders - if they stay away from me, i'm good.

2. I don't like snakes.

3 I hope my house never burns again.

4. Thunder and lightning do give me pause since July of 2022 - those two probably cause fear more than anything.

 

THREE words to describe how you feel right now.

1. sleepy

2. happy to hear the birds singing

3. excited to see two of the granddaughters today (I'm writing on Saturday morning)

 

TWO things you're excited about.

1. seeing granddaughter #1

2. seeting granddaughter #2 (here's hoping the other grandparents will bring granddaughter #3 over to see us today)

 

ONE thing you'd like to say to someone.

1. Can you please act like a civilized human being?

Blast off!