Monday's X Factor

Normally Monday blogging means a weekend recap, but we're riding the tail winds of the A-Z Blog Challenge this week so I'm going to do a bit of both here today. It's a little bit long but that's pretty much how I roll. 

We had a fairly quiet weekend. I guess? Towards the end of last week this happened-

They have been begging to get in the water since they arrived mid-January, and this week we finally said yes. It was a warm (relatively speaking) sunny day with lake temps a balmy 70 degrees, but kids do not care. 

I asked hubs if he was going to put on his swim suit and he said no. If they needed help he'd jump in in his clothes. Our lake will be 80 by sometime in May so we'll wait thank you very much. It will be like bath water as the days get longer. 

This was a short swim, but a happy one. Summer is almost here-whoohoo! 

And now for the weekend recap with Holly (Pink Lady Blog) and Sarah (Sunshine and Books)-

Friday the 'kids' closed on their new home. So exciting! I had the grands that morning while mom and dad went to sign papers and make it all official. Hubs went too because he was their realtor. My daughter had arranged to have the upstairs carpet cleaned right after the closing (the lower level has wood floors), so she and the hubs (mine, not hers-hers had to get back to work) went straight to the house and I brought the kids over right after. 

They had so much fun exploring every nook and cranny and running around the backyard. Their furniture has been in storage since before they moved to England and won't be delivered until later this week, but they're on the home stretch now.

My son-in-law's dad brought his truck to our house so we could load up a sofa the kids are taking. They wanted it cleaned along with the rugs, and of course by 'we' I mean I held the door and hubs and my daughter's father-in-law did the heavy lifting.  My son-in-law was conveniently back at work by this time lol. I had all the kids in my daughter's van, plus two additional chairs they're also taking from us.

Nothing about moving is easy. 

We dropped the furniture then hubs had to drop off some of the close paperwork at his office. Before he left we took the kids to Firehouse Subs for lunch and to get them out of the empty house and away from the carpet cleaning. 

The boys had baseball that evening followed by a movie night at their church so once my son-in-law was home he managed that. Daughter1 and little Miss stayed here for bath and bedtime and hubs and I took ourselves to our favorite wine bar to relax. Whew. We ordered a charcuterie for dinner and ran into some friends there which is always fun. 

No pictures of any of it but that's just how the weekend went. 

Saturday hubs was 'working' the boat show. He and another realtor had a booth at the local show so that was his day. The kids were at baseball because every day is baseball, then my son-in-law's sister, along with his parents, went to see the new house. His dad had seen it that morning when he was moving the couch, but his mom hadn't been inside. They all went back to the in-law's lake house for dinner. 

Here's the thing...you think one day you'll be done moving furniture for your kids, but I'm here to tell you that's not necessarily so. Carry on. 

I had my whole house and the entire afternoon to myself. I cannot remember the last time that happened, but it's been a very long while. I was out running errands all morning, but spent the afternoon catching up on my blog and some HGTV and maybe a short nap. I feel like I should have been doing something productive, but we're all pooped here.  

Wait. I did six loads of laundry. That's not nothing. 

Saturday night hubs and I shared a frozen pizza and watched a movie we'd seen before, but not in a long long time-Begin Again with Keira Knightly and Mark Ruffalo. It's cute. 

On Sunday hubs was back at the marina for another day at the boat show, and I went to church with the kids, then out to breakfast/lunch with them right after, then a quick grocery run, then home to an iced coffee on the porch. The pollen is mostly under control now so I put the cushions out on the upper deck and sat outside all afternoon. 

This is pretty much where you'll find me every Sunday afternoon from now until Christmas. Sunday nights too...

Now, about that A-Z challenge and today's letter-X.  Always a tough one, but let's see what we can come up with...

X is for Xerox

'to copy on a a xerographic copier' 

The first word that popped into my head was xerox. As in xerox machine. Does anyone still use this phrasing? I mean other than people who work for the company with that same name? I think now we use the word copy, but there was a time when xerox was the preferred term. These days we print, right? 

Anyway, it got me thinking about some of the things from 'my day' that were common, but are not so common anymore. 

Film developing. I think amongst professional photographers this is still a thing, but most people now are snapping pictures on their phone. Which is great, but definitely lacks the excitement of waiting two whole weeks to get your pictures back from the developer, only to discover you had your thumb on the corner of the lens. That's how you learned-ha! 

Banking. I don't know about you, but I avoid going in to the bank if I can possibly help it. When I was growing up you had to physically take your check to the bank to cash it. No such thing as an ATM or mobile deposit. No mobile phones for one thing, but I'm not going down that rabbit hole right now. 

