Tugging At The Heartstrings

We're moving right along in the April A-Z blog challenge and I bet if you read here regularly you already know what my letter H post will be about...

Day 8-H is for Hedgehogs

Last year in the A-Z I learned a new word-familects. I wrote about it here (The A-Z Yadda Yadda Yadda), but in a nutshell the word familects means one family's way of speaking. It can be anything from expressions to nicknames to stories told. 

Today's word falls firmly under the heading of familects.

It started with a relatively small, wildly funny (to my family) incident and as these things sometimes do it's taken on a life of its own as the years fly by.

When we lived in the UK we had a pretty pond in our back garden patio. One day I stepped outside and noticed what I thought was a big leaf floating on the pond. I innocently stuck my hand in to grab it only to discover it was a hedgehog. 

Let the shrieking commence. 

My girls came running thinking something terrible had ocurred (it had! I grabbed a dead hedgehog I thought was a leaf!! with my bare hands!!)  and much hysterical laughter and hijinks ensued as they tried to recapture the hedgehog who was once again floating in the pond. I'd flung it away from me in a fast and furious manner and as luck would have it that little hedgehog landed right back in the pond. 

So anyway, here we are some twenty years later and my girls still cannot resist buying me things they see with hedgehogs on them or sending me hedgehog memes and I still cannot resist buying them things I see with hedgehogs, and they know every single Christmas there will for sure be some sort of hedgehog related gift in their stocking or under the tree. 

Case in point-

A maternity nightgown with a momma and baby hedgehog walking across the front. 

While the back and forth gifting is mostly a mother-daughter thing, every now and then hubs jumps in with something fun, like these sweet little kissing hedgehog salt and pepper shakers. 

We can't let it go. Nor do we want to. 

Now, here's where familects come in. Unless you're my daughter or my husband I don't want you to buy me hedgehog tchotchkes. Because those would just be tchotchkes. 

But a hedgehog gift or card or meme from one of my girls? Well that means something more. It means they remember the koi pond with the beautiful iris, and the house we all loved for so many reasons, but especially the garden where so very much grew, including, and most of all, us.  I like to think that when a hedgehog catches their eye, whether on a greeting card or a cookie tin or whatever it may be, they're carried back to that garden for a moment. 

Teenagers...sisters...a mother who loved them so much they knew they could laugh at her ridiculousness and that she'd laugh with them. We didn't have camera phones back then, so there's no photo of the happening. It's all just a memory now, but I hope the same wave of tender affection I feel for my daughters when I think about that day washes over them too.  

I hope they know their momma will love all the hedgehog stuff they wanna give her, not because she loves hedgehogs, but because she loves the memory of teenagers in the house, life in a British garden, and growing up girls.

G It's The Hodgepodge

Welcome to another week in the Wednesday Hodgepodge, and if you're keeping up, it's also week two in the April A-Z Blog Challenge. Today's post is brought to you by the letter G and you'll find my thoughts for the A-Z in the random thought space aka question #6. 

1. Egg on your face, putting all your eggs in one basket, a good egg, walk on eggshells, nest egg, or a tough egg to crack...which eggy idiom currently applies to your life in some way? Explain

None particularly feel like they relate to my life at the moment so let's go with 'a good egg'. 

My hubs is a good egg. 

2. April 7th is National Beer Day...are you a beer drinker? If so do you have a favorite? Beer battered fish, beer bread, beer can chicken, beer brats...which one sounds good to you? Have you made any of these? 

I've never been a beer drinker but I do like all the recipes mentioned that call for beer. I don't think I've ever made beer battered fish but have certainly eaten it many times. Hubs is in charge of brats here and he makes them using beer because our Wisconsin friends tell us that's the secret to a perfectly cooked brat. 

3. Do you have siblings? What's the best thing about being your sibling? If you don't have siblings, what would you say are the pros and cons of being an only child? 

I do have siblings, two sisters and a brother and I'm grateful my parents had a bunch of kids. I guess four counts as a bunch? Well I'm sure it felt like a bunch to them. 

The best thing about being my sibling? 

Dear sibs...You're my lifelong besties, my confidantes, my memory keepers and I hope you consider me the same. I always root for your success, and you can count on me to love and pray for you forever and ever amen. 

4. How do you feel about floral scents in products? Do you have a favorite?

I'm not a big fan of floral scents unless we're talking actual flowers. I particularly find anything labeled rose scented to be way too much. I do like the scent of lavender so that one might be an exception to my no floral rule, but so often floral scented products are too heavily scented for my taste. I prefer citrus and I suppose lemon trees bloom so maybe that is technically a floral.  

5. What's one thing in your home that begins with the letter G that you would say is a keeper, something you'll hold on to? Tell us why. 

I've used my random thought today to answer this question. One does what one must when trying to blog through the alphabet and also host a weekly link up.  

