An ‘Inspiring’ Wednesday Hodgepodge…

I didn’t make it to last week’s Hodgepodge.  Lately, life just keeps getting in the way, with Valentine’s Day and all, but I’m joining today!  As always, many thanks to our great hostess, Joyce, for keeping things going.

Here are this week’s questions:

1. Where do you go when you need some inspiration?

Hmm… that would depend on the kind of inspiration I’m looking for.  If I’m looking spiritual inspiration, I’ll go to the Lord through prayer or bible reading.  If I’m looking for creative inspiration I’ll probably go to a book, magazine, or Google.  For most other kinds of inspiration, I prefer sitting and thinking [in my lawn chair] under the oak trees of St. Simon’s Island!

2. What’s under your bed?

Trust me, you really don’t want to know!  You might find everything from my mother’s antique mirror to plastic container filled with [Chatty Cathy] doll clothes.  You will even find a Pyrex dish & carrier still in its original box, because I don’t have any place else to store the thing.

3. Thursday, February 22nd is National Chili Day, National Margarita Day, and National Cook a Sweet Potato Day. Of the three which would you most like to celebrate? Is that likely?

I’d be most likely to celebrate National Chili Day, but I probably won’t because it’s 80 degrees here and it’s simply too hot to cook or eat chili!

4. What are you ‘snowed under’ with right now?

I’m not really ‘snowed under’ with much of anything, but Ed’s been ‘snowed under’ with lots of outside chores.  He’s been as busy as a bee– planting bulbs, cleaning up the yard, mowing grass, and getting our garden ready for planting.

5. Tell us three to five things that make you feel balanced?

Let’s see… (1) my relationship with the Lord, (2) my relationship with my husband, Ed, and (3) my relationship with our kids & their families make me feel balanced.  If any one of these things gets off track, I’m out of balance!  I could also add a good meal and a good night’s sleep to make me feel even more balanced!

Random:

Life goes on here in our neck of the woods…

Valentine’s Day came and went.  Ed and I celebrated by attending a couple’s “Date Night” at church.  It was fun, and Ed and I had the distinction of being married six years longer than any other couple there! (didn’t take a single picture)  We’ve gone from being one of the youngest couples of our former church to being one of the oldest couples of our new  church– and it truly is our church, because we officially joined just over a week ago!

Then we had a dual Valentine’s Day/birthday celebration, with family, two days after Valentine’s Day.  (It was our daughter-in-law’s birthday.) We ate lasagna, ice cream cake, and red velvet cupcakes!  Yum!  We also played a few Valentine’s Day themed games, which everyone seemed to enjoy.

the birthday girl and her family

You may recall our son-in-law was injured when his pants accidentally caught fire while helping Ed burn off a field.  It’s been 2 and 1/2 weeks since the accident, but he still has a lot of healing to do. Ed’s been helping him with his daily wound care.  So far, so good–no sign of infection.  Folks, it takes a long time to recover from a severe burn!  Our son may or may not have earned himself the nickname of “Smokey”.

In other news, Ed planted two rows of onions in our garden, last week.  The 80 degree days have been tough on them, but, hopefully, the onions will rally. (Onions prefer cold weather) We also planted about 100 seed cups, which have been busily sprouting.  80 degree weather makes seeds sprout quickly!  I moved two trays of the sprouts out to the greenhouse, today.  I’m dying to plant something else in the garden, but I know it’s still too early.  I’ll have to be patient.

A Love-ly Wednesday Hodgepodge…

Hello and welcome to my little corner of blog land.  I haven’t been here much, lately, but I make it a point to drop in on Wednesdays for The Hodgepodge.  As always, thanks to our gracious hostess, Joyce, for hosting, coming up with fun questions each week, and for helping me get ‘linked’ whenever my computer fails me.

Here are this week’s questions:

1. What’s the last thing you did that someone else thought was super?

Recently, as a school project, our oldest grandson wrote a “thank you” letter to Ed and me, thanking us for the Christmas gift we gave him.  In turn, I mailed him a “grandson” post card.  I haven’t talked with him about it because they’ve all been sick, but most kids love to get mail, so I hope he thought it was “super”.

2. The last thing you ate that tasted superb?

Those steaks Ed cooked on the grill, last week!  I don’t think they could’ve been any better.

3. Supersensitive, superstitious, superwoman, superambitious, supercilious, supervisor, superficial…pick a super word from the list and tell us how it relates to your life in some way recently or currently.