I loved going to the local bank with my momma. It seemed like a place I'd enjoy working. It was quiet and tastefully decorated and it felt important. If you didn't get to the bank by Friday afternoon you were not going to have any cash to spend over the weekend, so banks were a happening place. 

Encyclopedias. We had a whole set on a bookshelf in our den, and we really did look things up in them.  Kind of like the Internet before the Internet. We liked just reading them too because you learned things. At the end of every year the encyclopedia publisher sent out a yearbook with highlights of events from the year that was ending. 

Sometimes you would have a school assignment requiring research and you would have to go to the library and look in a different encyclopedia to see if it added anything yours missed. I'm not sure which set we had but I want to say Encyclopedia Americana. I imagine my parents bought them from someone selling them door-to-door, which was not unusual at all in the 1970's. 

Memorizing phone numbers. Not gonna lie, I'm kind of glad I don't have to do this one anymore. 

Busy signals. Speaking of phones...this one I do sort of miss. You'd call a friend on the house phone (because that was the only phone game in town) and if they were on the phone talking to someone else you would get a busy signal. 

It was super annoying to get a busy signal just fyi. 

If you got a busy signal, you'd hang up and then immediately redial the number. If it was still busy you'd call again. And again and again and then you'd wonder who in the world they could be talking to and you might just give up and talk to them at school in person the next day. 

I don't think we appreciated being unavailable until we entered the era of being available 24/7 365 days of the year. 

Smoking sections. It sounds crazy to us now, but everywhere you went had a smoking section. Airports, airplanes! restaurants, and my high school, although I'm not sure that one was official. Seriously though, we used to get on an airplane and be seated in row 12 and the smoking section might start at row 13 so yeah. Not great if you were a non-smoker. 

In my high school C-wing was where everyone smoked. And the lavatories too. Do we still use that word? If you weren't a smoker you avoided C-wing. I know some high schools had parents sign a permission slip allowing their kid to smoke but I don't remember that being the case at my school. I've never been a smoker. 

The corner mailbox. We had one about a block and a half from our house and we loved being sent to the mailbox to mail a letter. Speaking of uncommon things...letters. Do you still write them? 

Postcards. It was fun to travel and mail a postcard back home or to a friend or your grandparents, and it was fun to be on the receiving end too. Of course there are still postcards available, but most people text a picture or message instead of bothering to buy a postcard, buy a stamp, and find a place to mail one when they're away from home. 

Communal viewing. We never watched anything alone. Most families had one television set, wall phones in the communal spaces in their homes, and no computers. We chose a program everyone could watch and then we all settled in to watch it together. Family togetherness. It was nice. 

"I remember, I remember 

The house where I was born, 

The little window where the sun

Came peeping in at morn..."

Thomas Hood, from I Remember, I Remember

Opportunity Knocks In The Hodgepodge

Welcome to another wintry 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. Thanks for playing along here on Wednesdays! Here we go...

1.  It's been said January is 'the month of opportunity, inspiration, and change." Which of the three do you need most right now? Elaborate. 

I'm going to say inspiration because motivation isn't one of the choices. Thinking in particular of my writing and how inspiration and motivation go hand in hand. As they do for most things I want to accomplish. 

2. Do you consider opportunity as something that comes to you or something you create for yourself? 

Both can be true. When opportunity comes our way we need to be ready for it. We need to have the courage to seize the day so to speak. Mostly though, I think we have to make things happen, chase our dreams, create opportunity even (or especially) where one might not be readily available. 

To quote one of my favorite movies..."When the Lord closes a door He opens a window somewhere...you have to look for your life." 1000 bonus points if you can name the film. 

3. The British Museum opened on this date (January 15th) back in 1759. Do you like visiting museums? Do you have a favorite? 

I love museums. It's hard to pick a favorite because they're all so different. If we're spending a few days in a new city we'll generally visit a museum there. I like art galleries. I like historic old homes that have been turned into museums. I like natural history museums. 

The Met is definitely a favorite plus I love NY. 

4. It's National Oatmeal Month (yes, apparently it gets a whole month as opposed to a single day)...do you like oatmeal? How often do you eat a bowl of oatmeal? How do you like yours? What about an oatmeal cookie? Is that a sweet treat you enjoy? 

First things first...I love an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. I like the texture oatmeal gives the cookie and usually make my chocolate chip with oatmeal in the batter. 

I also like oatmeal for breakfast and we have that about once a week. I make mine with sliced bananas, dried cherries and a sprinkle of cinnamon. It's yummy.  

