Fly Me To The 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 say hi to your neighbor too, because that's what neighbors do.  Here we go-

1. What's something that has recently 'tried your patience'?

Our printer! We actually purchased a brand new printer only a couple of weeks ago, and still...aaagghh! She's printing okay, but nine times out of ten doesn't like to admit she's connected to wifi, so we're constantly having to restart our little black box. And she's still refusing to scan, but we're not giving up on her yet. In the meantime hubs has made friends with the Canon Help Desk. 

2. Do you think patience comes to us naturally or is it something you have to learn as you grow? On a scale of 1-10 generally how patient are you (1=I blow up at the drop of a hat and 10= I've got all the time in the world).

I think we all learn as we grow. I do think people born with certain temperaments have less to learn. 

I asked hubs how he'd rate my level of patience and he gave me an 8 or 9. We did get sidetracked into a conversation about how much is patience and how much is my unwillingness to give up on something, but whatever...I'll take it. 

3. Share about a time when you felt like you could fly. Or a time you wished you could fly. Or a time you felt like you were flying.

When we lived north and regularly trekked south our route took us through the Shenandoah Valley, one of the absolute most beautiful spots in all of America. We'd almost always see hawks flying high overhead, and I would almost always comment that if I were a bird, this is where I'd live. That little slice of heaven on earth made me wish I could fly. 

Pretty much anytime I'm on a mountaintop (literally or figuratively) I feel like I could fly. 

4. Your favorite song with the word fly in the title or lyrics, or your favorite song that relates to flying in some way?

Well I really love that Gary Allan song 'Watching Airplanes'. It's one of those songs that always makes me feel a little wistful. 

5. What's in your fall picnic basket and where are we picnicking in your neck of the woods this time of year?

Hopefully as you read this I'm picnicking on a mountaintop overlooking the Carolinas. I post my HP answers on Tuesday evening and hubs and I have plans to watch the sunrise in the early a.m. on Wednesday. I'm packing coffee, bagels and Dramamine. Does that count?

Bagels are not my normal breakfast (neither is Dramamine), but I've been warned the drive up the mountain will likely make me carsick and sometimes pretzels or a bagel help keep it at bay. Forewarned is forearmed!

6. Carpentry, electrical, plumbing, landscaping....which skill would you most like to possess and how would you put that skill to use today?

Since we're in house build mode any and all of these would come in handy. The only one I'm really interested in learning though would be landscaping. I enjoy being outdoors and working in the garden. The others would be more useful today, but they're not skills I've ever been keen to possess. 

7. What's something you think is too expensive to justify buying lately?

A new iPad. I have an original which means you can't update most of the apps. It shuts down about every other minute, so I'm not using it like I used to. I have an iPhone and a Desktop, and the iPad sorta kinda still works so I can't justify spending the money when there so many things we need to purchase for the house. 

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

Hoping all this talk of flying counts as my Wrtie 31 Challenge post today. Day 14-fly
And because it's late and I feel certain a few of you have never heard this one...

Have Patience. Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 239

You're getting a twofer here today, this week's Hodgepodge questions (scroll all the way down), aaaand my word of the day in the Write 31 Challenge. Here we go-

Day 13-patience

It's always something, isn't it? There's always some situation or circumstance in our lives that calls for patience we don't have. People we encounter, or sometimes even live with, who make us dig deep into our well of patience. Dreams we nurture and believe in and hope for that require patience in the waiting. 

I've spent a lot of my adult life waiting on the next thing. We haven't stayed put in any one place too long, and most moves we've made were made knowing there would be a next thing. What will it be? When will it happen? Where will we go? What about after that? How long will we be in this next new place? When will it feel like home? 

As I've grown up I've learned a few things I guess could best be lumped under the heading life lessons. All involve patience. When I step back and think about these life lessons I realize so many of them were learned not in the achievement of some thing, but in the waiting that came before. I learned 25 years and six moves ago that I need to embrace the waiting. That if I can't find joy in the waiting I'm not going to enjoy my life. I need to find joy in the wait. 

We're building a house from the ground up, something new for us, and if I'm being completely honest, a task that feels monumental some days. I never really had this dream of building a home from scratch. I can make anyplace feel like home, and I'm sure we could have moved into an already built place and I'd grow to love it in time because that's how I'm made. 

But we fell in love with a plot of land and here we are, building a house. I'm trying each day to embrace the process, a process that involves a whole lot of waiting. Waiting on boxes to be checked. Inspections to be completed. Permits to be issued. Contractors to be available. Rain to quit raining. The list goes on. And on and on. 

