1011 Photos Are Worth At Least 1000 Words

The problem is where do I begin? 

How 'bout I do what I always do and just dive in hoping somehow everything will make sense in the end?  I'm going to link all of our vendors whenever I can because they were the best. The best of the best. There was not a single vendor who disappointed and in fact there are a couple I would like to adopt. 

Let's start with the before. The getting ready and the butterflies and the girl time spent in the world's loveliest bridal suite. 

Daughter2 had three bridesmaids and one maid of honor (in absentia because of the %#?! you know what). Everyone rallied though, and when we learned the maid of honor wouldn't be able to travel from the other side of the world, Daughter2's cousin swooped in with a sweet phone call to the bride saying she would be her girl. She would hold the flowers and smooth the dress and cry all the happy tears and so she did. 

Having a cousin stand beside you, someone who has known and loved you since the day you were born, is the next best thing to your sister being there. 

photo:Chris Isham Photography

The morning of the big day we girls all donned yoga pants and our super cute monogrammed shirts (mine said mother of the bride on the pocket) and transported all of our dresses, shoes, jewelry, wraps and at least 99 other assorted necessities over to the bridal suite located in the event venue. It only took three carloads to get it all there, but once we were in we settled for the duration. 

photo:mob iphone

The groom's mama also joined the party wearing her matching 'mother of the groom' shirt, and the bride invited her soon-to-be sister-in-law, who was reading scripture at the ceremony, to spend the day with us too. We had mimosas, snacks, and sandwiches brought in by our caterer and everyone rotated in and out of the salon chairs for hair and makeup courtesy of the fabulous Latia Curtis and Co. 

photo: fob iphone

It happened to be Latia's birthday and we all so enjoyed spending the day with her. She and her team took such good care in getting our hair and makeup just right, and honestly I'm still a little bit obsessed with the way she did mine.

Is it okay to post a picture of the bride mid-do?

photo: mob iphone

Yes, because I asked. Plus she's never not adorable and she's wearing my wedding dress in the form of a getting ready bridal robe, which needs documenting here.  

photo: mob iphone

Meanwhile, the boys were off on their own, bonding over haircuts and razor shaves at a nearby men's salon, then getting themselves into their wedding wear so they would be on time. Our wedding planner (Beckon Events) was so on top of the day's timetable I did not have to give it one minute's thought. 

photo: Chris Isham photography

Do you need to know this level of detail?
Probably not, but I need to write it anyway. 

The bride and groom opted for a 'first look' which allowed a lot of the wedding party pics to be taken prior to the ceremony. I especially loved how relaxed everyone felt by doing things in this order.

photo: Chris Isham photography

These first looks are so so tender. In some ways I think both the bride and groom fully appreciate the moment more than trying to take everything in from the altar and aisle. Daughter2 also has a blog (what can I say-we girls like to talk) and I'm sure she'll have much more to say about this particular part of her day. You can read her words here-It's Elementary

Dad got a first look too. Hubs did not want to see either of his daughters in their wedding dresses prior to their big day. There's a tap on the shoulder and you turn around and see this-

photo credit: Chris Isham Photography

Except I'm pretty sure what he saw was this-

Dads and their daughters are somethin' else y'all.  

A Hopeful Hodgepodge

Welcome to the weekly 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 that's what good neighbors do. Here we go- 

1. "Hope springs eternal"...discuss. 

Hope is one of my favorite words. Hope is what allows us to maintain a sense of optimism when pessimism seems the more obvious choice, and we need that. For me personally, my hope is not in this tired troubled earth somehow turning itself around, but in the God who made it and loves us like no other. I don't have to go looking for it or dig too deep to find it. He always keeps His promises and the sureness of that allows me to remain ever hopeful. 

2. Last time you needed to 'spring into action' or 'spring to someone's defense'...explain. 

Coincidentally last night I reached for something on my nightstand and ended up knocking a glass of water to the floor. It was a tumbler with a lid but the lid was open so water went everywhere including the floor, nightstand, and the sheets. Bother. 

Then today I was changing out the ink cartridge in the printer and the bright blue exploded upon opening. Double bother. Thankfully I was holding it over the box, so my hand took the brunt of it but I had to spring into action to keep it from going everywhere. 

3. Tulips or daffodils? baby birds or baby bunnies? The cherry tree or the dogwood tree? Jelly beans or peeps? March madness or spring training? Peas or carrots? 