Every day Ed asks me the same question, “Do you have anything you want me to do, today?”  This makes me feel a bit like a supervisor, whether I want to be or not.

4. Do you love easily? If you’re comfortable doing so, explain why you think that is.

Yes, I do love easily, but it’s showing my love that I’ve often had difficulty with.  I think this goes back to my childhood and the way I was raised (two parents with lots of problems, doesn’t always equal a loving environment).  I’ve always admired people who kiss, hug, and just show their love for each other so easily.  A couple of things have happened, in recent years, that have helped me in this department, so I’m better than I used to be, but not as good as I’d like to be at showing my love.

5. Valentine’s Day lands on a Tuesday this year. Will you mark the day in some way? If you’re celebrating with a dinner out somewhere will it be on Tuesday or will you celebrate over the weekend?

Yes, we will celebrate the day in some way, but I’m not sure how, yet.  Usually, I bake Ed a heart-shaped German Chocolate cake, and he gives me a gift of some sort. Sometimes flowers, sometimes candy, or sometimes it’s something I’ve been wanting.  I doubt we’ll be eating out over the weekend or on Valentine’s Day, depending on how my face looks following Thursday’s eye surgery.

6. What’s something you are loving right now?

These warm, sunny days with temperatures in the 70’s are hard not to love!

7 Write a three word (or less) phrase you’d like to see on a Valentine candy heart.

Love is kind. (the world could use a little more kindness, right about now)

Random:

My mind is blank, today.  All I can think about is getting tomorrow’s eye surgery behind me, and moving on to better things. I have to report at 10:45.  Your prayers would certainly be appreciated.

 

Friday Fragments…

I can’t believe another week has come and gone!  These days, it feels like someone has pressed the fast-forward button on life.  I wish things would slow down just a bit.

Since I’ve been MIA for most of the week,  I’ll attempt to ‘catch up’ through Friday Fragments.  I’m linking my fragments up with Mrs. 4-4-4-4 over at halfpastkissintime.

Valentine’s Day– What a day that turned out to be!  I made three trips to town before lunch, that day.  Each trip was fifteen miles round trip!  After the second trip, I proceeded into the kitchen, to bake Ed’s Valentine’s Day cake.  It was then I discovered that I was missing a main ingredient for the cake–after I’d just gotten home from the grocery store!  Believe it or not, I managed to make the third trip to town, and had the cake finished before Ed arrived home at four.

Valentine’s Day Cards- When Ed and I exchanged cards, this year, we discovered our cards carried similar messages.  I guess we’ve been living together so long, we’ve begun to have similar thought patterns.

Great Weather- I can’t begin to tell you how beautiful the weather has been, this week!  Warm temperatures (70’s) and lots of sunshine.  Unfortunately, it’s now coming to an end, but I must keep reminding myself it’s still winter.  It’s supposed to rain today, then turn cooler.

Gardening Fever- Nothing brings on ‘gardening fever’ faster than sunshine and 70 degree temperatures!   Ed and I actually planted some onions, Irish potatoes, carrots, and garden peas in our garden, this week.  I have tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, and peppers growing in Styrofoam cups.  They’ll be transplanted after the danger of frost has passed.

Out-of-shape- Ed and I quickly realized how ‘sorry’ we’ve both gotten during the winter.  Our first day of yard work had both of us quickly searching for a place to rest.  Each day has gotten a little better, but we still have a way to go!  Who needs a gym?  Just grab a shovel, rake, or a hoe!  Hopefully, we’ll both be ‘fit as a fiddle’ in another month or so.

Spring Cleaning- Nothing gives me ‘spring cleaning fever’ quicker than sunshine and warm temperatures!  I spent one entire morning doing some spring cleaning, this week.  I sat on the floor and actually cleaned around the handles of the dresser with Q tips!  How crazy is that?!  It’s amazing how much dust I collected, but nobody will ever know, except me.

Fugitives- One of the two men who escaped from our county jail, a month ago, was captured this week, but the other still remains at large.  He’s the same guy who committed several robberies, and caused that massive man hunt, a year ago, in my neck of the woods.  I think we should start calling this guy ‘Houdini’!   Houdini’s buddy was caught in Texas, and we live in southeastern Georgia.  Now there’s a $2500 reward for information leading to the capture of ‘Houdini’.

