September Hodgepodging

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

1. Next Sunday is Grandparent's Day. Share a favorite memory, photo, recipe, or something you learned from a grandparent. 

We've had a busy August so I'm trying to catch up now on some of the business of life that gets set aside when you have houseguests coming and going. Let's just go with one of my favorite pictures here for now-

My precious grandmother, known as GiGi to her grandgirls (it stands for great-grandma), but she was Grandma to me. Here she is with my daughter2 and the sweetness of this photo can make me cry.

We lived with her when I was a year old and my dad was overseas and my mama had an 8 year old, a 6-year old, me, and my baby sister who got off to a rocky start in life. I spent a lot of time with my grandma and loved her so much. 

I'm so thankful my girls got to know her and I had her in my life well into my adult years. I'm thankful for her wisdom, her prayers, her made from scratch dinner rolls, and her love. 

2. What's a quote from a book (besides The Bible) that has stayed with you? 

I could write a book with quotes I love from books I've read, and how do you choose an answer here? Pat Conroy is one of my favorite authors so I'm going with one of his-

"I could bear the memory, but I could not bear the music that made the memory such a killing thing." Pat Conroy in Beach Music

3. What's your number one food pet peeve? 

Someone talking with food in their mouth. 

4. What's one thing about you that is still the same as it was when you were young? 

I still love books, walking barefoot, sweet treats, and a full table with family and friends gathered round. I'm still an optimist, and it takes a lot to make me angry. 

5. September is National Preparedness Month...does your family have an emergency plan? Do you have some sort of preparedness kit you keep on hand? If so, tell us one thing that's kept there. 

We do not currently have an official emergency plan, but we are also not totally unprepared for an emergency. We've had plans in the past, mostly when the girls were single and we were all living in different parts of the country, but circumstances change and we don't have a firm plan in place in this house. 

It's become something we all laugh about (except me because I'm serious about this sort of thing), but my girls will tell you I give them some sort of emergency preparedness gift every Christmas. Everything from weather radios and fire starters to an earthquake evacuation kit for Daughter1 when she lived in Washington State. She was living there as a newlywed when the scary New Yorker article about the risk of earthquakes along the Cascadia Fault came out. The article was called The Big One and the title alone was enough to make me hit purchase.

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

My basil has absolutely exploded this year. I think it's loved all the summer rain we've had and it has thrived. My grands love it right off the stem and they snatch a leaf to snack on every time they walk past. 

I harvested a big bowl full over the weekend and made pesto with it. I used this recipe and it is delicious. 

For dinner Sunday evening I sauteéd some tomatoes from our tomato 'tree' (seriously, it's a tree, not a plant) and a little bit of onion and garlic, and then boiled some pasta. I stirred the tomatoes and pesto into the noodles, topped it with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and it was molto delizioso!

It's also good topped with some shrimp or grilled chicken, but we'd had a big late breakfast after church and wanted a lighter dinner.