A Rather Nice Hodgepodge

Welcome to June and 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 leave a comment for the blogger before you. Here we go-

1.What's something you find extremely difficult that most people would say is simple?

Directions. As in how to get from A-B and where in the world am I lol. I have absolutely no sense of direction. On the one hand I'm thankful for GPS, but it also makes me a little lazy.  I quite often rely on it, and don't worry too much about finding my way. 

Also, if you're telling me how to get somewhere don't give me any of that east west nonsense. Is there a McDonalds on the corner or a Texaco? I need a landmark. Sometimes when we're hiking and I'm unsure of which way to go hubs will say something insane like, 'How can you not know where you are??? You know where the sun is in the sky.' Huh?? 

2.  "And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow fast in movies I  had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer." 

~F. Scott Fitzgerald

Does the season of summer make you feel this way? Elaborate. 

September is when this feeling hits for me. Years of living life by the school calendar is likely the reason why, but September always feels like a fresh start. Technically September is the end of summer, although I tend to think of it more as the beginning of autumn. 

3. Pickles. Love 'em or no thank you? What's your favorite type of pickle? What's something you eat that definitely needs a pickle added?

I love them in all forms and I love cucumbers before they become pickles too. My favorite is probably a crisp dill pickle, but I also love bread and butter pickles. 

Something I eat that needs a pickle added? A burger needs a dill pickle slice, tuna salad needs some chopped pickle, a hot dog needs pickle relish, and while not a requirement I do like pickle on a deli sandwich. 

4. Tis the season...do you know any June brides? Are there any weddings on your summer calendar? What's your favorite movie wedding? 

I'm a June bride...

We don't have any weddings on our June calendar, but we do have a July wedding this year. It will be red, white, and HOT, but lots of fun too. I love a wedding. 

My favorite movie wedding? 

Maria and the Captain in The Sound of Music ranks right up there, but I also love the wedding scene in Crazy Rich Asians. 

5. June 1st is/was National Say Something Nice Day...say something nice here. 

I think the Hodgepodge is one of the nicest little corners of the Internet. Thanks for playing along each week!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Since we're talking nice...

A neighbor brought me some of her gorgeous hydrangeas. They're even prettier in person. We have hydrangeas in our yard too, but they're just starting to bloom, and none in this color. So pretty!! 

A reminder I'm hosting A Day In The Life link up here on Thursday, June 18th.  If you don't know what that is check out last week's Hodgepodge random thought for details. 

More Stuff I Was Going To Tell You But Never Did

I could probably start a weekly series here with that same title, but for the time being let's move forward. Actually backwards to finish the two week catch up I was supposed to finish last week. 

Guess I'm back to being two weeks behind. Hmmm.

One nice thing about the cities my girls are currently living in is their proximity to hubs family, specifically his mom. It's not too far out of the way to go by her house on our way to/from Daughter1's, so we made plans to pick her up on the way back to the lake when we left the kids. 

We have not spent a lot of in-person time with her this winter, mostly because she made a move in December, everyone's calendars are so busy (hers maybe most of all-true story!) and the comings and goings have just not gelled. 

This time we intentionally made it happen, breezed by her house, met hubs brother and sister-in-law for lunch (the pup always so so happy to see my sister-in-law), then drove on to the lake to spend the week together. We had such a nice time working puzzles, playing cards, talking about how cute and completely precious her great grands are, and we squeezed in a couple of fun outings too. 

On our first day home we finally took the inaugural boat ride of the season. The only boat ride so far, but technically it's not summer yet, right? Boating on a weekday here is the way to go, especially early in the season. The lake is calm, quiet, and gorgeous. 

Hubs had appointments all day Thursday so we girls went to lunch, then rode up to a nearby waterfall to see what we could see. My mother-in-law is always game for everything and was wishing she had a different pair of shoes with her so we could climb down to the bottom. 

I was happy she did not have a different pair of shoes with her. 

It was a spectacular day weather wise, the trees were every shade of green God created, and so many beautiful plants were in bloom. 

On Saturday we had tickets to go to the Scottish games in the nearby small big city. They're actually held every year on the university campus where my girls went to school and it's a gorgeous setting. The Memorial Day weather was not the best, but we had a fun full day there, leaving just as the rains came. 