Got eggs?- The spring-like temperatures and warmer days have spurred ‘the girls’ to increase their egg production again.  They’ve been on a winter hiatus, producing only one egg a day.  I actually had to buy eggs to make Ed’s Valentine’s Day cake!  I can’t complain though, since those five hens have produced almost 2000 eggs, in less than two years.  Our son, Brad, sent me this cartoon the other day:

And I think I’ll end this session of Friday Fragments on that note!   Have a great weekend, everybody.  It’ll be Monday, again, before we know it…

A ‘Sweetheart’ of a Hodgepodge…

1.What makes love last?

I give all of the credit to God, for making love last, because He blessed me with a spouse who has always been very easy to love!  Still,  keeping love alive takes some work. Selflessness, the ability to overlook each other’s shortcomings, forgiveness, and a firm commitment to each other are a must.

2. The Beatles made their US debut fifty years ago this week. Are you a fan? If so, what’s your favorite Beatles tune?

Yes, I’ve been a Beatles fan ever since they made their debut on the Ed Sullivan Show.  I especially love their early music, but don’t care for their later music quite as much.  My favorite two favorite Beatles tunes are:

P.S. I Love You

and

If I Fell In Love With You

3. Valentine’s Day-your thoughts? Do you celebrate in any way? Do anything special for the people you love? Expect anything special from the people who love you?

Valentine’s Day has become over commercialized, just like everything else.  Ed and I don’t ‘celebrate’,  as in ‘go out’, but we do exchange cards.  Ed always gives me flowers, candy, or some other gift on or around Valentine’s Day.  The past few years, I’ve baked him a heart-shaped German Chocolate cake because that’s his favorite dessert.

In years past, I’d buy each of our three children a box of candy or a stuffed animal for Valentine’s Day.  These days, it’s our grandchildren who get the gifts!

As for receiving gifts from people who love us, Ed and I have been the recipients of several hand-crafted Valentine’s Day cards or  hand-made gifts from our grandchildren.  Those are always special, and I currently have a couple of those things on display.

4. Steak or burger…you have to choose. Now that that’s settled, how do you like it?

Steak! Cooked well-done, with some ketchup or A-1 steak sauce to go along with it!

5. The Hodgepodge lands on the birthdate (February 12th) of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States of America. Lincoln is quoted as saying,‘Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test his character give him power.‘  Do you agree? Why or why not?

I agree with Lincoln’s statement.  For some reason, power tends to ‘go to a person’s head’, and often leads to corruption.  Case in point: Lawyers and politicians!

6. Honest Abe’s image is featured on the US penny (1 cent coin) so I’m wondering…what do you do with your pennies (or your country’s equivalent)?  It’s been suggested the US stop making the penny, and two bills have been introduced proposing just that, but neither were approved. What say you?

I usually spend my pennies, while Ed, on the other hand, saves his.  Much to my dismay, we have several large jugs, filled with pennies, sitting around our house!  Jugs of pennies aren’t worth much, and they take up a lot of space.  They, also, collect dust.

As for getting rid of the penny, well, for sure, we can’t buy anything with a penny anymore!  However, if they stop making pennies, the government will just round the sales tax up to a dime on the dollar, so we’ll end up paying even more taxes!  Let’s just keep the penny.  I think we’re taxed enough!

7.  Do you think pop culture deserves serious study?

No, not really.  I don’t think pop culture really matters in the overall, big scheme of life. That time and money could be better spent!

Random:

Sadly, I’ve neglected my sister blog, “Mimi’s Mini Tales” for far too long.  I’ve finally gotten myself together, and written a ‘catch up’ post over there.

They say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I captured some grandchildren highlights, of the past ten months, in pictures.  Here they are, if anyone is interested:

Beginning The Week With A Quiz…

Hello there!   As usual, I’m beginning my week with ‘The Monday Quiz’, over at Acting Balanced. Who doesn’t love a quiz, first thing on Monday morning, right?  At least we should know the correct answers to this quiz, since this quiz is all about us!

1. Happy February! It’s Canned Food Month… who knew? Do you can your own foods? Do you eat canned foods?

So far, I’ve learned how to ‘can’ tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, pears, and beef stew in Mason jars, and I enjoy doing it.  For now, I usually put the rest of our ‘canned’ vegetables in our freezer.  Since we began growing our own garden, again, I’ve been doing some ‘canning’ during the summers.  We do have some actual cans of food in the pantry, as well.  Pork & beans, tuna, mixed vegetables, and fruit cocktail are a few of the canned foods I buy and use on a regular basis.