Tulips, baby birds, a cherry tree in full bloom please, give me ALL the jelly beans, March madness, and peas AND carrots, but if I can only have one I'll opt for the carrots. 

4. I read an article here on the South's best cities on the rise. They are-Baton Rouge Louisiana, Fayetteville Arkansas, Greenville South Carolina, Huntsville Alabama, Lexington Kentucky, Norfolk Virginia, Tulsa Oklahoma, Waco Texas, Wilmington North Carolina, and Winston-Salem North Carolina. Of the cities listed how many have you seen in person? Which one on the list would you most like to see? Have you spent much time in the southern states (USA)? Any spring road trips on your calendar? 

I've spent about 1/3 of my life living in various locales south of the Mason Dixon, and I currently reside in a lake town very near one of the cities on the list. I'm not going to mention it here because it's becoming a little too popular thanks to lists like this one. 

I've been to just four of the cities listed and tops on my list to visit would be Lexington.  I think we were in the vicinity when we did the Bourbon trail a couple of years ago, but there is more I'd like to see and it's close enough to drive. 

5. Tell us how your outdoor space needs sprucing up this spring? Which do you enjoy more (or hate the least-ha!) yard work or house work? 

Outdoor spaces are a perpetual work in progress, or at least ours seem to be. I've never lived in a house that didn't need something done in the yard/garden every year. Many somethings actually. 

We need to re-pine straw the hillside. We need to plant trees to replace trees we had to remove which sounds crazy, but the ones we had taken down were in danger of falling on the house and we weren't taking any chances. We also want to add more hydrangea, azalea, and about a dozen other things to various spots around the yard. We need to clean out and replant the herb garden. We need to put plants in all our many planters. And the list goes on. And on and on and on...

As far as preferring house or yard work? I find satisfaction in a little bit of both.  

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

If you follow me on Facebook or Insta then you know my daughter's wedding photos are here and we could not love them more. Our photographer (Chris Isham Photography) is so talented and also a genuinely nice person to work with. He is kind and creative and most importantly unobtrusive in the way he captures all the special moments of your special day. He's local, but does travel all over for weddings. I highly recommend. 

So. We have 1011 photos and I guess I can't share them all here can I. Can I? No I thought not. But I do plan to share more than a few over the next few days/blogs and this random Wednesday space is a good place to begin-

One of my favorites. 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 413

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. "Hope springs eternal"...discuss. 

2. Last time you needed to 'spring into action' or 'spring to someone's defense'...explain. 

3. Tulips or daffodils? baby birds or baby bunnies? The cherry tree or the dogwood tree? Jelly beans or peeps? March madness or spring training? Peas or carrots? 

4. I read an article here on the South's best cities on the rise. They are-Baton Rouge Louisiana, Fayetteville Arkansas, Greenville South Carolina, Huntsville Alabama, Lexington Kentucky, Norfolk Virginia, Tulsa Oklahoma, Waco Texas, Wilmington North Carolina, and Winston-Salem North Carolina. Of the cities listed how many have you seen in person? Which one on the list would you most like to see? Have you spent much time in the southern states (USA)? Any spring road trips on your calendar? 

5. Tell us how your outdoor space needs sprucing up this spring? Which do you enjoy more (or hate the least-ha!) yard work or house work? 

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

In A Word

I saw this writing prompt on Tanya's blog (The Other Side Of The Road) and thought I'd play along. This month marks one year since the world went topsy turvy (topsy turvy-er?), and as my blog is more or less a journal of my observations about life, this seemed like a nice way to sum up the year that was. 

Can it be summed up? 

We shall see. 

If you'd like to answer the questions copy the graphic and have at it. Let me know if you do so I can read what you write-

What was life like in early 2020? Well, it was ordinary is what it was. I only wrote three blog posts in all of January and February and they were about the everyday beauty found in a pinky red sunrise, adorable baby boys growing up fast, a road trip to my mother's house in New Jersey which, as it happened, was the last time I saw her in person until a couple of weeks ago. I also posted a list of small seemingly manageable goals for the year. Ha! 

2020 just laughed at our goals and resolutions, wouldn't you say? 

Unlike many Americans Covid was actually fairly high on our radar because we have family living in South Korea, and they'd locked down there two months prior. We were naturally anxious for their safety, but the country and the Army both seemed to have the situation mostly in hand. 

