Monthly mUsings

Onward in the A-Z Blog Challenge with today's letter. Today's post will also be linked with Holly and Patty's Monthly Musings party, and somehow I'm going to make it work. 

U is for Understanding

As in understanding and knowing your strengths, your limitations, your capabilities, 

and your healthy boundaries; self-awareness 

I know I should write something deep and introspective here, but instead I'm going to say I've nearly reached my limit in the A-Z Blog Challenge. And because I know myself I'm going to give myself some grace and participate in a fun monthly link up hosted by Holly and Patty (Monthly Musings) instead.

And that's okay. 

Blogging is fun for me, it serves as a stress-reliever, and a place to work things out on paper which often helps to bring clarity of mind. There's an awful lot going on here this week and because I know my limits and my capabilities,  I'm opting for something a little lighter today. 

Monthly Musings with Holly and Patty talking all things spring. Here we go...

  

1. Easter, Passover, or another holiday in the Spring? 

Easter. My favorite day of the year. We had a lovely one this year which I wrote about on Monday (The Weekend Replay).

2. Do you plant a garden? Any tips for those of us without a green thumb? 

Hubs has a green thumb, but we don't plant a garden. We have grown a few vegetables in pots, peppers mostly, but our property is wooded, pine straw-ed, and gently sloped to the lake. We don't have a nice sunny flat spot for planting a garden. 

Plus we're on the go a lot, and I feel like gardens require more daily attention in the summer months than we can give. Fortunately my daughter1's in-laws keep us supplied with fresh produce from their huge garden all summer long. 

3. How do you decorate for Spring? 

I wouldn't say I really decorate for Spring. I put out one or two things for Easter, add springtime hand towels to the bathrooms, and will usually have fresh flowers of some kind on my kitchen island. We haven't done any of our outdoor patio pots yet, but that will happen soon. Flowers on the porch say spring to me. 

We are all about the out of doors here and when you're inside your gaze naturally travels in that direction, so I'm careful not to compete. I don't add a lot of seasonal decor anytime other than Christmas. 

4. Desserts that just say spring to you? 

I think anything lemon makes a nice springtime dessert. 

I made mini carrot cakes for Easter and that felt appropriate for spring. 

A fruit tart or crumble of some kind is another favorite springtime dessert. 

5. Favorite spring flowers? 

Lilacs. But also tulips, pansies, and iris. 

6. Best tips for hosting spring events? 

I love a good theme so choosing to host around a springtime event like Easter, The Derby, Cinco de Mayo, or Mother's Day gives you a direction to run. 

I like outdoor gatherings whenever possible, but you need to plan for the weather and have both sun and shade options. And an indoor backup just in case. 

People want your company more than they want an exhausted distracted host, so let people bring something if they offer. Food doesn't have to be complicated. Light and fresh is the way to go in spring.

You can't go wrong with fresh flowers. 

7. Favorite beverage or cocktail that makes you think of Spring? 

I made my first pitcher of the sweet tea season on Easter Sunday. I live in the south and sweet tea is available everywhere here year round, but I typically don't make it at home until Easter. I'll keep a pitcher in the frig from now until probably Thanksgiving. 

Besides iced tea a glass of Rosé or Prosecco sipped on a sunny patio would be another springtime favorite. 

8. Vegetable garden, flower garden, both or neither? 

As in my own, or what do I enjoy? I love beautiful gardens and a day trip to a garden in bloom is one of my favorite kind of outings. I love to visit gardens when we travel somewhere new. I saw more than a few gardens when we lived in the UK, but there are many beautiful blooms here in the US too-

Tulip Town, Skagit Valley, Washington, 2017

9. Favorite Easter candy? 

Finally an easy one...jellybeans of course. They're my kryptonite. Been working my way through this jar for the past month. 

I won't say how many times I've topped it up. 

10. Marshmallow peeps? Gross or yes please? 

I'm somewhere in the middle on these. I like the way they look better than the way they taste, but I wouldn't say they're gross. 

I love the colors of spring, along with the flavors and scents of spring, but the pollen not so much. It makes me love spring just a little bit less than I would if we didn't have to deal with all that yellow dust. Thankfully the pollen season is nearing an end, and it's pouring rain as I type this which will help a lot. 

Happy Spring y'all! 

A Hodgepodge Picnic

Welcome to this week's edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my blog, then leave a comment for the blogger before you. Here we go...

1. The Hodgepodge lands on National Picnic Day...will you celebrate? Do you enjoy picnics? Dining out of doors picnic or otherwise? What are three or four things I'd find in your picnic basket? 