2. February 3rd is also the day the music died – Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash in 1959. – what other great musicians would you like to honor today?

Well, if we’re talking great musicians who have passed away, I’d add Roy Orbison to my list, and, of course, Elvis.  I liked Jim Croce, as well.  All three men had a unique sound.

3. Do you listen to the radio? Internet radio?

Occasionally, I’ll listen to the radio in my car, along with all of the commercials and talking, but when I’m at home, I listen to satellite music via Dish Network because it’s nice not to have to listen to all of the talking!

4. Both Wiarton Willie (Canada) and Puxotawny Phil (US) saw their shadows and predict six more weeks of winter – do you agree?

Of course, I agree!  Who am I to disagree with Puxotawny Phil?  I don’t know how everyone else feels, but spring can’t get here soon enough, this year!

The weekend recap:

Friday morning began as another cold and cloudy day, but by lunchtime, the sun found its way through the clouds and the afternoon warmed up nicely.  I spent part of the afternoon at the dentist, getting my teeth cleaned, but, thankfully, I didn’t have any dental problems!  Ed came home from work and jumped on his tractor.  We thought we were over the cold, gloomy weather for a while.

Imagine our surprise, when we woke up to rain on Saturday!  For the third weekend in a row, Ed didn’t get to burn the field off.  He wasn’t a happy camper!

Our Saturday got even more gloomy when we received a call telling us that Micah, the son of Ed’s former co-worker, had lost his battle with lymphoma.  A little over a year ago, Angie, had given up her position as a Nuclear Medicine tech, to devote all of her time to her son, after learning that son, Micah, had a rare, and aggressive form of lymphoma.  Cancer is always bad, and death is always sad, but it’s always the worst whenever it involves a child.  Micah recently celebrated only his seventh birthday. Our hearts go out to Micah’s family.

On Sunday, Ed and I decided to venture into the city to see our son, Brad, who was home babysitting Evan while Jennifer pulled a weekend shift at work.  It had been two weeks since we’d seen Evan, and boy had he grown and changed a lot during that time!   It took Evan a few minutes to warm up to us, but once he did, he cooed and smiled a lot, and of course, I enjoyed every minute of it!

Go Team Bacon!

I am so proud of Brad.  He’s a ‘hands on’ dad, who can bathe, feed, and diaper little Evan like a pro!  (Brad reminds me so much of the way Ed was, when our babies were small.)  Evan’s a lucky little fellow, to have Brad for his dad.  I’ve discovered that one of the best rewards of growing older (besides grandchildren) is getting to watch my three children grow up and become good parents.  Ed and I have been triple blessed!

Ed and I stopped by Wal-mart, Home Depot, Little Caesar’s, and the Dollar Store, on the way home from Brad’s house.  Wal-mart was absolutely CRAZY, and we couldn’t out of there fast enough!  Enough said about that.

We noticed Home Depot had just gotten in a new shipment of trees, so we decided to stop and check them out.  I found an Eastern Red bud tree, so Ed bought it for me, to replace ours, which died late last summer.  Ed said the tree could be my early Valentine’s Day gift, and I suppose that’s appropriate since its leaves are heart-shaped!  It was a rather large tree, and just barely fit into my car, which made for an interesting ride home!  There’s nothing quite like riding home with the top of a tree stuck in between the front bucket seats!

After we got back home, Ed planted the ‘Valentine’s Day tree’, then we ended the weekend by dusting ‘the girls’ (aka the hens) for mites again, along with eating pizza and watching the Superbowl game. Unfortunately, we enjoyed the game about as much as ‘the girls’ enjoyed being dusted for mites 😦    

The Superbowl game was definitely not an enjoyable one!   The commercials were only ‘so-so’ and I think they saved most of the best ones for last.  My favorites were Budweiser’s ‘Best Buds’ commercial (the puppy and the Clydesdales), and the Doritos commercial (with the little cowgirl riding the dog).  I liked nothing about the game, especially the score.

Well, that’s my weekend.  So how was yours?