Do you know how many of those items are within my ability to control? Pretty much none, and I'm honestly okay with that. In fact I'm determined to enjoy the slow process of creating something beautiful out of red clay and overgrown pines. This is all new to me, and I'm not what you'd call 'handy'. I watch with some amazement as the excavator digs exactly where he needs to dig, connects hoses and pipes, and voila we have a sewer. It's the little things people. 

And isn't that really true? It's not cliche. It is the little things. If I look at the great big picture which is a completed home on a now empty lot it's overwhelming. If I take note of the small changes happening over time, it feels much less so. 

If I'm patient, if I don't wish this year away in order to get to the finished piece, I'll learn some things.  Brick by brick is how it's done. Building a house and building a life. 

1. What's something that has recently 'tried your patience'?

2. Do you think patience comes to us naturally or is it something you have to learn as you grow? On a scale of 1-10 generally how patient are you? (1=I blow up at the drop of a hat and 10=I've got all the time in the world).

3. Share about a time when you felt like you could fly. Or a time you wished you could fly. Or a time you felt like you were flying.

4. Your favorite song with the word fly in the title or lyrics, or your favorite song that relates to flying in some way?

5. What's in your fall picnic basket and where are we picnicking in your neck of the woods this time of year?

6.  Carpentry, electrical, plumbing, landscaping...which skill would you most like to possess and how would you put that skill to use today?

7. What's something you think is too expensive to justify buying lately?

8. Insert your own random thought here.

The Perfect Storm

Ooops. I accidentally on purpose skipped a day in the 31 Day Challenge. Here's the deal...I'm not going to blog on Sundays. It's just not my thing. Coincidentally, yesterday's one-word prompt was the word 'rest'.

So I did.

Truthfully I need to rest my blog brain on Sundays. I don't like feeling I have to make time in my Sunday to blog. Sundays are set aside for other things and blogging is a distraction. There are two schools of thought in the blog world, one being don't blog unless you have something to say and the other being blog every single solitary day forever and ever amen.

I've been known to blog when I had nothing to say-ha! And I agree there can be value in blogging every single solitary day because writing is a habit and takes practice. The discipline of the every day is a good thing, but it's too much for me. I think you know I'm all about following the rules, but I'm going to break some here and call this a 27 Day Challenge.

Also, today's prompt is 'storm'.

Yeah, I'm not going there today because it's Monday, and I want to catch up a little on everyday life here. Which is not really stormy unless you count our recent weekend weather.

Hey, did I ever write here about the time we were in The Perfect Storm? Hmmm...maybe I will blog about the word. Did you know I was a fly by the seat of your pants writer?

There's always tomorrow to write about yesterday.

Day 12-storm

Way back in I think the year 2002, we were caught in a storm that all who were present have come to refer to as 'The Perfect Storm.' If perfect means terrifying, then yes that's exactly what it was.

Perfect.
And terrifying.

We were living near Annapolis and we had a boat and had friends with boats and we all spent hours on the water livin' the life. One July weekend, our friends with the big boat suggested we all load up and fly across the Bay for a crab feast. There were three families, six adults and six kids ranging in age from 9-13. Our babies.

When you think you're going to capsize in a wicked thunderstorm on the Bay, 13 is not too old to be called your baby.

The day started out gorgeous with that magical sunlight sparkle on the water and everyone feeling happy and hungry. A crab feast beside the Chesapeake ranks right up there as one of my favorite things in life (sunlight on water might top the list) and our gaggle of girls, plus one boy child who was used to all these girls, climbed aboard the boat and off we went.

When I say fly I'm not exaggerating, because this particular boat can travel at a high rate of speed. That combined with the wind whipping your hair and little girl giggles, sunglasses and friends...well we had all the makings of a glorious July day.

We made it across the Bay and sat outside at one of our favorite spots where we picked crabs and solved all the problems of the world. We were thoroughly enjoying ourselves when we noticed a few clouds beginning to form in the far off distance. Our very good friend (aka the captain) suggested we wrap it up and get ourselves back home, because it looked like the weather was changing.

You always hear storms can come up fast on the water, but man oh man, I've never seen anything like the speed with which the day went from bright clear blue to black as night. We started back and were chugging along at a good pace, when the captain said to his wife...'Get my jacket'.

Ruh-roh.

Apparently she knew when he asked for his jacket it was about to get serious, but we passengers still had every confidence he could outrun it.

Naivete can be a beautiful thing friends.