The thing you need to know about my mother-in-law is she knows someone everywhere she goes. We saw a woman wearing a Tennessee hat at the festival and next thing you know she and my m-i-l are chatting like long lost friends. Turns out the woman's husband had played the bagpipes at a funeral the week before in my m-i-l's church so of course they had mutual friends. 

Also, hubs did not fall far from the tree when it comes to never meeting a stranger. Just sayin'. 

We watched a lot of the athletic events including the caber toss and the sheaf toss, both of which are pretty impressive. We also spent some time watching and listening to the pipe and drum competition which was fun.

A drummer in one group was blind and had someone standing beside him (maybe his dad?) to assist with direction. 

People are just amazing, aren't they? 

There were lots of Scottish and British treats and while we opted not to have the haggis, we did have some really good fish and chips. We wandered the many vendor stalls, found my son-in-law's clan, and just enjoyed the festive friendly atmosphere and all the people watching. 

On Sunday we went to church, then to lunch at a local 'landmark' which is one step up from a dive but is very, very well loved. It's always busy, and the 'meat and three' on their Sunday menu is  good. Do you have meat and threes where you live? We did not have those where I grew up, but it's a thing here. 

Hubs and the pup (where hubs goes he goes) drove his mom back to Tennessee on Monday and I stayed  home to regroup here. It's a rare day where I'm alone in my own house and I gotta say I didn't hate it. Hubs will laugh when he reads this and declare that an understatement, but whatever. I enjoy having him home and I hope he knows that. I am also someone who needs space and I know he knows that lol. 

Okay, we're all caught up. 

Almost caught up. 

Halfway caught up which is something. 

Have a nice week everyone! 

Let's Just Call This One November

We've been trekking across and around East Tennessee for the past ten days so I'm going to lump all the fun into a single post before December rolls in and Thanksgiving is so last week. I know technically Thanksgiving really was last week but I enjoyed living and not writing about it in real time.   

Anyway, Thanksgiving

Wait, let's back the sleigh up to the weekend before Thanksgiving, which is when we loaded up the car and the dog and the everything and made our way to hubs brother's house in Vol country. Nobody is happier to road trip to visit my brother-in-law and sister-in-law than the little brown dog. My sister-in-law is one of his favorites and she does not spoil him at all. 

There's nothing quite like a game live and in person in Neyland Stadium and that's where we were (along with 100,000 of our closest friends) the Saturday before Thanksgiving. 

The Vols had an away game Veterans Day weekend so they were doing a number of things at this game to honor those who've served. Lee Greenwood was at the game with his son and they sang God Bless The USA while the big flag was unfurled on the field which was such a treat. Winning is fun too.

On Monday morning we drove another three (or is it four?) hours to Daughter1's house. She's an hour behind us which isn't much, but somehow it still messes with your head. 

We settled in and spent four days having all the fun with the sweetest little men we  know. That fun included building giant houses made of waffles...

 Reading stacks and stacks and stacks of books -

Playing lots of Go Fish and no less than seventeen games of Candyland which, if you know you know, ahem-  

There were also  lots  of snuggles-giggles-wiggles-and sloppy kisses given which will need to hold me over til the next time we're together. 

I helped in the kitchen and delivered my grandmother's china to her great-granddaughter (daughter1) and loved Facetiming my mom to show her the table set with her momma's well loved crystal and flowery plates. So so special. 

We left Daughter1's house the day after our feast and drove another three hours over to Daughter2's house so we could see the new digs. So so cute. We had a wonderful time visiting with her in-laws and it was nice to have a second Thanksgiving of sorts with them and also my mother-in-law.

Because my sons-in-law both have jobs that sometimes require them to be 'on call' (aka no travel) we were not able to have everyone in the same place, although we were in the same state. Daughter2 and her hubs moved into their home three days before Thanksgiving but she rallied and invited her in-laws and also hubs mom to spend the holiday with them in their brand new home. 

That they moved into three days before. 

My girls are awesome. 

Raise your hand if you've had a few too many carbs in the last ten days. 

Raise your hand if you're not sorry-ha! 

