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. 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 360

It's Baaaack. For today anyway. Here are the questions to the Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog then hop back here tomorrow to share answers and celebrate the end of an era.

Okay, maybe not an era but I have been writing Hodgepodge questions for close to nine years now,  and have decided to call it a wrap. I'll have more to say about that tomorrow, but for now keep calm and Hodgepodge on.

1. What has been the highlight of your summer so far? (It's still summer people!)

2. What do you wish you'd done more of this summer? Less of?

3. Something you're looking forward to on your September calendar?

4. Best/favorite book you've read this summer?

5. Share something positive, encouraging, or uplifting here.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

A Grand Hodgepodge

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge. I've got a houseful this week, but will do my best to read your posts before next Wednesday rolls around. Here we go-

  

1. What takes you out of your comfort zone?

Physical challenges if I'm with a group of athletic types. 

2. Your least favorite spice?

Sage. I can only handle it in minuscule amounts. 

3. What's a small change you'd like to make?

After living in this house for a year I really need to rearrange my pantry. There's also that one kitchen cabinet driving me bonkers and I should deal with that too. I have a large pantry and organized it the way I thought best when we moved in, but there are a couple of shelves that don't make sense now that I'm using the space on a daily basis. I also have a cabinet that every time I open it I say to myself, '  'I really need to get in here and rearrange', but have I? No. 

4. Do you enjoy visiting historic homes? If so, of the homes you've visited which one was your favorite? What historic home near you is open to visitors? Have you been? Southern Living rounded up eleven of the best in the southern part of the US and they're as follows-

Monticello (Jefferson's home in Virginia), Nathaniel Russel House (Charleston SC), Swan House (Atlanta), Ernest Hemingway's home (Key West), The Biltmore (Vanderbilt home in Asheville NC), Mount Vernon (Washington's home in Virgina), San Francisco Plantation (Garyville, Louisiana), Windsor Ruins (Port Gibson Mississippi), Longue Vue House and Gardens (New Orleans), Whitehall (Palm Beach FL), and Pebble Hill Plantation (Thomasville GA)

Have you been to any on the list? Of the homes listed which would you most like to visit?

I love touring old homes (or new homes for that matter) and if a fabulous garden is attached so much the better. My favorite? Impossible! I lived in England for six years and pretty much every village has an historic home or ten.

Then there's all those castles, which I think could correctly be labeled 'historic home'. All of Europe too, so like I said-impossible! We lived not far from Waddesdon Manor and I always enjoyed visiting there. In the USA I'd say Monticello and The Biltmore are both favorites. 

Currently I live very close to Clemson University and there's an antebellum home there called Fort Hill. It was at one time the home of 19th century statesman John C. Calhoun. We haven't been yet but will definitely visit sometime in the new year. 

Of the homes on the list I've been to Monticello, Ernest Hemingways home, The Biltmore, and Mount Vernon. I'd like to see Longue Vue House and Gardens because I love historic homes, but I especially love pretty gardens. 

5. What's something you think will be obsolete in ten years? Does that make you sad or glad?

The U.S. Mail and yes that makes me sad. I still look forward to my daily stroll to the mailbox, particularly this time of year. 

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

Look who's here-

Is he just the cutest, or what? This is his very first trip to The Palmetto State which I'll write about as soon as I write about our recent trip from the Palmetto state to see him in his own home state. 

Which might end up being one big post all lumped together under the title grandparenting is grand.  Because y'all! This grandparenting thing is the absolute best! 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 329

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 takes you out of your comfort zone?

2. Your least favorite spice?

3. What's a small change you'd like to make?

4. Do you enjoy visiting historic homes? If so, of the homes you've visited which one was your favorite? What historic home near you is open to visitors? Have you been? Southern Living rounded up eleven of the best in the southern part of the US and they're as follows-

Monticello (Jefferson's home in Virginia), Nathaniel Russel House (Charleston SC), Swan House (Atlanta), Ernest Hemingway's home (Key West), The Biltmore (Vanderbilt home in Asheville NC), Mount Vernon (Washington's home in Virgina), San Francisco Plantation (Garyville, Louisiana), Windsor Ruins (Port Gibson Mississippi), Longue Vue House and Gardens (New Orleans), Whitehall (Palm Beach FL), and Pebble Hill Plantation (Thomasville GA)

Have you been to any on the list? Of the homes listed which would you most like to visit?

5. What's something you think will be obsolete in ten years? Does that make you sad or glad?

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

Hodgepodge Happenings

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge. I wrote my answers on Monday evening as I wasn't sure we'd have power here on Tuesday, and as it turns out we don't so whoohoo! for planning ahead. We ended up with more Irma effect in our area than was predicted, but thankfully all our big trees stayed in the ground. They did drop about a million trillion leaves and branches all over the yard, but we'll deal.