Our captain instructed us to take the kids below deck and that was when I started to feel a teensy bit anxious. All the guys stayed up top along with the Captain's wife (aka first mate), while the other mom and I corralled the kids down below. We decided it was a good idea to make certain everyone was cinched up tightly in a life jacket.

Pretty sure that's when the tears started. Little girls can be oh so dramatic...I think at one point one of them bemoaned the fact that we were all going to die and she was never going to get married, which is funny but only because we didn't.

And I'm not gonna lie, if we hadn't been the designated adults the other mom and I might have been crying too. The skies that afternoon let loose in a most ferocious manner, a storm to beat all storms. I've never in my life seen lightning strike in such abundance as what was happening all around us. We passed the time trying to decide if we could be electrocuted in fiberglass???

We were fortunate to be in a really solid craft, with a highly capable captain, but even he was fighting to keep the boat moving in the right direction. We were being bounced hither and yon, and at one point our enormous vessel did an actual 180. I think that's when we moms instructed the kids what to do if we had to 'evacuate'.

Now apparently, according to el captain, we were never in any danger of capsizing, but it sure felt like we were. Also I did not throw up, which my family considers one of my greatest triumphs and should be mentioned here.

When we get together with these friends we still love to relive that day in story form. It might get a little bigger in the telling, but honestly it was really huge in the happening. Sometimes when we're with these friends someone will randomly say, 'Hey remember the perfect storm?' and we laugh.  Now we laugh. Then I wasn't really laughing.

Now I know I should use this story as a metaphor but I don't think I will. I'm going to let it stand out there on it's own as a crazy happy memory of our adventures on the Bay and my girls growing up years.

Years we weathered storms together, because we're not made to weather them on our own.

Ready, Set, Goal

Day 10-Ready

I've been working for several weeks now on a new 101 in 1001 list, and today feels like a good time to add it to my blog. If you're not familiar with what that means, it's simply a list of 101 somethings you'd like to accomplish in the next 1001 days.

I wrote my first 101 list back in July of 2012, and was just sure I'd have it all checked off by day 1001, aka April 28, 2015. Well that didn't happen. In fact I only completed about one third of the items and I learned a few things in the process.

Firstly, I dream big. In other words my eyes are bigger than my pocketbook-ha! I had myself traveling all over God's green earth in that first list, and while I did do a fair amount of coming and going, I didn't come close to the goal I'd set in that first list.

Secondly, not every dream needs to be big. Small accomplishments are rewarding in their own way, so I've included both big and little in my new list. Overall I put more thought into this new list, jotting down ideas as they pop into my head, and saving them in the notes section of my iPad. I also went back through my first list, considered all the items I didn't check off, and weighed whether or not they were still relevant, possible, or interesting. Some are back on the new list, others I've bid adieu. 

Since I wrote that first list a lot of life has happened. We've moved from north to south, my husband retired, I gained a son-in-law, and we're presently building a house from the ground up. Roll with the changes people.

Roll with the changes, but don't throw out all the old to make way for the new. There were a few things I checked off my original list that are worth repeating. Memorizing scripture, exercising regularly, and reading through the Bible are three I'll have on endless repeat.

I will add too, that I didn't obsess about my list during the 1001 day period. I looked it over from time to time, reminded myself of my hopes and dreams and short term goals, then refocused my energies to make a few reality. If you decide to make a list of your own, let me know and I'll cheer you on.

Okay...on with the new...