How Sweet It Is To Be Loved…

Don’t you just love how there is at least one song for every possible situation in life–and you usually don’t have to search long to find it, thanks to Google.  Recently, I was making (another) video montage of our family.  This one in honor of Valentine’s Day!  I didn’t have to think very long before I thought of the perfect theme song for it–which also happens to be the title of this post!

As I was creating my video montage, I began to ponder, Is there anything sweeter in  life than loving and being loved?  I didn’t have to ponder long before I knew my answer…  I wouldn’t trade having all the gold and riches in the world for the honor of loving and being loved!

I still remember how I felt, all those years ago, when Ed and I met and fell in love.  We may be older, with a lot of miles on us, but our love for each other is just as strong and true as it was forty-two years ago!  In addition, the truly amazing thing is, who knew that forty-something years later, we’d be surrounded by so many loved ones who have made our lives so much sweeter over the years?

Six years after our marriage, Ed and I were blessed with a new love–in the form of an eight pound baby daughter.  We loved her and nurtured her, and she in turn, loved us back.  Over the next seven years, Ed and I were blessed with two more bundles of love, otherwise known as our sons.  With those three wonderful additions, Ed and I became so much more than just husband and wife–we became a family!

We all lived happily together in our little circle of family  love, until one day Ed and I blinked our eyes, and discovered that our children had grown up!  Before long, Ed was walking our daughter down the aisle, and giving her away to another man.  But we didn’t lose our daughter, we gained another son, in the form of a “son-in-law”.

With that wedding, we learned how to open our family circle of love, and include others.  Over the next ten years, Ed would make two more trips down the aisle, to serve as Best Man at both of our son’s weddings.  Twice more, our family circle opened wider to include new daughters.

For a long time, Ed and I had no idea that the sweetest additions were yet to arrive in our family.  You know, those little bundles of joy that you can love, spoil rotten, then send home with their parents–otherwise known as grandchildren!  We opened our family circle just a little bit wider, and it didn’t take us long to figure out that we loved being grandparents!  Our first grandchild arrived just over five years ago, with two more following!

For now, our circle of love has been enlarged by three  precious grandchildren–one girl, and two little boys.  Just the same as it was so many years ago when Ed and I were raising our little family!  Each addition to our family has been a blessing, and we treasure them all, whether they married into or were born into our family.

How sweet it is to love and be loved!  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Imagine My Surprise…

Last Friday morning began pretty much just like any other day.  I got out of bed, took my Synthroid (thyroid medication), and turned on my computer.  As usual, I didn’t have a blog post prepared, so I sat down in front of the computer and began to write. I decided to write about some of my Valentine’s Day memories.  I titled the post, “Valentine’s Day Revisited”.  I finished my post within a couple of hours, hit the publish button, then left the computer to do other things.  I was away from my computer for quite a while…

Imagine my surprise when I returned to my computer later in the day and found comments from people–lots and lots of people!  I was still trying to figure out how all of these people found my blog, when I finally read a comment which said “Congratulations on being freshly pressed!”

I quickly clicked over to wordpress.com, and sure enough–there was my Friday morning blog post, featured on their “Freshly Pressed” page, under the heading which read, “The best of 470,540 bloggers, 771, 857 new posts, 909,777 comments, and 144,741,224 words posted today on Word Press.com” !  I couldn’t believe my eyes!

I quickly grabbed my camera and took a picture!  I wanted to capture my 30 seconds of fame!  (Of course, later in the evening my son reminded me that I could just save the screen shot, and we did!)  Silly me!  I’m going to show you my picture anyway.  My post is the one in red with the box of Valentine’s Day candy.

After taking about a dozen pictures of my computer screen, I immediately sat down and emailed my husband with the news.  I just had to share my exciting news with someone!  Ed rarely reads my blog, but I knew he would be excited for me, and he was.

Imagine my surprise, as I discovered several interesting things happen when your blog gets featured on the Word Press home page!  First of all, your blog gets visited–a lot!

I still  remember starting my little blog about three years ago, and being absolutely thrilled when I finally had twelve visitors in one day!  I’m still thrilled with my twelve visitors, plus a few more, so you can imagine my surprise when I looked at my stats and saw this–

I know the image isn’t very big, but if you look close, you can barely see those very low columns across the bottom of the graph, followed by three  tall columns at the right of the graph. Those low columns represent my usual visitor stats of around 100 per day, while the tall columns represent my visitor stats for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. My little blog had a total of over 6,200 visitors over the weekend!  All I could say was, “Wow”!