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I'm still at this A-Z Blog challenge thing (for details go here-) and today we've reached the letter G. 

Day 7-G is for a Grandchild's Countdown Calendar 

Today I'm talking about this sweet little countdown calendar my daughter1 made for us when she was pregnant with our first grandbaby, known here as The Mancub. 

He turns nine this summer but I hold on to it still. 

The months before he was born I kept this little calendar on my kitchen window sill and couldn't wait to flip the blocks as the weeks and months were counted down. 

Once he was here I kept the set on a shelf in my closet, until two years later when grandson number 2 was on the way. 7000 miles and an ocean between us, but still back to the windowsill it went. 

Not quite three years passed before grandson number three joined the party...

And then a few short months later our first granddaughter...

 And then another quick year went by and we were celebrating the arrival of granddaughter number two. 

You should know I'm in two different states, four different cities, and one foreign country in these pictures. We get around-ha! This little calendar has spent a lot of time on my windowsill in the past nine years, and now grandbaby number 5 is two years old. 

So do I keep it? 

Of course. I mean I don't know if there will be more grandbabies here, but I know this little calendar is a sweet reminder of some of the happiest days and years of our lives. 

It's back in my closet for now, and who knows? Maybe one day I'll gift it back to my daughter when she's preparing to welcome a grandbaby of her own. Wouldn't that be fun?! 

Antiques Homeshow

 Chugging right along in the A-Z Blog Challenge...

Day 6-F is for Furniture

A lot of people when they retire, and particularly when they move from something like the suburbs out to the lake, sell all of their furniture along with their house and just buy new. If you've had somewhat traditional furniture with lots of dark wood it's understandable to want to make a change, find furnishings that are lighter, airier, more minimalist with less mass. 

When we moved to the lake, or rather as we prepared to move, we put everything we owned in storage and lived in a rental apartment with rental furniture for the whole year we were building. We weren't sure exactly what our new finished space would look like so we held on to a lot and figured we'd deal with it on this end. 

We knew we wanted a king sized mattress as opposed to our then queen, so the plan was we'd put our bedroom furniture into one of the guest rooms and buy new for our room. Which we did and we love it, but it's lighter in tone than most of what we own. 

We love wood and we love dark rich wood tones especially. Gray toned everything was really popular when we were building, but we knew that wasn't us. In fact when we were choosing the color stain for our trim and staircase we both pointed to the exact same sample our decorator was holding up at the exact same time. She said, 'well you definitely know what you like'. 

We have a few antiques, purchased when we lived in the UK, and we weren't ready to part with them to make room for something new. So we embraced the wood, and we kept the things that made us happy. 

Like this-

A monk's bench we purchased on a fun day shopping with friends in a little town called Hungerford in Berkshire UK. It was a great day out, despite the hysterical call we got from our daughter1 (a university student on the other side of the pond) as we were on our way home where she finally managed to say she'd had a car accident.  

Waiting to hear how bad it was took about ten years off my life, but no one was injured and we had a little chat afterwards about how that needs to be the first thing out of her mouth as opposed to the last. 

Memories are a funny thing and when I look at this bench I'm reminded of village life, of how much I loved getting in the car or hopping on a train and browsing a new to us town, and also those college years where we lived an ocean away from our girls and we all grew up in ways that would serve us well in the decade that followed. 

We sit photographs on the Monk's Bench now, photos of that same daughter's wedding that happened six years later. It's tucked along a wall beside our sliders and we framed botanical prints to hang above it so it works. 

We had our girl's portraits painted on the very first 'out of the UK trip' we took when we first moved to England. 

They're not antiques, but they are more than 20 years old and still hang in our bedroom today. While the girls in these portraits are now grown married women we look at these paintings and remember that special first trip ...

...the funny hotel room with the questionable television and Thanksgiving dinner eaten on the Eurostar, fish!,  which felt so, so wrong to my kids, but who wouldn't trade the moment now for the best roast turkey in America. 

This clock-

Bought in a little shop in a village very near our home that we frequented often. We happen to have the exact right space for it in this house and I can't imagine letting it go. 

And hubs has this tantalus which I remember the seller telling us was something the Americans were buying up, but we'd been looking for one the whole time we lived there and this one is so pretty. 

It sits on a commode in my dining room. Also purchased on our trip to Hungerford and hubs turned it into a drinks cabinet which is something I love about antiques. Finding new ways to make the old pieces fit into our more modern living spaces. 

We still have the first big furniture purchase we made as a married couple, our dining room set. I know one day it won't fit in our living space, and maybe someday one of my girls will want it or maybe not. We could reno it and make it less formal but for now it makes me happy. 

We've parted with some things through the years, usually by giving to someone who needs whatever it is we don't. I dislike the hassle of selling stuff and in general would rather donate than deal with a sale. 

