Say it isn't SnOw!

Good Monday morning on this second day of Spring.

Nothing says spring quite like falling snow and icy roads, does it?

I'd seen a possibility of a 'wintry mix' (two of my least favorite words, by the way) in the forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday but this-

ugh.

I was not expecting to wake up to this today.

I think they are calling it 'flurries' but my deck is saying otherwise.

Falling snow, icy roads, and black ice are not words that should be found in a blog post on the second day of spring.

Unless they are used to say how happy we are not to have them around anymore!

It is sort of pretty.

Not as pretty as Friday though, when we had one gloriously warm and picture perfect day.

Isn't March always just a big tease?

In my head I know this and snow should not surprise me... but it does.

Warm sunny days just put everyone in a better mood.

Even my dog agrees.

She loves to be outdoors and lays right up against the house...I think she's afraid she might miss something if she strays too far.

A crazy picture I know because we have a heating vent in front of the glass and there's all sorts of reflecting happening there.

That's because it was SUNNY!

The way Spring should be!

And I was worried I'd have nothing to talk about this Monday morning.

In that sense the weather never lets me down.

In other exciting weekend wrap up news (admit it...weather talk is exciting) we laid low.

Hubs didn't get back from his across the sea travels until the weekend was almost over and then he needed to ease back into our time zone.

Easing back into our time zone usually involves a nap on the couch.

And because I'm a good wife I empathize with his jet lag and I nap too.

I think it's the least I can do.

"With rushing winds and gloomy skies

The dark and stubborn Winter dies:

Far-off, unseen,

Spring faintly cries.

Bidding her earliest child arise; March!"

~Bayard Taylor

Top o' the late in the afternoon to ya

It's still St. Patty's Day, right?

My mom and one of her friends came up on Tuesday to keep me company for a couple of days while the hubs is out of town and we've had a really nice visit. All of our galavanting though, did put me a little behind in the blogosphere and in real life too...sadly that tax organizer did not complete itself while we were out gabbing, shopping and playing games.

We went out to eat before they headed back home today and as we sat down I noticed two women sitting at another table, both wearing light green sweaters. I thought to myself, how funny...those two women are dressed almost exactly alike.

I'm sharp, aren't I?

We had our St. Patrick's Day meal a few days early since hubs was going to be away so guess I kind of forgot what day it was today.

That happens a lot lately.

It's one of the side effects of an empty nest.

And hormones run amok.

Anyway, I am part Irish.

My great-great-great-great grandpa was born in County Kildare Ireland back in 1756.

What am I wearing today you may ask?

I'm wearing brown.

In honor of the potato.

Okay, I just made that last bit up, but since it's now almost 5 o'clock if I change clothes it's going to be into my pajamas.

I do feel the need to see a splash of green around here somewhere today though, so here you go-

...one of my favorite green spaces in all the world.

I know some friends who read here will recognize it and smile too.

And for those friends and for all my friends, both in real life and online...whether you're a stone's throw or an ocean away...this Irish blessing is for you today-

May joy and peace surround you,

Contentment latch your door,

And happiness be with you now,

And bless you evermore.

Slán go fóill!

It's Your Lucky Day-Wednesday Hodgepodge-Vol 18

Welcome to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge...if you're playing along be sure to add your blog link to the bottom of my post so lucky readers will know where to find you. I try my best to get to all the participating blogs but it usually takes me a couple of days....love to see all the different directions people run in answering the very same questions.

Here are my answers today...

1. What would you do if you found a pot of gold? Let's pretend that pot of gold is worth exactly $1500 (which would actually be more like a cup of gold at current values). Anyway, let's also pretend you have to spend it as opposed to making a donation somewhere. Now, tell me what you would do with that cup pot of gold?

We have so many projects going at the moment my head is spinning. I feel like every room in my house needs just a little tweaking before I call it done. Is a house ever done? We're getting new furniture in Daughter1's bedroom so most likely my cup of gold would go towards that purchase.

2. Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day in any way, shape, or form?

My Irish lad with the Irish name and the Irish charm and the red hair to go with (okay it's mostly gray now but he's still a red head at heart) is away on business this St. Patrick's Day. I fixed our traditional dinner on Saturday night because we love it...corned beef and cabbage with potatoes. So good but such a heavy meal. I did make a light dessert, green of course....sugar free lime jello whipped together with low fat lime yogurt. It was yummy and refreshing!

3. Have you been bitten by the Spring Cleaning bug? What spring cleaning job most needs doing at your house? What spring cleaning job are you most dreading?

Nipped but not actually bitten. Its hard to get motivated while the bathroom is mid-redo. That's creating a lot of dust so I'm inclined to wait until that's completed before I dig in to the actual scrubbing. We are doing several home decorating projects, primarily in the bedrooms so I'm cleaning out closets and organizing in there as we go. My most needed job this spring is probably to have my windows washed. It would also be the most dreaded. And you might as well toss in washing the window treatments too because that job also ranks right up there on the do-not-enjoy list!

4. lime-shamrock-sage-forest....your favorite shade of green?

Our bedroom is painted a lighter shade of sage green...it's restful and beautiful and I love it.

5. Thomas Jefferson once said, "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." So... do you believe in luck or do you believe we make our own luck?

I think there are people for whom some things in life seem to come more easily than they do for the rest of us. Of course we never really know what goes on behind the scenes in someone else's life, do we? Perhaps they are looking around thinking the same thing about someone else. I think hard work pays off and adds meaning to the end result. I'm not opposed to a little luck but I'm not relying on it either.

6. Monday (3/14) was Pi Day. Get it? 3/14 is Pi Day. Those math types are so clever, aren't they? Since I'm not one of them tell me what's your favorite piE (the edible kind)?

Angel Pie...followed closely by coconut cream.

7. That same date (3/14) was also the birth date of the late physicist, Albert Einstein. I bet he knew the value of pi. What do you think is more important and/or valuable in life...intelligence or common sense?

I think you need a bit of both in this world. Intelligence without common sense can land one in a heap '0 trouble. Can you have common sense without intelligence? I think if someone has a lot of common sense they've gotta have some brains in there somewhere!

8. Insert your own random thought here...

Like everyone, my heart just breaks for the people of Japan and all they have suffered and continue to face following the earthquake and tsunami there last week. Sometimes this world seems upside down. I heard this beautiful song by Selah sung in church on Sunday...a gentle reminder that there is absolutely nothing that cannot be redeemed...

(the lyrics aren't showing up but you can read them here)

Corned Beef and Hodgepodge

Here are the questions for this week's Hodgepodge...thanks for playing along!

Answer the questions on your own blog then come back here tomorrow (Wednesday) to link your answers with the rest of the internets.

1. What would you do if you found a pot of gold? Let's pretend this pot of gold is worth exactly $1500 (which would actually be more like a cup of gold at current values). Anyway, let's also pretend you have to spend it as opposed to making a donation someplace. Now tell me what you would do with that cup pot of gold?

2. Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day in any way, shape, or form?

3. Have you been bitten by the Spring Cleaning bug? What spring cleaning job most needs doing at your house? What spring cleaning job are you most dreading?

4. lime-shamrock-sage-forest...your favorite shade of green?

5. Thomas Jefferson once said, "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." So...do you believe in luck or do you believe we make our own luck?

6. Monday (3/14) was Pi Day. Get it? Pi =3.14. Those math types are so clever aren't they? Since I'm not one of them tell me what's your favorite piE (the edible kind).

7. That same date (3/14) happens to be the birthdate of the late physicist Albert Einstein. I bet he knew the value of Pi. So...what do you think is more important and or valuable in life... intelligence or common sense?

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Yin and Yang

It was weekend-lite around here once again.

By 'lite' I mean we didn't get a full weekend since hubs had an early morning flight out yesterday.

Ugh.