In early March hubs and I drove to Florida to spend time with lake neighbors who had recently purchased a home there. We had a wonderful few days of fun in the sun before the clouds rolled in. 

And rolled and rolled and rolled and remained pretty much to this day.  

Covid struck here for real the day we headed home, and in those early days we were all pretty much on the same page as far as staying home, apart, and a little on edge. It was almost as if we'd been issued a group challenge and as a nation were determined to master it. We felt up to the task and thought fourteen days at home to slow the curve would be very do-able.  

Yeah. Remember fourteen days? Well it morphed into something else entirely and people lost their ever lovin' minds ransacking the toilet paper aisle and buying up all the yeast, flour, rice, and clorox wipes they could get their hands on. 

In a word-ridunkulous. 

What was the biggest change? America turned ugly. It wasn't just Covid though...I think it was Covid combined with so many people's endless (and I do mean endless), borderline-sick, white-hot hatred of our president and their inability to not carry on and completely melt down over every single word he spoke, tweeted or thought. It's really hard for me to separate the pandemic from the political fallout because I think it was a double whammy we have yet to recover from. 

In a word-exhausting

What were my coping mechanisms? Baking for one, but of course I couldn't keep that pace up for an entire year. I mean I could have, but we had a wedding to plan and a dress to wear which was highly motivating. 

Mostly I spent very little time on social media, and when I did scroll I hid or muted anyone spewing vitriol and judgement about lockdowns, social distancing, mask wearing, and the election, all under the guise of opinion stated as fact. Hubs and I intentionally listened to as little news as possible and I read books, prayed a lot, Zoomed with family and friends and I blogged. These things kept me sane when the world felt...

in a word-insane. 

What did connection in my relationships look like? 

It looked a lot like text threads, faces on a screen, and a perpetual longing for things to be different. Like wishing I could hop on a plane and see my grandsons, hug my mom around the neck, and have a conversation with the person sitting beside me at a table, in a church pew, or standing less than six feet away in the check out line. 

Still we made it work. Things were far from perfect but the ties still bind. 

What will I remember most?

Lots of things...how one day felt so much like the next, how time was blurry and we kept thinking tomorrow would be different...better..

Masks and hand sanitizer and wrinkled fingertips.

Netflix, no makeup, and cooking all the meals all the days every day. 

Cancelled appointments, cancelled parties, cancelled trips, cancelled fun. 

So much judgement. 

In a word uncertainty. 

What was a beautiful memory?

My girl got married. I highly recommend a wedding in the middle of life's most uncertain seasons. Where no one knows what tomorrow will bring. Where hate is poison and joy is the antidote.

In a word-love wins. 

What do I believe now that I didn't one year ago? 

The media is lost. News is now commentary, very often without any facts at all behind it, and we are so much the poorer for it. 

In a word-dismayed 

What would I do differently? 

Buy stock in Purell, Clorox, and Kimberly-Clark? 

Honestly there was so very little we had the power to control that I'm not sure I could have done things differently. We live on a lake with plenty of space both indoors and out and took full advantage of the natural beauty in our own backyard. We're retired with no school aged children in the house, so we didn't have to figure out the whole work from home while also overseeing a child's education thing so many struggled with. 

Mostly we considered ourselves luckier than most. We rolled with the ebb and flow of life as best we knew how and I reminded myself daily God is bigger than any challenge we might face and He is still in charge of the universe. 

In a word-fortunate

What will I carry forward? 

That in the midst of both enormous challenges and minor irritations, quiet acts of kindness make things easier to bear. That God is present, working, and available even when we humans struggle to understand the hows and whys of a situation. 

Also this. These people. The knowledge that even when the world tilts love will find a way-

In a word-2020

Lucky You! It's The Hodgepodge

Luckily we are still Hodgepodging here on Wednesdays. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post. And be sure to leave a comment for the blogger lucky enough to be on the list before you. Here we go-

1. This week's Hodgepodge lands on St. Patrick's Day. Will you wear green? Eat corned beef and cabbage? Drink green beer? Have you ever been to Ireland? Is it on your travel 'bucket list'? 

I will wear green because why not? I like green, it's one of my favorite colors. I bought a small corned beef so will cook that along with the traditional sides of cabbage and red potatoes. No green beer for me as beer is not my beverage of choice. 