I do like a picnic and dining al fresco is my absolute favorite. If we're somewhere with outdoor seating and the weather is conducive to it we will opt to sit outside. It's supposed to rain here on Wednesday so a picnic is unlikely. 

Three or four things you'd find in my picnic basket?  Fruit, something sweet, bread or crackers of some kind, and cheese. We do a lot of boat picnics in the summer and lean more towards the charcuterie style of eating there. 

2.  A time recently where you felt 'antsy'? 

I'm not a restless person so this is a tough one. I suppose I feel a little antsy about getting the 'kids' moved into their new house. Everything has gone super smoothly so far but we're all just anxious to have the keys handed over and get them settled. So many hoops to jump through in a move, and they have furniture in storage and some belongings here and some at the in-laws and it's not really my donut, but I feel a little antsy with all the boxes that have needed ticking. They've pretty much all been ticked at this point so just waiting now for closing day to arrive. 

3. As the saying goes...'when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.'  Do you like lemonade? When did you recently need to make lemonade out of lemons, figuratively speaking?

Well I suppose Easter Sunday might qualify. We envisioned a full pew at church and a full table for dinner, but my son-in-law ended up missing the whole day. There was no choice but to roll with it, he was on call and ended up having a very busy day, which I guess is par for the course on a holiday weekend. We had a nice time with his mom, dad, sister, and brother-in-law though. This is how life goes sometimes and in general we're good at making the most of things. I told my grandsons we might need to make a 'flat Daddy' to hold up in family photos when he's working. 

I do like lemonade, but what I really like is an Arnold Palmer-half lemonade/half iced tea. 

4. Recently five 'celebrities' made a brief (ll minute) foray into space aboard Jeff Bezos Blue Origin rocket. Did you hear about this? Your thoughts? If money were no object is this something you'd like to do someday? 

I did hear about it. I mean I suppose they were technically in space, but calling themselves astronauts feels like a giant stretch to me. As far as this being something I'd want to do someday? That's a hard no. A very very hard no. Like concrete lol. 

5. Favorite thing about the 'space' you're sitting in right now? 

I'm in my office and my favorite thing about it is the quiet. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I enjoyed posting some Easter throwbacks in this space in the weeks leading up to the day, and I think I might do the same now for Mother's Day which is the next holiday on tap. There are just three Wednesdays before Mother's Day is here, which is hard to believe but the calendar doesn't lie. 

I cut myself some slack on Wednesdays in the A-Z Blog Challenge and work the Wednesday letters in to my random thought space too. Two posts on Hodgepodge Day would be one too many for me. Here goes- 

T is for time passages

'the process of time going past'

My very first Mother's Day with the one who made me a momma...

1988

And here's that same little girl on her very first Mother's Day, with the one who made her a momma...

2017

'Time moves slowly, but passes quickly.' Alice Walker 

Life Lessons From the Window Seat

S is for Seven. After today that's how many letters remain in the April A-Z Blog Challenge. It's been fun and it's been a challenge. Blogging with a houseful of people requires a bit of finagling. Onward...

S is for Sunrise 

'the apparent rising of the sun above the horizon; 

also: the accompanying atmospheric effects'

If you've been reading here for a while then you know I have a small obsession with the sunrise. We have prime viewing out of any window on the backside of our house, but my favorite place to watch it happen is from the upper deck. 

And I like to snap a photo while I'm there. 

Or ten photos. 

Or possibly 365. 

Hubs teases and asks me why I take the same picture every morning but I assure him I do not. One sunrise is not like any other and my pictures are the proof. 

Recently Joanne (Slices of Life) shared some of her favorite sunrises and sunsets and it got me thinking about why it is I'm so drawn to the early morning skies. Why all the sunrises? And why now? 

One of the reasons I'm more tuned in to the sunrise in this house is because it's hard to miss. I step quietly out of my bedroom in the early hours of the morning and there it is. Sometimes soft and dreamy brushstrokes in a pastel painted sky...

...sometimes awash with all the colors of the rainbow. 

It can, quite literally, take my breath away. There are things about the sunrise that speak to me in this season that feel almost sacred. 

The sunrise tells me it's a new day, with no mistakes in it yet. A fresh start. Blank slate. No regrets. 

The sunrise fills me with hope. Anything is possible at the start of a brand new day. 

The sunrise says slow down. Breathe. Be present. 

It also tells me time moves fast. If you're not paying attention you'll miss it. Life is like that too. 