Imagine my surprise, when I noticed the huge increase in comments, too!  I normally average getting five or six comments per post. I have received over 100 comments on that featured post!  All of the comments were very sweet.  A few of the comments were odd– but still sweet.  Every comment is very much appreciated, and thanks to all who took the time to leave one!

Thank you, Word Press, for featuring my little Valentine’s Day post on your “Freshly Pressed” page! I don’t know how or why I was chosen, but I’m honored and absolutely thrilled to have been featured!  One thing’s for sure, I’ll never forget this early Valentine’s Day surprise!

Valentine’s Days Revisited…

It’s almost here, folks–that over-commercialized holiday called, Valentine’s Day!  I knew it was “officially” almost here when I began seeing the commercials for “Hoodie Footies” and “Vermont Teddy Bears”…  I wonder how many women will receive those pajamas with a hood and feet?!  How unromantic!  I personally overheard Jennifer telling Brad that he better never buy her any of those!  

 

As for me, I could go for that HUGE Vermont Teddy Bear, but I already have a HUGE one sitting in the bedroom.  He takes up an entire chair, or half of the bed–depending on where he is sitting!  It wasn’t a gift from Ed, but from myself, one Valentine’s Day.  Yes, I actually bought myself a teddy bear–because I loved him when I saw him…I’m funny like that sometimes.  I came home with it riding in the back of my PT Cruiser, about five years ago!

I still remember Valentine’s Day as a child.  I loved addressing those cards, and I loved opening the envelopes containing the funny little valentines.  Back in my day, valentines actually still came with little white envelopes!  I don’t like these new valentines that fold and have a sticker holding them closed.  Has anybody else noticed that the stickers DON”T STAY STUCK?

Ed and I were married before we ever got to spend a Valentine’s Day together.  It never worked out for him to be around on that particular day.  I don’t remember my first Valentine’s Day gift from him, but it was probably a box of candy, because that was what people gave in those days–before Valentine’s Day became so commercialized.

My daddy always gave mama a box of candy, and Ed’s daddy gave his wife the same.   I remember Ed’s mama’s was always one of the lacy, frilly boxes of candy.  Now that I’m thinking back, I think I remember Ed’s parents buying me a box of candy one Valentine’s Day while he was overseas.  They did a lot of sweet things like that.

I remember getting my first flowers from Ed, for Valentine’s Day in 1974.  Ed didn’t like to spend money on flowers, and had never bought me any before.  That year, I strongly hinted that I would love to receive a bouquet of flowers…  Ed and I were both working at the same hospital, in the radiology department, at the time, and he had the flowers delivered to the little office where I worked.  I was absolutely thrilled!

I remember Valentine’s Days with each of our three children, while they were growing up.  Sitting there at the table with them while they addressed their valentines for school…then later, sitting and watching them enjoying the valentines they’d received!  Of course,  I enjoyed giving them little Valentine’s Day surprises from Ed and me, too…(sorry no photos handy)

Flash forward many years, past the raising of our three children, and I was working at school–in the first grade.  Valentine’s Day is a BIG DEAL to first graders!  We would spend days making Valentine’s Day decorations for the classroom, then finally we decorated those little white Valentine’s Day bags to hold our (yes, I had one, too) valentines.  A day or two before Valentine’s Day, the students would bring their cards to school, then carefully drop them in to each other’s bags.  It was so much fun to watch!  On Valentine’s Day the students could hardly wait to tear into those cards, and the level of excitement equaled that of Christmas time!  As for me, I always came home with a bag full of sweet valentines, and usually a few gifts, too.

It was while I was working at school that I realized just how commercialized Valentine’s Day had become!  I can’t begin to tell you how many “gifts” are delivered to school for the students for Valentine’s Day!  It’s way past the point of ridiculous.  It’s more than enough to keep several adults rolling several carts filled with flowers and stuffed animals, and making deliveries ALL DAY LONG!

What ever happened to exchanging sweet cards and giving boxes of chocolates–and just enjoying the simple pleasures of life?  Everything has gotten way too complicated, don’t you think?  Wishing everyone an uncomplicated weekend, filled with life’s many sweet simple pleasures!

Not Me Monday…The Day After!

Happy Monday everyone! Time to begin the week with a few “not me” moments from the weekend.  If you enjoy my post, hop on over to Mckmama’s blog hop at http://www.mycharmingkids.net and join in the fun.

