I put the I in Hodgepodge

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge!  If you're here visiting today from the April A-Z challenge you'll find today's letter I, incorporated into my weekly meme.  I won't do this every Wednesday, but I have a few too many to-dos in my to-days this week, and something had to give. You can just scroll on down to #8 and read my A-Z bit, but you'll miss the awesomeness that is the Wednesday Hodgepodge if you do.  

Everyone is invited to play along in the Hodgepodge here on Wednesdays...answer the questions on your own blog and then add your link at the end of mine.  This is a very friendly neighborhood...thanks for stopping by!

Here are my answers to this week's questions as well as my A-Z entry for today~

1. Share one fun thing you did last week while the Hodgepodge was on Spring Break?

I had my youngest daughter home with me until Thursday, and that's always special. We went out to lunch, shopped, had mani/pedis side by side, critiqued The Voice because that's what people do when they watch other people perform, played a lot of Skipbo, and talked a blue streak.  I don't know exactly what that expression means, but if it means 'lots and lots of talking' then it fits. 

2. April 10th is National Sibling Day...do you have siblings, and if so are you close?  Share a favorite story involving one or all of your siblings.  If you don't have siblings did you ever wish you did?

I have two sisters and a brother, and I cannot imagine life any other way.  I love having sisters and a brother.  

A favorite story...hmmm...well, I could tell you about the time my brother was babysitting and my younger sister and I caught the kitchen on fire while he was on the phone, and then he promptly initiated 'project don't tell mom and dad'...I wrote on my blog a while back about the time I tricked my younger sister into giving me her half of a treat my mom had given us because she thought I'd eaten all of mine-teehee. I could tell you about the time my older sister and I were in an airport and when a man asked if we were twins she said 'almost'. ??? She's seven years older than me. 

3. Is it important to you to 'buy American'?  How far will you go to 'buy American'?  If you're not American insert your own country in the blank.

I want to buy American, but it has to be what I'm looking for...if two items are essentially equal, then sure I'll buy American.  That's not always what we find when we shop these days. The world is no longer a US-centered economy-it's global so competition exists on a much larger scale.

My brain is honestly too fried to delve into this too deeply here today, but suffice it to say I buy American when the American made product is well made and priced right, and I'm happy when that happens.  

4. Besides The Bible, what book has impacted your spirituality in some way?

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. If you've never read this book I highly recommend. Corrie ten Boom is one of my heroes.  Her example of forgiveness in the most undeserving of circumstances made a huge impact on me as an eleven year old girl and is one I go back to often.  

5. April showers bring May flowers or so the saying goes.  Do you find rainy days calming or depressing?  When were you last caught in a rainstorm?  What's blooming in your neck of the woods today?

I guess it depends on my mood. A day of rain after a few days of busy-ness is calming. A solid week of rain can get a little depressing. I was caught in a downpour just recently. My car had been in the shop for a few days so I had a bunch of errands to run the day I got it back. Naturally it was coming down in buckets on a day when I had three armloads of dry cleaning to maneuver into the car. Ugh.  

What's blooming here? Nothing. Seriously, nothing. My daffodils are only just now peeking out of the earth.  According to the weather people everything should open up all at once in the next week or so, and as such is expected to wreak havoc on those of us with allergies.  I've got my Allegra though, so bring on Spring!

6. What's your favorite yellow food?

That's a tough one, but I'm going with corn on the cob.  
And anything lemon. 
Also cheese, bananas and summer squash.  

Did I leave anything out?

7. April is National Poetry Month...what's a poem that holds special meaning for you, and why is it special.

The Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe.  My dad memorized this poem and used to recite it sometimes. When my niece was a tiny tot, no more than four or five, she learned some of it too, just by listening to my dad.  

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Like many of you reading here I'm participating in the April A-Z blog challenge . If you'd like to follow along I'm blogging my way out of a paper bag...click here to begin at the beginning. 

Today's A-Z entry is brought to you by the letter I~

I is for Innocence

"The prime purpose of being four is to enjoy being four-

of secondary importance is to prepare for being five." ~Jim Trelease

"There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again." ~Elizabeth Lawrence

"Sweet childish days, that were as long as twenty days are now."  

~William Wordsworth, To a Butterfly

"The greatest poem ever known

Is one all poets have outgrown:

The poetry, innate, untold,

Of being only four years old.~ 

Christopher Morley, To a Child