The sun rising fills me with awe for the One who made it, for the staggering beauty of this world, and the power so evident in nature.

 

The sunrise reminds me of the value of stillness and quiet, things I'm always looking for in this too noisy world.

The sunrise reminds me of the faithfulness of God. Every single day the sun rises. He never fails. 

My favorite verse, which is in my blog header but worth posting twice...

'The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; 

they are new every morning." Lamentations 3:22-23

The Weekend Replay

Good Monday morning friends. I'm still A-Z-ing, so using today's letter as part of my weekend recap, which I'll link with Holly and Sarah. 

R is for Resurrection

'because that's the reason for the season'

We had a nice weekend centered around Easter, which is my favorite day of the year. The meaning behind this day is what gives me hope for the future and strength for the day. In church this morning the first song sung was Because He Lives...

'because He lives, I can face tomorrow, because He Lives, all fear is gone, because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives.'

I pray everyone reading today knows the truth contained in these lyrics. 

On Friday we made Resurrection rolls with the grands. I'd never made them before, but have seen them all over the Internet for years, and my daughter had done them in Easters prior. Super simple, but a really powerful visual for little ones to go along with the story of Easter. 

You roll a large marshmallow in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon, then wrap a crescent roll around the marshmallow. You can talk about Jesus body being prepared for burial to go along with this. The rolls go into the oven and you wait for them to cook, which allows you to talk about Jesus being dead for three days. 

When you take the rolls out of the oven and cut into one, the marshmallow has melted which makes the roll look empty, just like the tomb. The kids seem to make the connections too which is fun to see. 

After the roll baking was finished I ran some errands including last minute grocery items, the dry cleaning, and paper goods from Hobby Lobby. It's hard not to wander the entire store when I'm in Hobby Lobby but I stayed focused. We had dinner at home Friday night, and I'm guessing we went to bed early, although I can't say for sure. It's a safe guess though -ha! 

Saturday morning we dyed eggs. In my dining room, because  we like to live dangerously here. 

All went well and it was a fun morning for everyone. Hubs carried on his tradition of dyeing one 'ugly egg' and the kids get a kick out of that. 

After we got that cleaned up I did some prep work for the next day's dinner, along with making a dessert to take to a neighbor's house that evening. I've been trying to bake each of the Southern Living Cake of the Month cakes this year and I made the April recipe on Saturday. A definite win and I'll make again. 

April's recipe is mini carrot cakes. So cute! I love the presentation. You bake the carrot cake recipe in sheet cake format, then use a small biscuit cutter to cut circles. It makes 12 cakes, so you cut 24 circles, then pipe icing on one, stack another on top, then pipe some more. 

The icing is a coconut butter cream, and both the cake and the icing were super delish. My daughter did the piping so it was a team effort. 

I also went ahead and made my pineapple stuffing for Sunday's dinner because it does well sitting in the frig overnight. I love to do whatever I can ahead of time. If you don't know what pineapple stuffing is I use this recipe. It's the texture of stuffing, but sweet. 

We had plans to go to the neighbors for dinner and cards Saturday night and I was bringing dessert. I made Ina Garten's triple berry crumble and it's scrumptious. The berries are really sweet right now so I cut the sugar by quite a bit, but it wasn't noticeable. I thought I took a picture, but can't find it so maybe not. All that baking and I am kinda wishing I'd taken a picture of my kitchen after, but I didn't think of it. 

Sunday morning the kids woke up to their Easter baskets followed by cinnamon rolls for breakfast. What's one more sweet thing today, right?  My son-in-law was on call this weekend and suffice it to say if you're a surgeon on call on a holiday weekend you'll be working. He was able to see the kids dressed and get in a quick family photo, but then we didn't see him again until we were wiping down counters and getting ready for bed. 

Hubs and I went to church with our daughter and her littles and the music was wonderful and the message  so good. We got home and changed into comfy clothes then got busy putting together our lunch/dinner.  Her in-laws, both the mom and dad and the sister-in-law and her hubs,  arrived around 1 and the kids did their egg hunt. Then we all chatted, the kids played, hubs manned the grill with our ham upon it, and I finished up the rest of the sides. 

I normally love to break out my china on Easter Sunday, but this year we decided to dine al fresco in the new space so I went with paper plates and have zero regrets. 

Daughter1's mother-in-law brought her famous banana pudding and her sister-in-law brought homemade mac and cheese which were both so good. 