You shouldn't feel too sorry for him though because

his view will be something like this for the next few days...

You shouldn't feel sorry for me either...

here's my awesome view...

Did I mention, ugh?

The plumber and tile guy (I'm sure he has a more official title) along with tile guy's assistant came to get the master bathroom shower re-do underway at the end of last week.

Things started off with a bang when assistant tile guy dinged my upstairs hall foyer ceiling as he was carrying the old shower doors outside...

Ruh-roh.

I've zoomed in here...the ding itself is small.

Unfortunately, not so small that it doesn't smack you in the face when you walk up the stairs.

And it's an actual gash as opposed to a scrape, which tells us that the entire ceiling will need to be repainted as opposed to patched.

Patching a ceiling is never smooth sailing.

Just to make things sightly more problematic...

that little patch of ceiling is part of a much larger space which includes our downstairs foyer, the family room and the upstairs hallway...

Its a whole lotta ceiling.

Plus (yes, there's more) the ceiling is two stories up on either side of the staircase which spells good times if you're a painter.

I'm thinking they will try for a patch but I'm pretty sure I will not be happy with that.

And I know for certain my hubs won't.

Other than that they were exceptionally neat and tidy.

I'm sure they'll make it all purty once the work is finished, but this sort of thing gives me a knot in my stomach.

Hubs happened to be home when the 'incident' occurred so he was able to talk to the tile guy but now it's up to me to 'discuss' it with the plumber who is the project boss.

I detest this sort of task.

I like for life to always be very pleasant.

Very pleasant with no unpleasant unpleasantness.

Hubs, on the other hand, lives for this stuff...tell me again why he's not the one negotiating repairs with a work crew while I lounge on a beach somewhere warm and lovely?

Okay, so technically he's working and not 'at the beach' in a - sitting in a lounge chair- kind of way but still, you know what I mean.

In other weekend news we finally found a mirror for our dining room wall.

I needed something above my server and am really happy with the way this looks...we still have to decide what's going atop the server itself but having the mirror up helps.

Let me tell you-hanging that mirror was quite the project.

Somehow hubs has thrown his back out (he claims he did it painting upstairs but I think that's his way of getting out of finishing off that last bedroom) and he's been in agony all week.

Did that stop him from hanging the 50+ pound mirror?

No it did not.

I'm sure whatever is wrong with his back is nothing a 12 hour flight can't fix.

Ahem.

So now tell me, is your fuse slightly shorter than normal when you and your significant other attempt a project like this?

A project that involves one of you barking orders while holding something extremely heavy and completely awkward while the other one snaps back that she is not a mind reader?

We used to have a boat and hanging that mirror reminded me of our days docking the boat.

We'd be floating gently towards the dock and hubs would begin telling me to grab ropes and bumpers and blah blah blah and even though we were on our boat everysinglesolitary weekend I would act like it was my first time on the water and would drop ropes and trip over his feet as he tried to keep us from smacking the dock.

I think you get the picture.

Hanging this mirror was a bit like that.

I think its partly because hubs is a perfectionist.

He takes approximately 637 measurements while we awkwardly hold the very heavy mirror up to the wall no less than 42 times, all the while trying hard not to drop it or ding the paint.

Then he measures some more to be sure it is 100% exactly centered because if that mirror is one millimeter too far left-right-up or down he will never be able to eat a meal in there.

He would not disagree.

I guess it could also be partly because I'm sorta clumsy.

And directionally challenged.

'Oh, you meant my left, I thought you meant your left.'

The good news though is that the mirror is up!

Once we got it on the wall we were pretty pleased with ourselves and we smiled and congratulated each other and admired our new purchase.

Disagreement?

What disagreement?

I tease him about his tendency towards perfectionism.

He teases me about my tendency to be clumsy and directionally challenged.

He's yin and I'm yang and together we make a whole.

And life is never ever dull.

Frankie and Annette

Daughter2 is on spring break this week.

She is in an undisclosed Florida city with 10 of her closest friends.