Start date-10/10/2015

End date-7/7/2018

1. transfer our videos to DVD-01/11/18

2. organize my photos in the new format on my Mac

3. Read 6 non-fiction books-4/07/16

4. crochet something

5. pay for a soldier's meal or coffee 

6. visit Symmes Chapel aka Pretty Place SC-10/14/15

7. bake a coconut cake from scratch

8. move into our lake house-11/10/16

9. learn to confidently drive and dock the boat

10. buy new furniture for our master bedroom-07/2016

11. furnish the screened in porch and covered deck

12. buy new furniture for main level family room-07/2016

13. learn to paddle board

14. get comfy chairs for beside the kitchen fireplace-11/2016

15. host a dinner party under the stars

16. visit all the islands in our lake

17. take a cooking class

18. Read 20 books on the BBC's Book List Challenge

19. re-label my blog posts

20. send 36 handwritten notes

21. buy pretty monogrammed or engraved stationery 

22. create an inspiration board for my new office space

23. visit Vancouver

24. leave a 100% tip on a restaurant bill

25. read through the Bible in a year-2017

26. learn calligraphy

27. make a trip back to London

28. join or host a women's Bible Study-11/2016

29. perform random acts of kindness every day the week of my birthday

30. complete 3 scrapbooks

31. learn to fly fish

32. find a church in lake town

33. tour Biltmore House-02/1016

34. take the Banff train

35. make homemade ice cream

36. volunteer to pack boxes in a packing center for Operation Christmas Child

37. see a Vol game in Neyland Stadium-11/7/15

38. plan a birthday surprise for hubs

39. read 10 pieces of classic literature

40. visit Oregon-10/17/17

41. learn to make grits

42. hike to a waterfall-3/26/17

43. see the SC state capitol

44. make our own limoncello-06/2017

45. do something special for each of my three siblings

46. see Cirque du Soleil

47. Memorize 30 verses 

48. publish something

49. sip Prosecco in Italy

50. read all the Harry Potter books

51. travel to a state I've never visited-Oregon, 10/17

52. make a playlist of my 100 favorite songs

53. go to the shooting range

54. try tai chi

55. visit three museums or galleries I've never been to before

56. make homemade rolls like my grandma did for a holiday meal

57. take a southern road trip

58. write a letter to someone I admire

59. grow my own tomatoes-summer 2017

60. swim in the ocean

61. find a great lipstick

62. go berry picking

63. stay in a B & B 02/2016

64. fly a kite

65. host a holiday open house

66. attend a Clemson football game, tailgate too-09/23/17

67. spend a girls only weekend with my sisters, daughters, and niece

68. make at least ten of the recipes and/or crafts I've pinned on Pinterest

69. add to my Portmerion Christmas dish collection

70. vote in the Presidential election and state races 

71. do something creative with my daughter's wedding bouquet

72. visit a state park I haven't seen 

73. attend a Greenville Drive game

74. try a yoga class

75. organize and sync all my contacts, update all address books

76. attend a professional Ballet

77. spend a weekend in Charleston

78. visit Ft. Sumter

79. read 2 works of Shakespeare 

80. memorize the US Presidents in order

81. make an Indian curry dinner with hubs

82. give our will info to my sister in law and the kids 

83. host a brunch-08/2017

84. bake cranberry bread for our apartment neighbors

85. notice good parenting and then anonymously buy that family dinner

86. see Callaway Gardens (Georgia)

87. submit a travel piece to a magazine

88. compile emergency preparedness supplies 

89. create a flaming dessert

90. order a custom embosser for lake address

92. participate in at least one blog writing challenge-4/29/16

93. road trip up the California coast-10/17 (Northern End from SF to Tacoma WA)

94. buy and complete Rosetta stone-French
95. visit a French speaking country after completing Rosetta Stone 

96. make Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls and give them away

97. write our sponsored children at least four times a year

98. perfect my own salsa

99. pay for a camper to attend summer camp

100. blog about ten items on my list

101. inspire someone to make a list of their own 

'Tis So Sweet

 Linking with both Five Minute Friday and the Write31Challenge today. 

Day 9-Trust

This word. Here we are, back in seemingly deep waters.

Do you know the words to any hymns? Does your church still sing hymns in any of the services they offer? Sometimes it makes me feel old to talk about hymns. I'm not sure hymns are appreciated in the digital age. In a world filled with in-your-face messaging and ever evolving technology, hymns are mostly seen as passe, old-fashioned, boring even. I bet someone out there just yawned.

A great song is of course about the melody, but for me it's mostly about the words. Hymns are full of poetry. They tell stories. They encourage. They lay out for us, in the beautiful turn of a phrase, the enormity of God's love for us and the glory of creation. They urge us to keep pressing on when times are hard. They remind us of the path that leads to contentment. They assure us of the hope and confidence and trust we can place in the promises we've been given.

When I was growing up our church had a hymn night every once in a while. Even writing that I kind of cringe because Whaaaat? A hymn night? Sounds so 1920's. It was actually 1970 something, and it was one of my favorite things. Hymn sings happened maybe once a month or once a quarter. In 1970 we didn't have the all-day every-day mentality we have now, and I think the infrequent timing helped make it feel more special.

They were always on a Sunday evening and the atmosphere felt very casual, which was not at all how church felt on Sunday mornings. The pianist would call out from behind the little half wall where the piano sat, and ask what we wanted to sing. Shockingly (to my ten year old self) people in the congregation would just shout out a pager number. In church. They just called it right out.

In 1970 something churches felt a bit different than they do today.

Anyway, somebody would shout out #124! and everyone would flip through their hymnal, an actual book, to see what we were going to sing. And then we sang. We filled up that space with words and music. No lyrics on a screen, no hand held phones to google top ten most requested hymns of 1972, just books in the back of a pew and everyone singing along.