We had a fun little Easter Bunny charcuterie while we were waiting on dinner. Besides the ham we also had roasted honey-balsamic green beans and carrots, the pineapple stuffing, deviled eggs, and I also made Nigella Lawson's pea-mint-avocado salad which was really good. 

I used just butter lettuce instead of adding chicory, and I go easy on the mint. I also throw a handful of parmesan on top before tossing because it seems like it needs a little salty something. We all loved it. So fresh!  

The in-laws headed home and we finished the clean up, the putting away of the leftovers, and then I crawled into bed to finish this post. It was a beautiful day filled with family, good food, and many reminders of our faithful loving God. We missed our Tennessee littles and their parents, but will see them soon. 

I hope your weekend was a good one. You can read more Hello Monday posts by visiting Holly (Pink Lady Blog) and Sarah (Sunshine and Books). Have a great week everyone! 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 599

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (April 23rd) to share your answers. See you there! 

1. The Hodgepodge lands on National Picnic Day...will you celebrate? Do you enjoy picnics? Dining out of doors picnic or otherwise? What are three or four things I'd find in your picnic basket? 

2.  A time recently where you felt 'antsy'? 

3. As the saying goes...'when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.'  Do you like lemonade? When did you recently need to make lemonade out of lemons, figuratively speaking?

4. Recently five 'celebrities' made a brief (ll minute) foray into space aboard Jeff Bezos Blue Origin rocket. Did you hear about this? Your thoughts? If money were no object is this something you'd like to do someday? 

5. Favorite thing about the 'space' you're sitting in right now? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Day 17 In The A-Z

Finishing out this week's letter in the A-Z Blog Challenge with my usual Saturday list of little things I love. Today's letter might be tricky so let's get to it...

Q is for A Quantity of Small Favorite Things 

quick thinking

questions answered

questions pondered

homemade quiche

quotes that inspire

Quilon (my England house)

quality time with my girls

quiet mornings

quarters won in Mah Jong

quarrels ended

queso 

fears quelled

quaint small towns 

decisions made without any qualms 

quirky roadside attractions

a bad habit quit

quintessential British speech

the music of Queen

no queue at the DMV

a cozy quilt 

Five On Friday

Friday is upon us and with it another letter in the A-Z... 

P is for Patience 

'the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, 

or suffering without getting angry or upset'

Since it's Friday and it's been a busy week and we're all running on fumes in the April A-Z Blog challenge I'm keeping it simple. Five things I've learned relating to my word of the day....

1. Patience is a quality I admire and appreciate in others, and one I want displayed in my own life too. I have always been a very patient person. The world is so noisy and demanding and impatient, and I aim to be counter cultural in this regard. 

2. That being said, I'm surprised to find I have less patience for a lot of things in this season. I thought the reverse would be true. Discovering my fuse has shortened some is disheartening. Maybe it's got less to do with aging and more to do with the cranky state of the world that has strained my patience? I'm hoping that's true.

3. I want the people I love to have patience with me too. Cultivating patience helps us avoid impulsive actions and also impulsive words. When I'm patient I'm not giving control over to a person or situation that's causing stress and as a result I have the energy and clarity of mind to deal with whatever needs to be dealt with. 

4. That's the goal of course, but like most things in life it takes practice. We all get plenty of it.  

5. Most importantly patience leads to another p word-peace. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit....a deliberate choice to trust God's timing and leave room for Him to work. Slow to anger the way God is with me. 

May you feel the peace only He can bring on this good Good Friday friends.

'Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time 

we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.' Galatians 6:9

Young At Heart

 Rolling right along with today's letter of the day...

O is for oxymoron

'a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction;

a self-contradicting word or group of words'

Let's talk about aging gracefully. Is that phrase an oxymoron? From the moment we're born we're all growing older, we just seem to remark on it in a more negative way after a certain point on the birthday timeline. 

So what does it mean to age gracefully? There are of course the obvious things we all know to do like eat right, drink lots of water, exercise, and get enough sleep, but what about the less obvious, but equally important habits we need to cultivate if we want to live a grace-ful life? 

There are traits I associate with the term, and also with women I know who I think are aging gracefully, that I want reflected in my own life as I lean into this third act. Here's some of what I've observed and also what I aspire to...

have a positive outlook

laugh a lot 

forgive easily

stay curious about the world around me 

be gentle in speech and action

live with an open heart and open hand 

stay grounded

be humble

self-aware

accepting of change

grateful 

Easier said than done some days, but I'm still a work in progress. 

