A Sweet Kind of Hodgepodge…

 

Y’all, it feels like 110 degrees, outside, ( it’s actually only 96) so I’m relaxing with the Wednesday Hodgepodge, inside, with the air conditioning on the low 70’s!  As they sometimes say here in the south, “My mama didn’t raise a fool!”

With all that being said, in the absence of a pool, I’m going to dive right into today’s Hodgepodge!  Today’s meme is based on the theme of “sweet”.

If you’d like to join in the fun, simply click Joyce’s button at the top of this post!

1. The sweetness of summer…where have you found it recently? If you’re in the Southern hemisphere, feel free to tell us about the sweetness you’re finding in winter.

For the past two Saturdays I’ve found sweetness in spending time with the entire family and getting to see some place different!  Both weekends, our son, Brad, and his wife, Jennifer, graciously offered to host everyone at their home in the country. (It was the first time any of us had been there since they moved in.) 

The first weekend we celebrated the Fourth of July, and the second weekend we celebrated Brad’s thirty-fifth birthday.  Of course, in these days of covid 19, we celebrated outside, socially distanced, with many fans blowing on us, but it was very sweet, none-the-less.  The grand kids all had a great idea, and celebrated with a water sprinkler underneath Evan’s trampoline!  I can’t believe how big they’ve all gotten!

2. Take your sweet time, sweet tooth, home sweet home, short but sweet, the sweet smell of success, sweet talk…choose a sweet idiom and tell us how it fits your life currently?

I’ll have to say “home sweet home” since that’s where we’ve been for the majority of the past four and one-half months!  I can count, on one hand, the number of “outings” we’ve had!

3. Sweet as honey, sweet as sugar, or sweet as pie, which phrase do you use when a sweet phrase is called for? What’s the last sweet treat you indulged in?

I don’t think I really use any of these phrases, but I’ll choose “sweet as sugar”.

The last sweet treat I indulged in [yesterday] was strawberry shortcake.  I made one, and it was delicious!

4. First thing that comes to mind when you hear the word fidget?

I think of those silly little “fidget spinners” that were all the rage a few years back.  I have a red one that lights up, somewhere…

None of my children were fidgety, but Brad was what I always called “a diddler”.  He was always touching things.  Now Brad has a little “diddler” of his own, now.  Isn’t Evan cute with his two front teeth missing?

(photo borrowed from Jennifer’s FB page)

5. Share with us one of your favorite childhood travel memories.

Sometimes, during the summer, my parents would let me go to Jacksonville, Florida to spend a week with my brother and his wife, who were nine years older than me.  I think I may have been about ten or eleven when this summer tradition began.  I loved the feeling of “independence” and always enjoyed the activities that my sister-in-law planned for me. (It might have been a trip to the beach, shopping, or something as simple as playing a board game.)  I haven’t thought about those trips in a long time, but I have fond memories of those days!

Random:

As of this week, our vegetable canning season has ended. I can’t tell you how happy I am about that!  I also can’t tell you how horrified we were when one of our freezers broke in the middle of canning season!  Do you realize there are NO new freezers to buy, at this time?  (There are no swimming pools either, but I don’t want one of those anyway.)

Fortunately, we’d kept a very old freezer that had belonged to Ed’s parents.  We plugged it up and it still worked.  A major crisis was averted, at least for now.

In the meantime, we called a repairman to see if our 46 year-old, broken freezer could be repaired since there are no new freezers to buy, at this time.  It turned out to be a simple fix, but not really a cheap one. ($147)  So far, so good, the freezer’s doing its job. Would you believe we’ve been through FOUR new freezers during the life cycle of this little 46 year-old freezer.  Crazy, is it not?  They don’t make stuff like they used to!

 

 

A Star Spangled Hodgepodge…

I’m rolling into the second half of 2013 by joining The Hodgepodge, as usual.  Joyce has prepared another great set of questions, this week, some with a patriotic flair.  As always, you can join in, or simply read and compare answers by clicking the button at the top of my post.  By the way, I hope you have a safe and happy Fourth of July tomorrow!

1. What’s one simple small pleasure on your summer ‘to-do’ list?

Spending lots of quality time sittin’ under the oak trees, at St. Simon’s Island–with Ed, of course.  We’re up to 3 times, so far.

2. Do you have strong feelings or opinions regarding the immigration debate in your home country? Feel free to share your thoughts, but please play nice.

Yes, I have strong feelings and opinions regarding the immigration debate, but most are negative so I’ll spare y’all.  I will say that I don’t agree with doing the things that are being proposed!

3. What’s something in your home or wardrobe that could be described as ‘star spangled’?

My ‘year round’ tree.

4. Is your house set up for a party?

Probably not, but we’ve been known to host a few family parties.  The main rooms in our home are larger than most average homes, so we adequate space for our growing family. We also have a nice, shady yard, and we’re not above bringing out the folding tables and lawn chairs!  See what I mean?

Memorial Day cookout 

5. What one never-before-visited city in America, would you most like to see?

I don’t care a thing about gambling, but I’ve always thought it would be neat to see all the lights of Las Vegas.

6. Your favorite red food? White food? Blue food?

Red-strawberries, white-cake frosting, blue-blueberries–and I’d love to have one of these cakes, right about now!!!

7. What freedom do you value the most, and why?

I know some will say ‘freedom of speech’, (which I think we’ve partially lost already), while others will say ‘freedom of worship’, but I most value the right to keep and bear arms, because history tells me, if we ever lose this right, we’ve all had a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day!”

Random:  An Update on “Trouble and the Man With the Can:

Back Story: My husband, Ed, has been feeding his mom’s abandoned cats for the past seven months, because his mom currently resides in an assisted living facility, and our son & his wife, who previously lived in her house & fed the cats, have since moved away.

When I last wrote about my husband, Ed’s, feeding adventures with his mom’s abandoned cats, “Trouble”, a very old cat, had left my MIL’s house, and moved in with our oldest son and his family(again).  The mama cat and her three kittens remained at MIL’s house. For the past three weeks, Ed’s been feeding cats at two different houses!

Normally, “Trouble” is usually waiting for Ed, on the porch steps of our son’s house, each day.  She comes out to greet him whenever he stops.  For several days, “Trouble” disappeared, and we feared the worst.  Then one day, she was back, like nothing had ever happened!

Recently, the mama cat relocated her three kittens to our son’s house, too, however she went back to my MIL’s house–presumably to hang out with a large orange tomcat!  ( Uh oh! ) The kittens quickly made themselves at home, at our son’s house, but one of the three has since disappeared.

Last week, “Trouble” decided to move back to my MIL’s house--presumably to get away from those pesky kittens (again)! “Trouble” doesn’t like other cats, and doesn’t seem to mind relocating, in an effort to avoid them.  This makes  her fifth relocation!

Yesterday, Ed came home reporting that the two remaining kittens are back at his mom’s house, too, along with their mama, that orange tomcat, and “Trouble”!  We can’t help but wonder what”Trouble” will do next.  To be continued…