Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Wednesday HodgePodge ON WEDNESDAY!!

I actually wrote myself a note - line item on "to do" list - do Wednesday HodgePodge!!

1. What does retirement mean to you? Are you planning for it, not thinking about it, looking forward to it, or dreading it?
Retirement is for old people . . .sort of kidding.   I’m 57 and I don’t feel old.  I love my job so I don’t think I’ll retire until they make me leave.  We are planning for it financially.  I guess I should say that we are trying to plan for it!!  I was a stay-at-home mom for a lot of years (in between first career and second career).  I love crafting, etc. so I think I will enjoy that and will enjoy keeping grandbaby(ies) some . . .but I LOVE people so I will have to do something to keep busy.  Mark is five years closer to retirement than I am.  I think he is looking forward to more fishing and being outdoors more.

2. It's International Guitar Month...do you play? Does anyone in your family play? What's a song you especially like to hear played on the guitar or a favorite song featuring the guitar?
I just told someone this story yesterday – TRUE story!  When I turned 40, my “mid-life crisis” was to purchase a guitar and to take lessons.  I learned to play “Ode to Joy” and a couple of other tunes.  I took lessons long enough to have calluses on my fingers.  I did not take lessons long enough to learn to play.  Another interesting fact is that my teacher was one of the original Three on a String band members – Mark Weldon.

3. What's your comfort food?  Food is my comfort.  Did I just type that?  I did, didn’t I?  Yeah – I’m one of those people who eats for all the wrong reasons and it shows.

4. What's one activity or area of your life where you absolutely never procrastinate? I don’t procrastinate with work.  If someone needs something done, I’m ready to go.  At home, I do the laundry, empty the dishwasher, make the bed, etc. on a timely schedule.  Sometimes at night, if I’m tired, I’ll sit in the recliner and say “when the next commercial comes on, I’m going to get up and empty the dishwasher or do some other chore.”  I guess that counts as procrastinating.  I sometimes procrastinate doing things I love, like crafty things, because I think I don’t have the time to really get into it – say for example, my Holy Land pictures.  I really want to organize them and write about them . . .but it is sort of overwhelming.  I guess I need to take a few days of vacation and just stay home and do “stuff.”

5. Who does the grocery shopping in your house? Does your local store bag the groceries for you or is it a do-it-yourself kind of place? Do you like someone packing your groceries?  I do 99% of the grocery shopping at our house.  Mark buys the beer (is that 1%?).  I buy a LARGE quantity of groceries every week because we feed about 20 young adults every Tuesday night.  I buy lots of groceries at Walmart because of the savings.  I love shopping at Publix (but they are higher); I enjoy shopping at Target, too, but they don’t always have the best selection.  Walmart and Target bag the groceries.  Publix not only bags the groceries but will take them to your car!

6. What's the coolest thing you've seen in nature?  Another TRUE story.  Not sure if this qualifies as the coolest thing but it is funny.  My mom died when I was 15 years old.  My dad used to like to go for a Sunday afternoon drive.  One Sunday, we were driving out in the country, and there were cows in the field.  Two of the cows were mating.  Now remember – I was 15 years old and should have known these things . . . .but I evidently didn’t.  I saw those cows and said to my dad, “Daddy, look at those cows.  What in the world are they doing?”  This was back in the day when dads didn’t talk too much to their daughters about the facts of life.  He rode along in silence for a while and then said, “I guess those cows like to have fun just like everyone else.”  It was several years later before I realized what he meant!! 
I hate spiders but I love to see a really cool spider web – especially one where the son is shining on it and there is a little bit of dew clinging to the gossamer threads.  They are incredibly intricate.

Oh my gosh – I can’t believe I forgot this.  The coolest thing I’ve seen in nature was just last week.  I was cleaning out my office and rearranging furniture.  We have the classic church mice in our building and I found a complete mouse skeleton under a piece of furniture.  This looks like a dinosaur!  It was pretty cool – after I screamed!!



7. Share a favorite quote about home.  Katie Fox, one of our favorite young adults, gave us a wooden sign with these words painted, “What I love most about my home, is who I share it with.”  In our case, this is so true.  We love to have friends over.  We love having the young adults in our home every week.  (sign is very similar to the one below)



8. Insert your own random thought here.  We went to Auburn last weekend to see our daughter.  We drove over to Opelika to eat lunch.  They have refurbished their downtown area and it is really cool.  They have a brewery and a distillery which we intend to go back and tour.  We ate lunch at a restaurant and the service was some of the worst I have ever experienced.  I actually wrote a horrible review on a travel site.  I stated that I hated writing the review because I love to support LOCAL!!  I want local places to be good; to serve good food; to have great customer service.  Do you like to support local businesses or do you prefer chains?

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