As I'm writing these posts and thinking about what I hold on to I realize the why is really pretty simple. The things I keep are anchors to the moments and milestones in my life. They're markers in the story of me. 

Linking today's A-Z post with Joanne for Talking About It Tuesdays 

Hello Easter Monday

Good Monday morning friends. Also strangers and lurkers and visitors here today from both the A-Z Challenge and Holly (Pink Lady Blog) and Sarah's (Sunshine and Books) Hello Monday hop. I'm happy today's letter in the A-Z Blog Challenge is one that allows me to still share my weekend recap. Here we go-

Day 5-E is for Easter 

My theme this year for the challenge is The Things We Keep: An A-Z of Ordinary Objects, so today's post will include something that relates to both Easter and my theme. Also, light on pictures heavy on words but that's how this blog sometimes plays out.

Let's start with my Easter bunny who is more than 50 years old...

Many years ago my mom did ceramics and she made each one of us four kids a rabbit of our own. My brother's looked a lot like Peter Rabbit with his little green coat, and my older sister's was a smaller bunny that broke somewhere along the way. My younger sister and I had rabbits that looked alike except for the painting. Mine was gray and white and hers was black and white. 

This bunny has been pulled out every Easter for a lot of years now. It's sweet, and makes me think of my mama and Easter Sundays growing up. New dresses and spring coats, my family around the dining room table eating my moms delicious baked ham on the good china. 

I promise you behind that door there are four ceramic Easter bunnies sitting in a dining room ready for Sunday dinner after church. 

Where were we? Oh yeah, 2026. Lots of years and miles from that front door. 

We had a nice low key Easter weekend here. Friday night hubs and I watched the three local grands while their parents had a night out. It's all fun and games until you do an accidental awkward triple somersault while playing a harmless game of tag with the kids. Just ask hubs-ha! 

I brought them each a little bag with a sweet treat, a little toy, and pjs for the boys and a dress and shorts outfit for little miss. Not buying ALL the pretty clothes for my grandgirls is an act of will. 

Saturday morning I boiled eggs so I could make deviled eggs Sunday morning to take to my daughter's house for Easter dinner. Then, because it was a drizzly morning, hubs went with me to the store. He needed some sort of fussy battery and I needed last minute ingredients for my Sunday salad. 

We watched some of the British police series we've been enjoying (Death In Paradise) and I made an Easter chex mix (using pastel M & M's) and spent some time trying to get ahead with some of the letter posts coming up in the A-Z. I'd really love to be two ahead, but will settle for one. Or even just not scrambling on the day would be okay too. 

Saturday night I made chicken piccata (I love Ina's recipe) and we watched basketball. I got bored and ended up going to bed before the Michigan game ended. While I was all in on the brackets I don't have even the smallest connection to the two teams that made the finals. 

Sunday we had a wonderful church service with a hopeful message, beautiful music, and everyone in their Easter finery. You'll have to take my word for that last bit. Hubs and I didn't take a single picture of the two of us, and while I have cute pics of the kids I try not to share them here. The struggle is real though. 

After church we enjoyed a delicious lunch at daughter1's house with the grands, my daughter's in-laws, and her sister-in-law, brother-in-law and their super precious nine month old baby girl.  My baby girl made the most scrumptious lemon blueberry cake with a lemon buttercream and sugared blueberries on top, and I am already looking for a reason to make this recipe myself. 

Daughter2 and her hubs celebrated the day with their own church family in TN, but had a similar meal to ours because some traditions are worth keeping. 

We came home about five, the same time the sun decided to shine, and took a late Sunday nap which is also an Easter tradition. Or possibly an every Sunday tradition? We skipped dinner because we were both still full and watched a movie we somehow missed when it came out. 

It's called The Ark in some places and Noah's Ark in other places. We watched it on Prime and this one is the 2015 BBC television movie with David Threlfall and Joanne Whalley.  There have been a lot of film versions made of Noah's Ark and they don't get great reviews, mostly because the filmmakers change the story as it's told in the Bible. 

That's true in this case too, so you have to view it as a movie and not a documentary. They've taken a lot of liberties with the story, the timeline and who is actually on the Ark most of all, but as a movie it was engaging. If you've never read the first book of the Bible-Genesis,  check it out to hear the real deal. 

I've got my blood work this morning so no coffee which is not the way I like to begin the week, but I'll manage. 

Hope your weekend was filled with lots of joyful moments too. Happy Monday everyone! 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 648

Here are the questions to this week's Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (April 8) to share answers with all your friends and neighbors. See you there! 

 

1. Egg on your face, putting all your eggs in one basket, a good egg, walk on eggshells, nest egg, or a tough egg to crack...which eggy idiom currently applies to your life in some way? Explain

2. April 7th is National Beer Day...are you a beer drinker? If so do you have a favorite? Beer battered fish, beer bread, beer can chicken, beer brats...which one sounds good to you? Have you made any of these? 