5. What's something useful you learned in high school?

Typing. Who would have thought that would be the thing we'd use on the daily decades later?  

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Shameless nepotism here...

My daughter1 is getting ready to move back to the states and she wrote about it on her blog here (Sincerely Shannon). She's got a lovely voice and so much wisdom, and I want to encourage her to write more.  If you have time go say hi and welcome home. 

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Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 585

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then skate back here on Wednesday (January 15) to add your link to the party. See you there! 

1.  It's been said January is 'the month of opportunity, inspiration, and change." Which of the three do you need most right now? Elaborate. 

2. Do you consider opportunity as something that comes to you or something you create for yourself? 

3. The British Museum opened on this date (January 15th) back in 1759. Do you like visiting museums? Do you have a favorite? 

4. It's National Oatmeal Month (yes, apparently it gets a whole month as opposed to a single day). Do you like oatmeal? How often do you eat a bowl of oatmeal? How do you like yours? What about an oatmeal cookie? Is that a sweet treat you enjoy? 

5.What's something useful you learned in high school? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

What To Expect When You're Expecting (not that kind)

The kind of expecting where you're looking forward to something happening and then it does, but not in the way you expected. 

I spent this past weekend with daughter2, mostly holding baby girl who we've decided going forward will be known here as 'Sugar'.  She's so sweet y'all. 

Anyway, I spent almost all of my time with this little miss in my arms so daughter2 could hold her brother. He was feeling puny, wanting momma and only momma. You kind of forget what it's like to have sick kids in the house until you have sick kids in the house. 

Was this our weekend plan? 

No it was not. The original weekend plan was for both my girls to be in Tennessee with their littles while all of our hubs had their own obligations to tend to. I'd been looking forward to this for weeks because it's been a long while since it was just us girls (plus their 5 small children, but whatever). This was going to be both girls and me in the same place at the same time, no boys allowed. 

Except for the 6 and under set of course. 

Anyway, we girls were going to have some fun, take a picnic to the park, laugh a lot at all the cousins playing together in their matching cousin t-shirts, share deep thoughts and skin care products, and gab late into the night (well, later than 8:30 which is our usual bedtime when kids are in the house) for three complete whole entire days. 

Didn't happen. 

I did drive to daughter2's on Thursday, and daughter1 did plan to arrive with her crew on Saturday. 

There's that word again-plan. 

Things started off nicely. Friday morning daughter2 needed to visit the jeweler so we loaded up the baby and big brother and off we went. While my daughter was in the shop chatting about an order I was outside with the mister watching a large construction crew operate all the big equipment just across the highway. There were cranes and bulldozers, dump trucks filling and dumping, and best of all a 'digger', all making a lot of noise and moving a lot of dirt and rock. Little man was in heaven. When he waved at the digger operator the driver lifted the bucket up and down in the form of a wave back and it was the best.

We had lunch before heading home for naps, but by the time we got to the house it was apparent sweet baby J was running a fever. Bother. We finally had to tell daughter1 not to come because we certainly didn't need to share those germs with her family, and that was that. Plan blown. Expectation unmet. 

What can you do? 

Nothing really. Life happens and we have to adjust and move forward even when what we really want to do is stomp our feet and rail at the universe a little bit. 

We don't though. We adjust and move forward. We choose to find the silver lining...the bright side...the blue sky if you will. Maybe not in the first five minutes but we do get there. We pull on our 'let's make the best of it britches' and then we do just that. 

There are hours and hours of snuggles with a lapful of Sugar. 

There is the same book read no less than fifteen times because sweet baby J is not his usual oh so happy self and when Nana reads '....sometimes you're happy, sometimes you're sad'...and makes a great big sad face, he laughs. Somehow my sad face makes him happy and it's pure gold.  

There is sunshine. Glorious sunshine. We load everyone up in the strollers and feel the sun hit our faces and Vitamin D flood our veins and we can say with complete honesty that there is beauty in this day, this weekend, in spite of cancelled plans and unmet expectation. 

After babies are tucked in tight me and my girl (just one not two, but we're making the best of it remember?) sit on the couch and watch Next Level Chef. We discuss in great detail the choices these contestants make because we both love to cook, but we talk about many, many other things too.  

And suddenly, somehow, I feel grateful, not for cancelled plans, but for being right where I need to be. Lending a hand (or a lap), and having a front row seat to watch my baby girl mother her very own babies. What a gift. 

There is grace for the day y'all. 
For the ones that go swimmingly and the ones that fall to pieces too. 

Fifteen Years Ago Today

January 21, 2009

The day this little corner of the internet became my own. 