I have never been to Ireland which seems crazy because we lived in a neighboring country. Hubs has been a few times for work, but sadly I was never able to accompany him. It's definitely on my travel bucket list though. 

Are we still allowed to have travel bucket lists or does that seem like the impossible dream right now? 

2. Something you think is 'worth its weight in gold'? 

As much as I struggle with and rail against it I'm going to say technology. The ability to Facetime my daughter and grandsons half a world away is worth it's weight in gold. And even though I think we're all weary of dialing in to those Zoom calls, meetings, classes, and happy hours versus the real thing, this year would have been so much lonelier without our favorite familiar faces on a screen. 

3. Something that makes you 'green around the gills'? 

Boating. Standing for too long on a dock that rocks and rolls. Roller coasters that rock and roll. Rides that spin and spin and spin. Also planes, trains, and automobiles on winding roads. Sometimes straight roads too. 

I think  you get the picture. 

Yes we have a boat. And I fly and drive and do all the things, but I also take my dramamine, wear my 'bands' and have an escape plan for getting to solid ground whenever possible. I'm lots of fun-ha! 

4. What puts a 'spring in your step' these days? 

My people. We'll be seeing the newlyweds in person in just a few weeks and the South Korea crew returns stateside this summer. Just thinking about it puts a spring in my step. 

5. Write a limerick using one of the following as your theme....March, St. Patrick's Day, Covid, 2020 and/or 2021, the color green, or life lately. Yes, you can do it. 

An ode to the year that was...

There once was a virus so strange
Our lives it did rearrange
We sheltered in place
Wore a mask on our face 
And longed for the day things would change

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Because today calls for a splash of green-

Happy St. Patrick's Day Hodgepodgers...and all who read here too! 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 412

Here we go again (still???)...answer the questions on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to share answers with all your lucky readers. See you there!

1. This week's Hodgepodge lands on St. Patrick's Day. Will you wear green? Eat corned beef and cabbage? Drink green beer? Have you ever been to Ireland? Is it on your travel 'bucket list'? 

2. Something you think is 'worth its weight in gold'? 

3. Something that makes you 'green around the gills'? 

4. What puts a 'spring in your step' these days? 

5. Write a limerick using one of the following as your theme....March, St. Patrick's Day, Covid, 2020 and/or 2021, the color green, or life lately. Yes, you can do it. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

About Last Week

Just doing my usual here aka playing catch up. We've actually had a few things on our calendar which feels strange and fun and not quite normal, but let's say almost normal. 

My mother-in-law celebrated a birthday last week and we were able to surprise her by showing up for lunch on the actual day. We drove over to Tennessee the night before and had a great time catching up in person with hubs brother and sister-in-law. They live on a lake and we like to compare notes and landscaping plans and projects amongst other things. 

There's a restaurant in their nearby town we've been wanting to try and we finally had a chance to do just that. The Walnut Kitchen was started by a chef who came from Blackberry Farm, and let me state for the record Blackberry Farm is high on my list of places to someday spend a night or two. Anyway the original owner of the Walnut Kitchen has I think moved on, but the restaurant has retained his vision. We had a wonderful meal and it felt so good to be dining out. 

My mother-in-law was not expecting to see any of her family on her actual birthday and we'd all made excuses as a cover story. Her best friends told her they wanted to take her to lunch and she was so surprised to walk back to the table and find her oldest and youngest sons there to greet her. 

We were missing two of the sibs, but since Covid continues to wreak havoc on people's ability to move about if they have kids in school or in-person jobs they weren't able to join us. 

Still a real day brightener to at least have half of her crew sitting beside her. After lunch we went back to my brother-in-laws lake house and my mother-in-law came too for an enjoyable and relaxing afternoon of porch sitting and face to face conversation. We headed home Friday morning because we had company of our own coming for dinner on Saturday evening. 

No pictures of the people but I did make a key lime pie for dessert and snapped a picture of that. I served the pie on these pretty plates, a recent addition to my dish collection courtesy of my grandmother via my mother. Question-can a person have too many pretty dishes? Asking for a friend who is hoping the answer is no. 

And now here we are rolling in to a brand new week. I see the dentist first thing in the morning which feels like a very Monday thing to do. Tell me what fun thing you have planned that can top that?