We did not begin our Valentine’s Day weekend here in southeastern Georgia with snow!  On Friday evening it did not look like a blizzard outside because the snow was falling so hard.  We hadn’t seen snow in these parts in 20 years!  My grown sons and son-in-law did not play outside in the dark–in the snow–for nearly two hours!  They did not remind me of little boys.

Brandy and Brett posing with the "Southern Snowman"

On the Saturday before Valentine’s Day, I did not send my husband out into the wild frenzy of Wal-mart shoppers to do some grocery shopping for me…I would never do that, especially since he brought roses to me on Friday–to “avoid the crowd”…I would never do that!

While my husband was fighting the frenzy at  Wal-mart, I was at home baking and decorating Valentine’s Day cupcakes with my daughter, Brandy, and granddaughter, Madison.   Brandy did not volunteer her husband to go with my husband to Wal-mart…to get him out-of-the-way…

By the time my husband returned from fighting the shoppers at Wal-mart, I was tired from all the baking– since I haven’t been feeling well lately…He offered to take me out to eat, but I did not tell him that I’d rather just lay on the couch!  My sweet husband then went into the kitchen and made a supper of spaghetti and french bread for us…I am so blessed…

I volunteered to cook lunch for our entire family on Valentine’s Day, so I decided to skip church and cook. The last time I cooked, then went to church, I could barely hold my eyes open… My daughter came home from church to tell me that the entire family was on our “family pew” except for hubby and me.  Ahhh…I did not feel guilty.

the girls enjoying some humor during lunch

My youngest son, Brad, and his new girlfriend did not have the most interesting Valentine’s Day story about their gifts to each other…She gave him a box of candy–which he accidentally dropped and spilled outside in the dirt…she also gave him a Georgia Bulldog mug, which they kicked off the table and broke during some “horseplay”!  He  gave her some chocolates, which she left in the car during church–and returned to the car to find them melted…I hope this is not an omen….

After our family enjoyed a Valentine’s Day meal of baked ham with all the trimmings–including a heart-shaped ice cream cake, we retired to the living room to play the Newlywed Game.  When the game ended,  Brad and Jennifer came in only 3  points behind Ed and me…Pretty impressive!  A couple of 4 months versus a couple of nearly 38 years–either they were very good, or Ed and I are pretty bad…

grandkids opening Valentine's Day gifts...

Being the southern, a bit “red-necky” family that we are…we did not settle down to watch the Daytona 500 Nascar race for entertainment!  The race was not stopped with 78 laps still left to go…because there was a pot hole in the track!  Give me a break!!!  After only an hour and a half delay to repair the hole in the asphalt, the race resumed.  By then, everyone had lost interest, and gone home.  As for me?  I stretched out on the couch and took a nap…complete with snoring… I never snore, not me!

It was not the best Valentine’s Day weekend that I’ve ever had…one that I will never forget!  Have a great Monday everyone!  

***Now to announce the winner of the weekend giveaway….the winner is Tabitha!  Tabitha was commenter # 14–the winning number chosen.  Congratulations, Tabitha, and thanks to everyone for visiting and leaving a comment.  Your prize will be in the mail as soon as I get your address!  There will be a new giveaway on Friday…

Six Word Saturday

Welcome to Six Word Saturday…The meme that requires that we describe our life–or something in just six words.  This meme is hosted by Cate over athttp://www.showmyface, and it’s fun.  Hop on over and give it a try!

My six words for this Saturday are:  Will Never Forget This Valentine’s Day!

I’ve posted all week about romance and Valentine’s Day…I’ve had some good Valentine’s Days, and a bad one…check out the post prior to this one for details…However, I’ve never received a Valentine written in the snow before…Check this out:

My hubby wrote this Valentine in the snow and photographed it

Isn’t that sweet?  It’s been over 20 years since it snowed here in Georgia, so there is a good chance this is the only snow Valentine I will ever receive.  It may possibly be the last snow that I ever get to experience.  What a wonderful way to remember the snow…and this Valentine’s Day.  By the way, my hubby also brought me these yesterday:

these roses are just as red as they look in the picture

I am truly blessed…Happy Valentine’s Day everyone.  Have a great weekend!  Oh!  There is a giveaway going on this weekend..Bath and Body Works  cream and lotions–3 different kinds.  Just leave a comment telling me if you’d like to enter.