Showers of Hodgepodge

Welcome to this week's edition of the Wednesday Hodgepodge.  If you're here visiting from the A-Z Blog Challenge, please know my post for the letter H will be up here shortly. Or longly? Sometime Wednesday, how's that?

A note to Hodgepodgers-remember next week is Spring Break in the Hodgepodge, so no link on April 16th. The Hodgepodge will be back to its regularly scheduled programming the week of April 23rd. Thank you for understanding!

Okay, here we go...my answers to this week's questions-

1. April showers bring May flowers or so the saying goes. When did you last 'shower attention on someone or have attention 'showered' on you? Did you love it or did all that attention make you squirm?

I think it was back in December when we celebrated my sister's BIG birthday the day after Christmas.  My whole family was here for the holidays, and Daughter2 made the most amazing pig cake for her aunt who collects pigs, and I bought a tiara for the birthday girl and personalized M & M's for everyone.  So fun! 

Hubs grilled steaks and we all enjoyed making a fuss over one of the absolute sweetest girls I know. I think my sister loved being the center of attention, which is as it should be on your birthday!  

2. Share a favorite 'spring break' memory.  Not talking about just the college 'spring break' thing, but any favorite spring break memory you'd like to share. Keep it family friendly please!

College was fun, but I'm not going to say college. And when our girls were young we typically didn't travel over spring break. As they entered their teens we took some trips, because we lived in Europe then, and the school gave them a two week term break.  Plenty of time for exploring somewhere. 

I think as far as favorites go, its a toss up between a trip around the Normandy region of France- 

or a hiking holiday in Dartmoor with the hubs-

Both locations were fabulous and memorable in their own way. 

3. It's National Pecan Month...are you a fan? If so, what's your favorite dish that calls for pecans?

I do like pecans, and have several recipes I could mention here. One favorite would be a sour cream coffee cake I make that has a brown sugar and pecan filling/topping. So scrumptious!

4. 'Put all your eggs in one basket', 'egg on your face', rotten egg', 'walk on eggshells' or 'a good egg'...which eggs-pression could most recently be applied to your own life?

How about 'a good egg'. That's my hubs. Last week I wrote a blog post listing some of my do's and don'ts for married life. I mentioned doing the little things, and in passing said that something as small as hubs buying me a PayDay candy bar just because he knows I like them makes me love him more.

On Sunday afternoon when I got in my car, I saw this.

A PayDay on the dashboard. He's a good egg. I think I'll keep him.

5. In my experience__________________________________________.

...spring is never quite as warm and sunny as I'd like it to be in Northern New Jersey. 

6. What's a favorite song with the word rain in its title or lyrics?

Well I'm a CCR fan, so Have You Ever Seen The Rain was the first thing that came into my head. Fire and Rain by James Taylor ranks a close second. And in the Country Music genre I love Ronnie Millsaps Smokey Mountain Rain. 

7. What does the word hope mean to you?

My favorite word. 

I love the song In Christ Alone..."no power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand...'.  Those words ring true, and fill me with hope, which in my mind means expecting something in the future that is better than what we presently know. 

While I don't think hope is always rooted in the spiritual, I know that's how I most often think of, and use the term. My hope lies in the promise of a risen Savior, and with that promise comes not just expectation, but also certainty. What God has promised for eternity will come to be. 

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:4 

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Last weekend we finally got out for a walk in the woods with our pup.  It was cold and gusty, but Carpe Diem. Actually there are buds on the trees overhead, and ice on the pond underfoot. 

Spring in Northern NJ. 
A paradox.