Well hubs will deal because y'all my rib thing ain't no joke.

Power went out Monday evening around 8:30 PM and we have not been given an anticipated time frame for it's return. Ugh. A friend has a generator and called to tell me to bring over my frozen foods so that was a blessing. I know our problems are first world problems and I try hard to keep that at the top of my brain while standing in a cold shower.

What a hard few weeks it has been. Irma has certainly left a path of destruction in her wake and my heart is heavy with the needs of those who've lost homes, businesses, pets, and most especially their loved ones. I pray we can all continue to be good neighbors, helping one another in whatever way we're able.

I so enjoy this midweek gathering every Wednesday, and am especially glad you've stopped by today. Here are my answers to this week's questions. If you're playing along, add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger linking before you. Here we go-

1. Is a picture worth a thousand words? Elaborate.

Ha! I think you know my motto runs more along the lines of 'a thousand words are worth a picture'. Wonderful photographs inspire words, and I need some of both. 

2. Have you ever driven any part of the Pacific Coast Highway? If so what was your favorite stop? If not, is this sort of trip on your bucket list?

I have not, and yes it's on my bucket list. In fact it's on my autumn to-do list so definitely share your favorite stops. We're planning to drive a small amount of the California coast later this fall, then meander along the Oregon coast a bit too. 

I'd love to drive the southern end of the PCH, but that will have to be another time. 

3. How do the changing seasons affect you? As the seasons change do you find yourself looking more forward or backward? Which season-season transition bothers you most? Why do you think that is?

I love the changing seasons and look forward to each one. I think it would be harder for me to live where the seasons don't really change. I'm someone who enjoys looking back and ahead and do both on a regular basis. 

4. It's your birthday and you get to pick the dinner menu. What are we having? Do you ever lie about your age?

What's on the menu? The main varies, but there will definitely be cake. German chocolate is my favorite but any chocolate will pretty much  do. 

I don't lie about my age. Why???

5. What's a life lesson you've learned recently?

I'm not as young as I feel? That little mishap I had three weeks ago was a doozie, and showed me I can't just go-do-grab-reach-hop like I could ten years ago. If I'd slipped like that ten years ago I think I'd have probably caught myself. These days I need to think before I act, instead of just going for it. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

A short while back a blog friend (Shannon at The Iron Diva) asked if she could make me something for our new house. Last week I opened the door to find her very special package on my doorstep-

She sent me this most gorgeous afghan which, as you can see, I'm enjoying. If you've got time today, hop over and say hi to Shannon at The Iron Diva . 

Dear world-unprompted kindness makes planet Earth a sweeter place to lay our heads. 

Thank you so much Shannon for thinking of me,  for the beautiful blanket, and most especially for brightening my day. 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chodgepodge

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 hop over and leave a comment for the blogger linking before you today, because comments make the blog world go round. Here we go-

1. Thursday (September 22) is the first official day of autumn in this part of the world...how will you welcome the season? I know some of you have been celebrating way too early, but it's official now so permission granted. House Beautiful recently listed ten ways to make your home smell like fall (you can read the list here) What's a scent you love this time of year and how will you add it to your home?

We're still in the upper 80's/low 90's here, so temperature wise it doesn't feel very fall-like. I do love the light this time of year, particularly just before the sun sets. The air feels different too, and there's a hint of turning in the leaves. That said, I'm still wearing flip flops and a bathing suit on the boat so we're not quite there no matter what the calendar says. 

How will I welcome the season? I have a little unexpected trip in the works so I'll likely spend Thursday getting my head around travel, which isn't very fall-like but is necessary. I generally change up my meal plans about now too, and have homemade soup on my Thursday menu. I guess that's my shoutout to the day. 

 As far as scents go I love candles year round, but especially this time of year. And I enjoy simmering cinnamon sticks with orange peel and cloves to make the house smell inviting, but not in September. Maybe November? 

2. Apple pie or pumpkin pie? Apple cake or pumpkin bread? Warm apple cider or a pumpkin spice latte?

Apple all the way! Apple pie, apple cake, warm apple cider. I do enjoy a very small slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day (heavy on the whipped cream please!), but other than that I'm not a big fan of pumpkin anything, especially coffee-yuck. 

3. Do you occasionally suffer from what's sometimes referred to as an afternoon slump? What helps ward it off before it hits and/or tell us what helps you shake it off once it's here?

Sometimes I 'slump' mid-afternoon. If I'm busy and power on through it passes, but if I sit down forget it. I have a cup of tea most afternoons about 3 o'clock and that usually does the trick. A cup of hot tea makes nearly everything better. 