I read somewhere the opposite of aging gracefully would be aging poorly or prematurely, which I don't think anyone aspires to yet many end up doing just that. I like having this list written down. It's a visual reminder every day is a gift and I get to choose how I live it. 

'Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.' Psalm 90:12 

The Hodgepodge. Not Taxing At All.

Welcome to this week's edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions, add your link at the end of my post, then hop over and leave a comment for the blogger before you. Or all the peeps there if you have the time. Here we go- 

1. Do you complete your own taxes? Besides actual taxes, what's something you've found taxing lately?

We don't complete our own taxes. We pay the professionals and in my opinion it's worth it. Fun fact...in the state of SC you have until May 1 to file this year. 

Something I've found taxing lately? 

When we got our new patio furniture they took the cushions from the furniture on our upper deck to refurbish. I mentioned to the decorator I was going to buy new and he said they could make them look as good as new and the price was reasonable. Far less than new cushions would be. So off they went. 

Getting them back has been a bit of a headache though. The shop is about an hour from me, but I'm over that way now and then so wanted to get them on one of those treks as opposed to making a whole 'nother trip for pick up. Plus we're having a party early May and we need those cushions. Plus they've had them since February so it's past time to have them returned. I was going to be nearby on Monday, and when hubs called the left hand hadn't talked to the right hand and we thought it wasn't going to happen. He persevered though, and did that squeaky wheel thing he's so good at and yay! I got the cushions. 

Gosh that was a lot of explaining. Maybe my answer to this question will be what you find taxing today-ha! 

2.  What are three values you treasure most in a friendship? 

A friend who is trustworthy, vulnerable, and selfless 

3. Do you meal plan or do you mostly wing it? Share your dinner menus for this week. 

I meal plan. Mostly. I always have a general dinner plan for the week, but I'm flexible if there's a last minute change of plans, an invitation to dine out, or we ate a big lunch and don't need an actual dinner. I have never been someone who decided last minute what we were having for dinner. That sounds super stressful to me, unnecessarily so. 

What's on tap this week..

Monday-wings on the grill, baked sweet potato, green beans 

Tuesday-homemade vegetable beef soup, salad, bread...I made this meal for a neighbor I'm taking dinner to, but my soup recipe makes a lot. I normally freeze half, but instead this was our dinner too. I play Mah Jong on Tuesdays so I don't always eat dinner on those nights. 

Wednesday-grilled Asian (flavorings) salmon, steamed spinach, roasted cauliflower

Thursday- butter chicken over rice, roasted veggies 

Friday-crock pot stroganoff, salad 

4. Thomas Sowell is credited as saying, ''There are no solutions, only trade-offs.' Agree or disagree? Discuss.

Well I mostly agree. I do think there's always a  solution, but not always the one we want. And solutions come with trade offs. If you say yes to one thing you're saying no to something else, right? I think what you're saying no to needs to be considered just as much as what you're saying yes to. 

For instance if I say yes to a full time job, that means I cannot participate in daytime activities I might enjoy like a book club or women's bible study. If I say yes to watching my grandchildren while their parents are away I'm saying no to my usual weekday activities. 

5. What's the best perk you've enjoyed at a job?

Most of my working life has been spent in classrooms and school buildings and there's not a lot of perks there. Unless you count the satisfaction of helping a child in some way a perk. Which I do. In most of my jobs I've really enjoyed the people I worked with too, so friendship might also be counted as a perk. 

6.  Insert your own random thought here. 

Using this space for my April A-Z Blog Challenge letter of the day today-

N is for Nostalgia

'a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations'

Consider this a p.s. to yesterday's post. If you missed it you'll find it here-(Pressed Between The Pages Of My Mind)

I've been sharing Easter throwbacks in my random thought on Wednesdays for the past several weeks so I'm incorporating today's letter into the picture. I've shared this snap on my blog before, but it's a favorite so I'm sharing it again.  

Easter, 1991...

Be still my heart. 

I see so much of my youngest granddaughter in the face of her momma there...her momma is the laughing baby girl my dad is holding. They grow up y'all but sometimes they birth one so much like themselves you get to relive the sweetness all over again.  

There's my niece with her darling smile wearing an old t-shirt over her clothes so she wouldn't make a mess. And my first born beside her with her favorite color egg cup-pink. She has a daughter of her own now, and guess what her favorite color is? 

I like the word wistful in defining nostalgia. That's exactly how this photo makes me feel. A great big sigh...happy, weepy, a longing for just a minute to be back in my momma's kitchen. 

Wishing you all a heart full of hope this Easter.