Fifteen years ago I started blogging. I had no idea what a blog was, I just knew I had one. It has definitely been a learn as you go proposition and fifteen years later I'm still forever playing catch up, still sharing snippets of life in the season I'm living, still doing what I can to mark the moments and bloom where I'm planted. 

Fifteen years ago I lived in England. My girls were both university students (in the US) and hubs was working, traveling here there and everywhere with his job. 

                              

 that was then

Fifteen years ago I hopped on a train to London any old day of the week. I ate Indian curries on a random Tuesday and met friends at the pub every Friday night. I hiked through fields of rapeseed, woods abloom with bluebells, slipped through kissing gates and across public footpaths in the land of tea and scones. 

I wondered where we'd go next? When we'd go? Did I want to go? What would life look like for me on the other side of the pond? America. America had somehow become the other side of the pond. 

Life is funny.  

In fifteen years I've gone from paying college tuition to buying Christmas presents for grandchildren. Hubs retired and we built a home on a lake, something we always imagined we'd do but were never quite sure we'd get there.  

We did. We're here. In a completely new season of life than the one we were walking through when hubs first said "you should have a blog". I'm glad he said it. Glad he knew to say it. Glad he pushed me to write down some of the myriad thoughts in my head. To record life in real time. To view through the lens of now the life I lived before I had a blog. 

When I look back at the pieces I've chosen to record here I see with perfect clarity all the things I didn't know I didn't know. I've lived and loved and learned a lot in fifteen years. There have been massive changes, blessings large and small, growth, goals met and others set aside to make room for new dreams.  

this is now

Heart aches and heart fulls because that's life in every season. 

I'm glad God unfolds the future one day at a time. Glad we don't know what we don't know. Grateful for love and memory and grace for the moment we're living now. 

Cheers to fifteen years, and who knows? There might be fifteen more. 

An Ice Cold Hodgepodge

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

1. What's a change you'd like or need to make this year? 

I want to make some small changes to my morning routine, and have been giving some thought as to what that would look like.  

2. Break the ice, on thin ice, ice skating, tip of the iceberg, ice cold...which icy idiom applies to your life right now? Explain. 

Ice cold. The weather was abysmal today, pouring rain, blowing wind, gray foggy skies, and cold temps. Cold for South Carolina anyway. 

3. What's a project you've been putting off? Will you get to it this month? This year?

I need to tackle some of the boxes in my attic and will get to at least some of them this month. Definitely this year. 

4. Of the fruits that grow well in winter which ones have you tried? Which is your favorite? 

pomegranates, clementines, persimmons, passion fruit, pears, grapefruit, lemons, pomelos, kumquats

I don't think I've ever tried a pomelo, but the rest I've tasted and enjoyed. I like all fruit so it's hard to choose a favorite. Of the fruits listed we probably consume more clementines than any of the others, and they're definitely one of my favorites. I also love anything lemon so that one ranks right up there too. 

5. What do you think it means to be courageous? 

My book club just finished reading and discussing The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, and there was a quote in there about courage I liked...

'Courage is fear you ignore. It wasn't the fear that mattered in life. It was the choices you made when you were afraid. You were brave because of your fear, not in spite of it." 

I think courage is doing what's right in spite of the threat of danger, difficulty or, in 2024, cancellation. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

What day is it? I feel like I'm still in 2023, my Christmas decorations are still mostly up (coming down this week though!), and I'm not mentally organized for a new year. We had a fabulous new years weekend with a houseful of friends here, then we had three of our grandchildren in the house for a fun few days, the tile replaced in our master shower, a car repair to organize, and whew! I think I'm almost ready to call it January 1st. Happy new year!

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Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 533

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to share answers with the universe. See you there! 

1. What's a change you'd like or need to make this year? 

2. Break the ice, on thin ice, ice skating, tip of the iceberg, ice cold...which icy idiom applies to your life right now? Explain. 

3. What's a project you've been putting off? Will you get to it this month? This year?

4. Of the fruits that grow well in winter which ones have you tried? Which is your favorite? 

pomegranates, clementines, persimmons, passion fruit, pears, grapefruit, lemons, pomelos, kumquats

5. What do you think it means to be courageous? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

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Life In The Hodgepodge

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered this week's questions, add your link at the end of my post. Be sure to leave a comment for the blogger before you so the blog world keeps on turning. Here we go-

1. Do you (or did you used to) watch talk shows? Which are or were your favorite? 

I don't watch any talk shows currently. I was never a die-hard fan but (going to date myself here) I did watch some Phil Donahue back in the day. I also liked Regis and Kathie Lee in their early years. 