Relax....I know the city, I'm just not sharing it here.

In fact, I have the street address complete with house number because I'm a nagging mom like that.

Did I log on to google earth to check it out?

Perhaps.

Hubs and I agree that spring breaks back in the 'olden days' were a far cry from the spring breaks of today.

For starters, we didn't know anyone who took a cruise.

College kids couldn't afford that when we were in college.

Can they afford it now?

Mine can't and I'm not quite to the point where I'll pay for a cruise.

If I'm paying for a cruise I'm going to be on it.

And heaven help the families who find themselves on a cruise with 100+ college students.

Also, we didn't take a trip with our friends every single year.

Some years we just went home and hung out with the folks.

I went to uni a fair distance from my family and I enjoyed trips home.

Mom cooked my favorite foods and took me shopping...I slept in my own bed and saw friends and didn't feel cheated in any way by not having a trip to the beach every Spring.

My senior year in college I spent Spring Break in Ft. Lauderdale with four of my best friends.

We shared one small and tacky, but delightfully inexpensive hotel room and since it came furnished with just two double beds we took turns sleeping on the floor every night.

You had to step over that lucky person to get to the bathroom.

No renting gorgeous beachfront homes with jacuzzis and private pools and room to sleep 15 when I was a college student.

My dad would have looked at me like I had two heads had I even suggested such a thing.

Hubs was my boy friend back then and he had also gone to Florida with friends, however they were in Daytona Beach some four hours away.

I was always a responsible girl, a rule follower, and not a wild child.

But 20-somethings are 20-something and I was 20-something so one day I borrowed my friends brand spankin' new RX7 and drove to Daytona to see him.

By myself.

No cell phone.

No GPS.

No phone call to the parents letting them know what I was up to.

Oi.

My friend didn't think twice about loaning me the new car her dad had purchased for her...in fact, she suggested it.

And now, you are in for a real treat.

Because I am about to post a picture from that long ago day and unlike a lot of 'old' pictures around here I know precisely where this one rests....

in my husbands wallet.

Sometimes my hubs will meet a person who doesn't know me and when they inquire about his wife he likes to show them 'my picture'.

Then, when I eventually do meet these people who only know me from the photo, they scratch their heads and think that I cannot possibly be the 'wife' in the wallet.

If you meet my hubs someday he will very likely show it to you.

My hubs loves this picture.

When I was writing this post I had the photo ready to upload onto my blog and he came in the room, saw it, and got a huge grin on his face.

Honestly, when he looks at me, I do believe this is the girl he sees.

Back in 2005 we were in a little village in Italy purchasing a lovely table.

We had been happily chatting with the shopkkeeper when it came time to pay.

As hubs opened his wallet the shopkeeper caught a glimpse of my photo circa 1982.

He pulled hubs aside and in his oh so charming Italian accented English, with a worried tone in his voice, asked, 'What is this? You have zee beautiful wife....why you need zee girlfriend too?"

"This is your girlfriend in the picture, no?"

Well, if you want to get all technical, yes...it's his 'girlfriend'.

His girlfriend from 25 years ago.

The girl she was when she was just a girl.

Before she was a wife.

Before she married him and bore his children and shlepped from state to state and across the ocean with him.

I'm here to tell you that kind of stuff ages you ya know.

And also that Italian men call all women beautiful.

A reel has been playing over and over in my head this week every time I think of my daughter...

Is she being sensible?

Is she wearing sun screen and her hat?

She's so fair, I hope she's wearing her hat.

Is she eating right?

Has she spent all her money?

Has she spent all my money?

Is she re-charging her batteries for the second half of the school term?

As I run thru this laundry list of thoughts it helps if I try to remember my 20 year old self.

The carefree girl with the tanned legs and hair flying in the wind.

The girl making plans, dreaming dreams, and feeling excited for all that lay ahead.

The girl who was ready to take on the world.

The girl still lingering in the gap between adolescent and adult.

I hope my daughter is wearing sunscreen.