3. Do you have siblings? What's the best thing about being your sibling? If you don't have siblings, what would you say are the pros and cons of being an only child? 

4. How do you feel about floral scents in products? Do you have a favorite?

5. What's one thing in your home that begins with the letter G that you would say is a keeper, something you'll hold on to? Tell us why. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Dish Of The Day

Working my way through the alphabet in this month's A-Z blog challenge...

 Day 4-D is for Dishes 

If a pretty dish enters my home you should know it's probably not coming out. I mean if it's yours I'll return it, but if I've bought it myself or it's been handed down to me I'm keeping it possibly forever. 

Doesn't everyone need an asparagus plate? 

I live on a lake and everything is super casual here. We use melamine and plastic tumblers for the outdoor spaces, but I  think a beautifully set table in the dining room is one of life's little pleasures and I want more of it. 

I feel like people push back when you want to make something a little bit 'fancy'. Guests don't want you going to any trouble, but I say going to a little bit of trouble is part of what makes a dinner gathering special. 

I know everyone is fine with paper plates and easy clean up, but I love the aesthetic of real dishes and I don't even mind hand washing my china whenever we pull it out. Which isn't often, but when we do it feels so civilized. Hubs and I always enjoy having a debrief too, as we wash up dishes after a party. It puts a bookend on the evening.  

I have a lot of dishes, but right now I have room for them and I use them. I have my everyday dishes. I have a very full set of china chosen when I married that I still love a lot.

I have a set of Christmas dishes. I have many many serving pieces I purchased on trips to Italy and the potteries in Stoke-on Trent in the UK. 

Memorable days and memorable trips made with women who became friends as we bonded over pottery and living far from 'home'.  

I have some lovely little glass sherbet style dishes that belonged to my grandmother that I've only used a couple of times but am determined to use again. Plus they were my grandmas. Doesn't the law say you can't give away your grandmas dishes? 

My daughter1 has my grandmother's china and it made my mom so happy when she moved out of her house knowing these dishes went to a granddaughter. 

I'm a believer in using the good dishes. In the end they're just dishes and if one breaks it breaks. What's the point of having nice things if they're always tucked away in a drawer or cabinet? 

When I was visiting my daughter2 a couple of weeks ago we went into a beautiful home store and my eyes instantly landed on a set of gorgeous bar glasses that would be so much fun for summer. I hemmed and hawed and thought about how I might justify the purchase (they were awfully pricey), and when I asked myself aloud where would I put them my daughter said, and I quote, 'just buy them mom, you'll figure it out when you get home.' 

I love her. 

But I didn't purchase because they were somewhat girly and the bar area is kind of hubs domain so he might not appreciate these. Or he might be happy if they make me happy? I can always go back, right? 

It's In The Cards

 Continuing week one of the April A to Z Blog Challenge...

Day 3-C is for Cards and Letters 

Do you write letters? Did you write letters once upon a time? I confess to still loving pretty stationery, a good pen that writes just so, and seeing an envelope in my mailbox that is clearly personal. If you send me a card I will open it, read it, admire the design, and display it for at least a few days on the mantle or kitchen island. 

I have a hard time throwing a card in the trash, but of course I can't keep them all. I do have a collection of some whose words are extra sweet stashed in my closet. I looked through them recently, but could part with none. 

When each of my girls were born I put the cards I was sent in a scrapbook, which sounds a little over the top, except when I flip through that now I'm glad I saved them. I see the words written inside, and remember the prayers of so many family friends who knew me as a child, who watched me grow to become a mother myself, and the memory of these godly women is a treasure. 

In a convenient but unplanned turn of events, hubs and I finally tackled the great attic clean out of 2024 2025 2026 this week, and came upon some cards and letters I'd written him when we were dating. There was my young angsty heart laid bare in ink on slightly yellowed stationery. 

A stamp in 1980 was just 15¢, and that's the sort of time capsule you won't get from a deleted email. 

We started dating towards the end of a spring semester, then spent that summer apart so we wrote letters. How fun to read what my 20-year old self was thinking and feeling in the earliest days of our getting to know one another. 

Four pages front AND back...

I was not dramatic at all. Ha!  

I think about the world today and how communication is instantaneous and mostly brief. Texts, emails, messages sent via the miracle of technology and all that jazz. On one level this is wonderful, but I can't help but think we've lost something too. 

Something precious and worth keeping. 

There's a thoughtfulness to the act of letter writing that is mostly missing from an email. How often do you save and re-read an email time and time again, years apart even? An email goes into your digital trash can. A card or letter from someone who loves you, who appreciates you and tells. you why, who encourages you and lets you know you're thought of, well that is at the very least a day brightener and most often it's something more. 

A keepsake to hold on to in a disposable world.