Hubs and I used to love The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, but late night talk shows today are just another excuse to rant about politics so we don't tune in. 

2. Would you describe yourself as resilient? If so what do you think made you that way? If you answered no explain why? 

Yes I would describe myself as resilient. I've moved a lot and that's probably the biggest contributor, particularly living outside of America. Growing up with three siblings I'm sure plays a part too. 

3. What parts of life have surprised you the most. Explain. 

I'm going with retirement. It takes more figuring out than I imagined. I don't really even know what I imagined exactly...when I was a kid it seemed like everyone who retired played golf and lunched with friends. Life is so much more complicated than that. 

4. Why do you live where you live? 

Well it's beautiful for one thing. We're retired and can live wherever we want, we love the south, we wanted to be on the water, and you just can't beat the view-

5. A memory from this week that made you smile? 

Pumpkin patch pictures courtesy of these cuties' Momma-

I mean, seriously....

How can you not smile? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Raise your hand if you've ever cooked pheasant? If your hand is up and you have a great recipe send it my way. Vegetarians look away-

Hubs has been in South Dakota with some friends and former colleagues and also his brother who was able to make the trip this year too, so extra fun. 

They'll bring home some birds and while I've cooked them before I'm always interested in trying something new. For the record I only cook them...hubs is in charge of plucking off any feathers that have to stay on through the airport checkpoint.  

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Once Upon A House

When I was three months shy of five years old my family moved to a house in the newly built section of a sweet sprawling neighborhood in the New Jersey suburbs. 

My dad was in the Marine Corps, stationed in Philadelphia, and we had moved four times prior to this since my birth. That would be about once a year if you're counting, and my mom and older siblings many more times than that. My mom was primarily a true homemaker who lovingly cared for the man she'd married and the people she'd birthed. 

In this house she transformed a pound of hamburger into a delicious meal for six. She made us eat our spinach too, because spinach makes you strong.  

She brushed our tangles, dried our tears, and soothed skinned knees and broken hearts with a bandaid and caress. 

She assigned us chores, mediated our ridiculous sibling disputes (I swept the floor last night-it's her turn!!), and she read to us from a never-ending stack of books piled beside the bed, tucked into shelves, and borrowed from the library. 

She said grace over meals and bigger prayers over us, and she grew a garden that bloomed all the colors of the rainbow. 

She sewed and crafted and made Christmas morning pure magic. 

She is the one who made that house our home. 

For more than fifty years it's been a touchstone in my life, and in the lives of my husband, my children, and my siblings. No matter where in this world we may roam, we have always come home, always opened that front door to the scent of love and memory. 

My dad passed away many years ago, but my mom still lives in the house we all call home. Still makes her bed and pulls weeds from the flower pots beside her front door... still sips her coffee with a view to the backyard. 

Still welcomes us in with arms wide open.  

We know we're the lucky ones. Know we are so very fortunate to have spent all these years gathering as a family in a single well loved house. To be the ages we are now still coming home to the blessed familiar. In our heads we know it's 'just a house' even if it isn't just a house. 

Time will have it's way with us whether we wish it so or not. 

We empty closets and make trips to Goodwill. We pull out teapots and angels from her collection of pretty things, and wonder aloud why there are so many safety pins and measuring cups and if anyone really needs three flour sifters? We choose artwork painted by my grandpa under a bright blue Albuquerque sky a long time ago or was it only yesterday? 

We sort through books, old fashioned records, slide carousels, and my Grandma's china, keeping just a few things we treasure but holding tight to all the memories of what makes them so.  

Soon my mom will move into a new old space. She'll make her home with my sister and her family in an apartment they've created in their house. Familiar but not in a way that's part of her, not yet anyway. 

Can a house be part of you?  

They've created a lovely spacious place, one where she'll have privacy and company in a season where we all need a bit of both. There is room for her things but not all the things. 

How do you decide which after fifty plus years? 

We tell her to count her blessings and she does. To know she is doing the right thing and she is. To know it will be okay and it will. 

But I'm my mama's girl and I understand the way your mind travels back instead of forward now and then. I understand too why you let it. 

How for just a moment you want to be that mom driving your son to his guitar lesson, stirring cocoa made from scratch for red nosed children coming in from the snow, dressing a baby doll as a Christmas morning surprise because your number three child will love it so. 

And I want to say to her you are that mom. 

You will always be that mom. 

We are so grateful for the memories. 

missing my oldest sissy P here who couldn't travel north last week 

We are grateful for the now.