We left Daughter2's house Sunday morning to take my mother-in-law back home and spend one more night with hubs brother and sister-in-law. We were all pretty pooped so we chilled on the couch, napped, and caught up on everyone's holiday eatings and doings. 

While my girls are geographically the closest they've been to one another in many many years, and to us too, we will not have either of the 'big' holidays this year with both girls in the same house. This is the thing I long for most when holidays roll around, the thing I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for, and the thing I was expecting this year. 

I wait a little longer. 

I make a list of all I'm grateful for, which includes happily married grown up girls who've made loving homes for their growing families...

...for grandchildren who fill our hearts to overflowing-

 

...for the beauty of a late November sky-

A reminder of how deep and wide and high God's love is for His people.

2020 Tom Foolery

It's been a couple of weeks since I've blogged anything more than the weekly Hodgepodge, so thought I'd play catch up here today. Talk about what's been been going on in our little corner of the world.

So what has been going on?

Well there's a pandemic. Did you hear? Ha! Whew. It's getting old, isn't it? I heard someone say it's starting to feel like a heavy wet blanket across the shoulders and I think she's right.  Today when I got up I thought, "I need a day off." From what though? It's not like we're doing all that much but I feel like I need a day off anyway.

Earlier this week, or actually I guess it was last week, but who really knows because everyday is a lot like the one before, and a-ny-way...I opened the sliders to greet the morning, steaming cup of coffee in hand, took a deep breath, and yuck. The air smelled so fishy.

We live on what is one of the cleanest lakes in all of North America and it never ever smells fishy, but this day it was definitely smelling fishy. I looked out towards the dock and saw a huuuge turkey vulture eating breakfast, right there on our shoreline.

Raise your hand if turkey vultures kind of skeeve you out? Yeah.

I told hubs he needed to walk down there, because I don't care if it is 2020, investigating and dealing with dead stuff is a man's job. It was in the handbook we were given when we said I Do.

There wasn't a handbook, but I do have a mental list of rules and this is one of them, which hubs knows so he walked down there and then yelled for me to bring the camera. Hmmm. I yelled back, 'Is this going to be something I can't unsee?' and yes it was, but I brought the camera anyway.

Y'all. This vulture was chowing down on the biggest catfish I've ever seen. His head was the size of a basketball and with his mouth wide open he looked even bigger. Hubs dealt with it, but all I could think about was how a vulture casually dining on the worlds biggest catfish right in my backyard is pretty much 2020 in a nutshell.

Let's change topics. We had an earthquake. I know! We were sitting on our deck early Sunday morning and we felt the rumble, the deck shook a little which was a bit disconcerting, and our hanging lanterns started swaying. It lasted long enough to make you think, and we found out later a quake measuring 5.1 on the scale had it's epicenter about three hours from us.

We also were treated to a rainbow last week which I guess balances things out. We've had so many rainbows this summer, so many crazy rainstorms where the sun keeps right on shining, I guess even the weather doesn't know which way is up right now. I do love a rainbow though, and while this one wasn't quite as vivid as the last it was still so pretty. After the weather cleared hubs and I hopped on the boat to catch the sunset because we knew we'd get a good one.

We were right.

This has nothing to do with the weather or unusual occurrences (unless you count people coming over for dinner as an unusual occurrence), but we had some friends come for dinner Monday evening (outdoors of course) and I baked this salted caramel butter cake that was as delicious as it sounds.

I took this right after I poured the caramel butter sauce over the cake, and after it cools you remove it from the pan and drizzle the top with a salted caramel syrup. So good! You can find the recipe here. 

In other delicious news, this little guy is all of nine months old now and he is such a joy.

photo credit: Sincerely Shannon 

Big brother started a little preschool program two mornings a week and we are just loving watching them both grow and learn and discover something new about the world every day.

photo credit: Sincerely Shannon 

The distance stinks, and hubs and I might throw tiny little pity parties for one another now and then, never in the same moment though, which helps. My daughter is wonderful about keeping us connected, which we appreciate more than words can say.

Sunday evening we kayaked with a few neighbors over to a nearby island because you never ever tire of sunsets on the lake and this one was a beauty.

The temperature was perfection, the night quiet, and the lake still. With every exhale you feel your cares float further and further away.

When life is fragile and uncertain it helps to know the One who sets the sun.