I love the music of today, and I'm not knocking words on a screen or technology in church. It's 2015 and time marches on. What I'm struck by though, is the way a one-word prompt can spark a memory. I saw that word 'trust' and my mind flashed right back to sitting in 'our pew',  my mom and dad beside me, singing along with people we loved who felt so much like family...'Trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey...'

Do you have a favorite old hymn? I'd love for you to leave it in the comments today.

We're A Hap-py Fa-mi-ly

Day 8-Purple

Okay.

But really? Purple? I like purple, but it's not my favorite color. I love wearing purple, but don't use it in my home decor. I like eggplant, does that count? Pretty sure this prompt calls for a bit of artistic license, so let's take advantage of the fact that it's Thursday and talk throwback.

Who remembers Barney, the big purple dinosaur? Is Barney still a thing, because back in 1993 he was all the rage. 'I love you, you love me...' Talk about an ear worm! If you were raising children in the early 90's you can finish that lyric in your sleep.

Yay for parents who sang along with Barney!

I know in my collection of photographs I have the cutest picture of Daughter2 unwrapping a stuffed Barney doll on her third birthday. The complete and utter joy on her face cannot be explained in words, and I'd so love to post the photo here, but cannot for the life of me find it in my online photo 'system'.  ahem.

The actual photo lies tucked away in a box, currently resting in the deepest nether-regions of our moving container parked inside a warehouse.

In New Jersey.
Bother.

R is for re-organize those online photos Mom!

Turns out Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun is still shining down on me though, because in my search for Barney I found something even better. Pure purple awesomeness in the form of these throwbacks, circa 2009.

Purple.
Bam! Nailed it!

9 PM Ramblings

Day 7-Love

I don't really like to blog at 9 PM in the evening, but here I am because it's only Day 7 and I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I am ready however, to make a few adjustments to the Challenge routine.

I love blogging. I love having a little corner of the Internet to dump all my words and I love the connections I've made both online and in real life through my blog. I especially love the way other bloggers words have made me think, made me laugh, made me a better writer.

Here's the thing...I'm a serious thinker, but a light hearted soul. When I signed up for the Write 31 Challenge I had to pick a category to link my posts to, and that's always a little bit hard for me.  A big chunk of my blog is all about home and family, but when I looked at the links there they seemed to be more moms navigating life with young children or homeschooling and the like. In other words, not me. I could have gone with the category labeled Too Awesome to Categorize, which I might be, but it seemed a little over the top to say so myself, so I went with faith and inspiration.

It's not an exact fit, but it felt right. When I meet someone and the subject of my blog comes up, I struggle a little bit with how exactly to describe what it is I write about on From This Side of the Pond. I've settled on this-a slice of life, because that's pretty much what you get here.

And it's a generous slice topped with whipped cream and a cherry, served on a pretty china plate because that's who I am.

Back to the Challenge. So many of the one-word prompts I'm trying to keep up with lend themselves to more serious posting, and I just can't do that every day. I can't be deep and inspirational 7 days a week, at least not on purpose, because I need to tell you all about my daughter's quirky Greyhound and how she likes to hang out in the closet.

I need to tell you that little girls grow up, but never outgrow their love of all things Harry Potter, and how my 27-year old daughter is like a kid at Christmas when she talks about her upcoming trip to Florida.

I need to tell you how I spent the day wrestling thorny vines from around the trunks of tall tall pines and how I secretly love operating the giant loppers. How my hubs let me carry on lopping even though I knew it was absolutely killing him to watch me try to get those clippers around the base of those tangled up vines, tug with all my might, and not injure myself in the process.

I need to tell you he just smiled and said he was glad I was there by his side.

I need to tell you how the bright blue autumn sky makes my heart leap and how we sat on our very own shoreline and agreed that buying this lot and building this house was the absolute best decision we'd ever made.

I need to tell you love can last a lifetime.

I need to tell you that seeing septic lines installed on your recently cleared lake lot ranks right up there as best.date.ever. That watching a giant digger turn the red clay earth into your future home is downright thrilling.

I need to tell you there is magic in the beauty of an ordinary day.

So I'm giving myself a break, although I'm still determined to meet the Write 31 Challenge and blog every day this month. I so appreciate the prompts for those days when I'm stuck, but have figured out too why they're not working for me like I thought they would. The way I write best is to pour out all my many words and figure out the one word theme when I'm through, not the other way round.

I need to tell you I still love to write and when I write I need to be me.