Autumn In The Age Of Corona

How many times can I say it? This has been a weird hard year. For everyone. And it continues to be weird and hard. Also confusing, labyrinthine, and a little bit beautiful too. Cherry trees in November anyone? 

Even the landscape isn't sure what to do. 

So it blooms. It bursts forth out of season and reminds us we can too. This is Autumn in 2020. Cherry trees in bloom amidst the fiery golden hues of fall. 

Unexpected beauty tucked just beside the broken. 

Like 2020. 

Like always. 

One of the things I enjoy about my little corner of the internet is looking back at an event or a season written about here and seeing it from a new perspective. One of distance and hindsight and maybe less adrenaline than I felt when I first put pen to page. 

How will I remember 2020? What will stand out in my mind years from now when I read this blog and the snippets I've recorded from a year that's run amok? Will it all look and feel the same some years down the road? 

Will I remember the trees that fell and the dull brown landscape of one day rolling in to the next? 

 Or will I remember the small surprises of color that found a way to burst through? 

Autumn is my favorite season of the year for a few reasons, but mostly because it makes me mindful of things I want to be mindful of. I read somewhere that trees show us how beautiful it is to let things go, and autumn is the season we remember this is true. 

This year maybe more than any other in my lifetime has called for a lot of letting go. So many disappointments on both a small and grand scale. So much hurt and anger and a general sense of unease we try our best to tamp down but only sometimes succeed. 

I'm pretty sure years from now we'll remember the masks and the no toilet paper and washing our hands til they were raw, but I hope there's more. I hope when my grandchildren ask about this year I remember autumn. The season that shouts without saying a word. 

Look up she said, and so we did. 

                  

Through the icky dead browns and the fading yellows we found the sunlight was still there. 

Falling Into The Wednesday Hodgepodge

Welcome to another edition of the Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered this week's questions add your link at the end of my post. Be sure to leave a comment for the blogger linking before you because who couldn't use a little mid-week company these days? Here we go-

  

1. It's fall y'all. What's something you love about this season and also something you don't? 

Autumn is my favorite season of the year and I think there's a lot to love. The color, the light, the sky, blue jean weather, soups-stews-chili on the stove, a blanket on my lap, a fire in the fireplace, and Thanksgiving to name just a few. 

Something I don't love? Hmmm...how about election ads? 

2. When you think of the colors of fall, which one is your favorite? Is there somewhere you could easily day trip to see the leaves in all their glory? Will you? 

This is a toughie, but I'm going with gold. I loved my New Jersey backyard this time of year...

The color never got old.  The snow and ice and taxes did which is why we live in South Carolina now, but the color was a stunner. 

I live within a half hour of fantastic fall color in the Blue Ridge Mountains and would love to take a leaf peeping drive sometime this month or next. 

3. What's one thing you've let 'fall' by the wayside during this season of staying home and staying away? 

Housework. Oh the basics are getting done, but we normally have a steady stream of company in the summer months which is highly motivating in terms of really staying on top of keeping things pristine. Hubs and I home alone=not so motivating. 

4. If you're wearing a sweater is it most likely a cardigan, crew neck, v-neck, or zip up hoodie? 

A cardigan or v-neck most likely, especially if I'm seeing actual humans or we're going somewhere. For lounging around the house I love a zip up fleece. 

5. What's your secret to dealing with change? 

Less digging in of the heels, more surrender. Know that one day you'll look back and see all the ways God used change to grow you, to draw you closer to Himself. Know it's possible in hindsight, if not in present day, to  feel tremendous gratitude for this change you never wanted and were so sure you didn't need. 

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

"Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each." Henry David Thoreau

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 387

It's that time again, and here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to share answers with the universe.  See you there! 

1. It's fall y'all. What's something you love about this season and also something you don't? 

2. When you think of the colors of fall, which one is your favorite? Is there somewhere you could easily day trip to see the leaves in all their glory? Will you? 

3. What's one thing you've let 'fall' by the wayside during this season of staying home and staying away? 

4. If you're wearing a sweater is it most likely a cardigan, crew neck, v-neck, or zip up hoodie? 

5. What's your secret to dealing with change? 

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

Who What Where When Why

My brother supplied the word of the day today and it's a toughie. I had to really think about how to incorporate this one into a blog post because I think this word has the potential to rile people up and I am all about not riling people up, particularly the day before Easter.

Day 10-J is for Journalism

We could ask what is journalism in 2020? What does that word mean in the era of social media where everybody and their brother has an opinion and a keyboard and a platform? Where who we look to as an actual authority on a particular subject is open for debate? 