4. Ladies-how have your friendships with women inspired you or made you a better person? For the men here today- how have your friendships with men inspired you or made you a better person?

I think when you have healthy friendships with women, healthy in that these women friends support, encourage, and love you for you, then you are so lucky. I know I've been inspired by so many of my women friends all across the decades of my life. Inspired to think differently, try harder, let go, forgive fully, laugh more, dig deeper, offer a helping hand, create something, extend grace, step out on that limb, get off that limb!, learn something new, and most especially- to love well. 

5. Are you a people pleaser? If you said yes, do you think that's a good or bad thing? If you said no, do you wish you were more of a people pleaser?

Yes for the most part. When the people around me are happy I'm happy. I'm not a doormat, but I like peace to rule the day and if I can make that happen I will. 

6. The seasons are a-changin'...share a favorite song relating in some way to change (not necessarily seasonal change, it could be change of any kind).

Landslide by Stevie Nicks...'can I sail through the changing ocean tides, can I handle the seasons of my life...'

7. What do you wish would never change?

I don't know the answer to this one. Change is inevitable, and for the most part in my own life God has used change to grow me up. I guess if I have to pick something I'll say we're all reasonably healthy right now, and I'd like that to continue.  

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

This isn't new, but I just saw it recently and it's pretty incredible. FYI-you'll want a towel to dry your sweaty palms! 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 281

Welcome to another edition of the Wednesday Hodgepodge! Here are this week's questions...answer on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to share answers with the whole wide world. Here we go-

1. Thursday (September 22) is the first official day of autumn in this part of the world...how will you welcome the season? I know some of you have been celebrating way too early, but it's official now so permission granted. House Beautiful recently listed ten ways to make your home smell like fall (you can read the list here) What's a scent you love this time of year and how will you add it to your home?

2. Apple pie or pumpkin pie? Apple cake or pumpkin bread? Warm apple cider or a pumpkin spice latte?

3. Do you suffer from what is sometimes referred to as an afternoon slump? What helps ward it off before it hits and/or tell us what helps you shake it off once it's here?

4. Ladies-how have your friendships with women inspired you or made you a better person? For the men here today- how have your friendships with men inspired you or made you a better person?

5. Are you a people pleaser? If you said yes, do you think that's a good or bad thing? If you said no, do you wish you were more of a people pleaser? 

6. The seasons are a-changin'...share a favorite song relating in some way to change (not necessarily seasonal change, it could be change of any kind).

7. What do you wish would never change? 

8.  Insert your own random thought here. 

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What A Difference A Day Makes

Let's look back shall we? Because today hubs and I celebrate 32 years of married life and a lot happens in a day year. 

This time last year we were mid-move. 

Papers were signed and we were packed and loaded, nearly everything we owned headed to storage. We lived with my mom for six weeks between here and there. There and here?   

We house sat for my sister and brother-in-law and took advantage of our weekend in the city of brotherly love. It was hot. 

We fed our sweet pup her favorite ice cream not knowing then she'd only be with us for one more short month. 

Oh yeah, and hubs was retired.

To recap, since our anniversary last year we have changed cities (twice), moved from a house to my mom's to an apartment while managing a home build in still another city, we said goodbye to the dog we'd loved for thirteen years, the sweetest dog we've ever known, hubs un-retired and went to work in another city, and we're still married. Did I mention we're building a house? 

Happy anniversary hubs! You make me strong, you make me brave, you make me laugh and only sometimes make me a little bit crazy. You're still the mischevious, fun-loving, hard-working, hilarious, big-hearted boy I married. 

32 years ago today I peeked around the door at the back of a warm sanctuary to catch a glimpse of you at the altar. 

You still make my heart go pitter-patter. xo

The Seven Year Itch

Once upon a time we had a love affair with a country not our own.

Seven years ago this week we were here.

Corfe Castle on England's Jurrasic Coast. 

A Saxon stronghold, a Norman Fortress, a royal palace...

...a day out with your family.

A lot has changed in seven years.

Not at Corfe Castle, which has remained unchanged now for some several hundred years, but our lives? Our lives have seen significant change.

We've moved stateside, and then moved again stateside...

Daughter1 graduated from uni. Daughter2 graduated from uni. Daughter2 graduated from uni grad school.

Daughter1 got married. Daughter1 moved across all the states stateside.
Daughter2 began teaching school.

We said goodbye to our sweet pup.

Hubs retired.
Hubs went back to work.

We've lived and loved and learned so much these last seven years.

But once upon a time we had a love affair with a country not our own.

I've got the seven year itch.