I hope she's eating and resting and re-charging.

I hope she's being sensible.

And I hope especially that she is tucking these friends inside her heart...

that she takes a picture in her head of these years where her hair flies in the wind and she too lingers in that most magical gap.

Wednesday Hodgepodge Mardi Gras Style- Vol 17

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge and our own little Mardi Gras...be sure to add your link to the bottom of my post and click around to see how the rest of the internets answered...

here are mine-

1. The season of Lent begins on March 9th this year...do you participate and if so, in what way?

I didn't grow up in a denomination where 'giving something up' was common, but I can appreciate the meaning behind that idea. I do like to focus my head and heart in the days leading up to Easter so I usually find a devotional to read that is geared towards that. This year I ordered a book called Bread and Wine-Readings for Easter and Lent which is a collection of writings featuring C.S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, Martin Luther, and more.

2. Traditionally pancakes are eaten on the day known as Shrove Tuesday which is the last day before Lent (March 8th this year) So....butter and syrup? Blueberry? Chocolate chip? Ewwww, no thanks!! What's your pleasure when it comes to eating pancakes?

I like pancakes any old way but blueberry are my favorite. With syrup and a side of crispy bacon. Did we have pancakes last night? No, but if we had they'd have been blueberry.

3. Spring is coming. (It is coming, right?) What's your favorite springtime flower and do you suffer from seasonal allergies? That's two questions I know but they're lightweights.

Tulips...I love them and they are one of my favorite flowers period. I bought an unusual bunch in the market the other day...green and really lovely!

I've always had seasonal allergies but this year I don't even care...I am so ready for spring I say bring on the Allerest and the Visine AC and the sunshiny warm weather please.

4. "Our opinion of people depends less upon what we see in them than upon what they make us see in ourselves." Author unknown. Agree or disagree? Why?

There are definitely people in my life who cause me to take a hard look at myself but certainly not everyone I know falls into that category. And I think when I am immediately drawn to a person its not necessarily because of something in me...it's generally due to some quality they posses. That quality could be something I lack or something I have in abundance.

I guess what I'm saying (see, even I don't know what I'm saying) is that for some of my relationships the quote rings true, for others it does not. Does that make sense? I hope so because answering this one strained my brain.

5. Since it's "March" and also the season of Mardi Gras...have you ever been in a parade? What's the best parade you've ever seen?

I've never marched in a parade but my favorite ones to watch are the slightly hokey home town 4th of July celebrations. I think of all those summers spent living in small town Maryland sitting on the curb with my little girls as the fire trucks and swim teams and scouts passed by. Candy was tossed, balloons were set free and miniature flags were waved to the sounds of a high school marching band....

Oh be still my heart.

Once the parade wrapped up we'd head to the pool for an afternoon swim before packing a picnic dinner and making our way over to the Naval Academy grounds..a

nother parade, this one with marching military men...

Afterwards my girls would comb the grass in search of four leaf clovers, turn cartwheels in the setting sun and hula hoop until it was dark....

We'd snuggle close together on a blanket and watch fireworks rain down on the beautiful Severn River.

I love a parade.

And summer.

And blonde headed blue eyed little girls.

6. You would jump up and down and shout for joy right now if someone told you_________?

...those same sweet girls, now fully grown, were standing just outside my front door.

7. How clean is your car on the outside? Inside? Is there junk in your trunk?

Have I mentioned the weather here lately? Yeah. Rain, snow, and sleet combined with salt on the highways do not a clean car make. We have rain with a chance of snow forecasted for Thursday so I'll probably wait until the weekend to have it washed. The inside isn't bad although it could use a good "Hoovering" due to the aforementioned rain, snow, sleet and salt you encounter everywhere you go around these parts.

For the record-there is absolutely no junk in my trunk.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

My mother in law has a birthday this week. I wrote a post about her this time last year which you'll find here...go ahead and click over...you know you want to.

I'm blessed in the m-i-l department...Happy birthday m-i-l!