Where we have entire websites devoted to fact checking every spoken and written word but don't know if we can trust the fact checkers? Where news people no longer make any attempts at hiding their political biases on either side of the fence? Where how someone feels about the way something is said matters more than the facts of the matter. 

Let's talk about Easter, k? Specifically this sweet picture- 

And we're going to do it the old fashioned way, using the standard 5Ws taught to high school journalism students about 100 years ago. 

Who? There's my dad with his infectious grin and my blue eyed baby girl in his arms. And there's my niece and my girl wishing mom would take the picture already.

Some things don't change. 

What? Doing what children have always done the weekend before Easter. Dropping eggs from a bit too high a distance into plastic cups of dye on a plastic cloth covered table. Raise your hand if you or a child you know dyed eggs this weekend. 

Tradition is a little bit like glue. It holds families together apart. 

When? 1991. I can still feel the sweetness from some 29 years away. 

Where? My parent's kitchen. The one where so many of my dearest and favorite memories are lodged. Where my mom cooked a thousand trillion meals. Where we were taught to 'put your napkin in your lap' and 'Mabel Mabel if you're able, keep your elbows off the table.' 

Where grace was said and floors were swept and whose turn it was to wash and dry was a debate for the ages. Or till Dad stepped in. 

Where new generations joined the party and the beat rolled on. 

Mostly life is full of change. 

Why? Why what? Why do babies grow up and move oceans away? Why do granddads leave us far too soon? Why do little girls worm their way into your heart and leave their mark in every nook and cranny forever and ever amen? Why are grown up children smart and able yet always and forever the little girls captured in a photo snapped three decades before? 

Memory and forward motion can live side by side. 

How? How do we celebrate Easter in this strange new world? How do we get back to the life that was before? Will we? Do we even want to? Will we emerge from this time of social isolation changed in some way? 

How can we not? 

Life is full of change. 

On Easter I hold tightly to what never changes-

God's love for each one of us. 

So deep and so wide nothing can ever separate us from it. 

Not our fears for today or our worries for tomorrow. 

It brings light and hope to a world full of questions with no easy answers. 

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. 

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace." 

To Market To Market. Not So Fast....

Linking up with Five Minute Friday today, and here's how that looks-

Tell your inner critic to hush, then write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. Then hop over to the Five Minute Friday link up hosted by Kate Motaung and add your blog to the list. Don't forget to leave a comment for the writer linking before you, because that's the neighborly thing to do.

Today's prompt-adjust

I went to the grocery store yesterday.
Sounds simple and in simpler times it was, but I think we can agree these are not simple times.

These days our every routine action requires thought, restraint, and self-control. The most mundane tasks needing to be accomplished on an ordinary weekday can't be done without taking into account people and distance and how to get from point a to point b with as little human contact as possible.

So I sat and I thought. I made a two week meal plan as opposed to my normal one week shop. I knew  it would have to be tweaked depending on what's available on this particular Thursday in my local market, but having a plan to work from helps.

We take so much for granted don't we?
Will there be any rice on the shelf? Garlic? Meat? Who knows?

I made a list. I always make a list, but this one was well organized to avoid backtracking once inside the store. Getting in and getting out is the name of the game now. No handling the avocados to find one with the exact degree of ripeness I need, no lingering at the deli trying to make up my mind. In fact bypass the deli and for once buy the prepacked safety sealed lunch meat.

Before leaving home I took my card out of my wallet and zipped it in my jacket pocket. I could leave my purse at home, meaning one less thing to wipe down. Same goes for my rings. I needed to buy gas before I shopped so I rememebered to put some plastic bags in the car to cover my hand when I grab the nozzle.

Wearing a bag on your hand to pump gas doesn't look at all crazy in 2020. I toss the bag and put a dollop of hand sanitizer in my palm. The sanitizer we've always kept in the car for emergency hand 'washing', although I honestly cannot recall ever experiencing a true hand sanitizing emergency.

Pumping gas now qualifies.

I came home and took care with where I laid the bags. One counter only so I could spray it down later. I opened boxes and dumped the contents into my own bags and took the boxes to the garage to be recycled one day.

One day someday when our recycling resumes. They sort by hand so not happening since nobody wants to touch anything, not even a brand new empty cracker box.

I washed every bit of produce and disinfected the counter where the bags sat and it made me tired and a little bit sad. It all feels so extreme.

Small adjustments to slow the curve.

Everyone is being asked to adjust to a new normal these days. For some the adjustment is enormous. Scary sickness. A new way of working or perhaps not working at all. Educating small children. Teachers learning too. College students suddenly home and at loose ends.

We're retired and our children grown so how we'll accomplish work each day or teach modern math to a nine year old isn't an issue. What we're facing is mostly inconvenience, minor irritations, and small disappointments.

Still we miss normal life. We miss meeting friends for dinner out, not thinking twice about getting on an airplane, visiting my mom, sharing a church pew with a stranger.

Most of all we miss making plans. We're wired to look forward to what's next, but in this upside down season I'm learning to adjust my line of sight and see blessings in the now.

To embrace flexibility. Grow my patience. Be grateful.

Simply Christmas

Hey. Remember Christmas? I know, right? Time is always a bit nebulous at the end of December but since the new year hasn't rolled in yet I'm going to go ahead and talk about our holiday.

I've always been a big baby about Christmas. I also have grown children living on the other side of the world so I'm learning how to let go of a few bells and whistles while holding on to the real meaning of the season.

I do love some bells and whistles at Christmastime, but knew I'd need a different strategy this year.

This year there were no little girls in the house. Or big girls. Or grandsons, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins. This year Daughter2 boarded a plane for South Korea to spend Christmas with her sister, meet her new nephew, and relish the role of aunt to the cutest little mancubs we know.

Instead of feeling blue about our quiet house I felt so much tenderness in my heart for these girls who have loved each other so well since the day they met. Girls who are sisters, kindred spirits, the best of friends, one another's listening ear...

And you know what? It was enough. A friend shared a little saying on her Facebook page earlier this month and I really took it to heart. It was this-

 'The first Christmas was simple. Mine can be too.' 

I know how to complicate things but this year I just said no. No to overdoing the baking and the buying and the everything and yes to simply Christmas.

Hubs decided he wasn't going to put up outdoor lights and he didn't (there is a lighted wreath but that's him showing restraint). And I decided not to haul my snow village out of the attic because as much as I enjoy seeing it all lit up this time of year the set up (and take down) is such a chore.

We did put up a tree because sitting in front of the tree in the early morning quiet darkness is perhaps my favorite thing.

And because we're not always the best at going small, we also put a tree on the screened in porch.
And a small one on the bar top downstairs, but I drew the line at a third big tree like we normally have.

See I can do small.
And I can like it.

We hung all the stockings and hubs drove to Tennessee and brought his mama here to spend the week with us. We downsized long held traditions keeping just enough to make us feel the way we love to feel this time of year.

There were new memories made, new traditions we'll perhaps carry forward into future Christmas celebrations. Neighbors joined us for a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner and I found a small ham to glaze for Christmas Day. There were cookies baked, cards sent and a few presents under the tree.

There was dock diving and FaceTiming with our people and a boat ride Christmas Day.

The weather y'all! Fantastic!

There was a stroll through tiny town to see the lights and a happpy text from big little girls in their pjs half a world away.

There were grandsons in matching pjs too-

And memories pulled out and dusted off-

There was light and peace and hope and love-

Because one long ago night Christmas simply came-

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

Door

Continuing with the 31 Days To Telling Your Story Challenge with prompts by Kate Motaung over at Five Minute Friday.

Today's prompt-door

Back in 2012 I was participating in a month long photo challenge and one of the word prompts was door. I remember writing that post (you can read it here) and how much I enjoyed looking back at some of the doors hubs and I have walked through in our married life. We'd had eight homes by then and have added two more doors to the mix since.

I guess we never stop opening doors.

I liked that post. Writing out our moves in timeline form helped me see with the clarity of hindsight how one seemingly random place we called home was not so random after all. How one stop in the road of life taught us things, grew us up, made us ready for the next.

Almost two years ago we walked through door number ten.

This house.

The one we could only imagine would stand where the trees grew thick and the red clay ran deep.

The one we built from the ground up.

We live here now.
It's home.

Two years ago we opened the door and once again invited change into our lives, perhaps more change than any move we'd made previously.

Location, lifestyle, people, circumstance.

Most of the pictures I take here are from the back side of my house because the view is lovely there. You see that's the thing about doors, both the literal and the proverbial...

You have to open them to know what's on the other side.

And wherever that door leads you...well as they say round here, you'll need to sit a spell. Put your feet up, pour some coffee, catch your breath.

Of all the many moves we've made, I've probably resisted this last one the most. I blame it on mid-life, the empty nest, this unsettled feeling I have most days of not knowing quite who I am in this new season of life.

So I write about it, and it helps. I read what I wrote in seasons past and rest in the knowledge God is still teaching me things.

Still growing me up.

Still making me ready to swing wide the doors in front of me and walk on through.