Musings of a Middle-Aged Mom
Friday, April 26, 2024
After the Fire House Tour
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
It's a Hodgepodge Kind of Day
I'm joining up with Joyce and friends for Wednesday Hodgepodge.
1. When did you last have cancelled plans? Were you happy
about that or disappointed?
Our last cancelled plans were back in March and we were
supposed to go out to dinner, but our daughter was in the hospital with
pre-eclampsia so we had to cancel. I had mixed emotions. I was glad I could go
to be with our daughter.
2. On a scale of 1-10 how much of a planner are you?
1= I go where the
wind takes me
10=I've got a power
point on it, no matter what it is
I don’t have a power point on it . . .BUT I do have a
detailed list where I can mark things off as I do them and I have lots of Excel
spreadsheets!!
3. Do you have a menu plan for the week? If so tell us one
or two things that are on it. If not, what's your plan for not having a plan
lol?
I love to meal plan, but it hasn’t been happening much
lately. On Sundays, we eat a big lunch at Mark’s mother’s house. Some weeks
Mark and I provide the entrée and some weeks one of my sister-in-law’s provides
it. We just eat something light for dinner on Sunday nights. On Mondays, Mark
is at his mother’s, so I usually grab a salad to eat and study while I eat. On
Tuesdays, we host the young adults, so I have whatever we are serving them (I
cook for 15-20 folks). On Wednesdays, I work until six and our church chef
prepares dinner for purchase by our families, and I usually order a dinner for
Mark and me. That leaves Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. We usually eat
out at least one of those nights. The other two nights might include some
cooking, or they might include a Lean Cuisine.
4. The Hodgepodge lands on National Bucket List Day. Do you
have a bucket list? Is it written down or just in your head? What is one thing
on your bucket list? If you don't have a list, what is one thing you'd add to a
list if you did? Yes, I'm going to make you think about it.
I don’t have a Bucket List written down (which is crazy
since I love lists!!) but there are several things I definitely want to do. I
want to go up in a hot air balloon. I thought the hot air balloon was getting
marked off this year, but that portion of our trip was cancelled (trip is in
October). I want to ride a zip line. Is it called “riding”? I actually said
something about this on Saturday night. I think my daughter-in-law wants to do
it, too. Mark and I want to travel more – we want to go to Denmark, Norway,
Sweden, and I want to see the Northern Lights in Iceland. We want to go to
Scotland.
5. Rain buckets, a drop in the bucket, couldn't carry a tune
in a bucket, sweat buckets, cry buckets...which 'bucket' idiom applies to your
life in some way currently?
I’m going with cry bucket. Our newest baby granddaughter
is having a tough time and her mommy says she cries a lot – as in all the time
if she isn’t being held . . . and sometimes even when being held. They are
adjusting formula and adding some tummy meds. I could choose sweat bucket because
we are getting ready to move into summer here in Alabama and we sweat buckets
around here at times.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
I mentioned here that a local magazine might
contact us. They have contacted us and they are sending a reporter and a photographer to our
house on Friday. It is a “town” magazine so not a huge publication, but it is
still cool.
Monday, April 22, 2024
A Simple Weekend In Review
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Sunday Stealing Gives Me a Feeling!
It must be Sunday because I'm answering the Sunday Stealing questions from "How Far Will you Go" stolen by our fearless leader, Bev!
1. What was the best toy you ever owned? Wow! I had a monkey when I was a pre-schooler and he had a tiny banana in his hand . . .and I chewed that banana up! I loved that monkey. When I was a little bigger, I learned to ride a bike and we rode bikes all of the time all over the neighborhood. I even had a calico cat, Missy, who loved to ride in the basket on my bike. As an adult, my toys are more sophisticated. I love my Apple Watch and I love my Silhouette.
2. When in your life have you felt the
loneliest? I worked at AT&T before our children were born. They were born at 34 weeks and I had been put on bed rest two weeks or so prior to their birth. They were born on November 18 and beginning in December through February of that year, I lived through some of my loneliest days. I had two preemies who had to eat every 1 1/2 hours, my father-in-law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer so Mark was trying to be in both places, and I had not cultivated new friendships.
3. What is your strongest emotion? I want to say joy, but I think my personal strongest emotion is probably anger. Wow - that sounds really bad. Also, I'm not sure I'm reading this question correctly nor answering it correctly.
4. When were you the most disappointed in
yourself? I'm a number one on the Enneagram so I have an inner voice telling me what I've done wrong all of the time . . .so I probably disappoint myself on a daily basis.
5. Which law would you most like to change? I'm going to answer this one in a silly way - not with a deep answer. Could we please change speed limit laws? I've talked about this before. I need those speed limits to be suggestions :-). I also need those driving below the speed limit to get a ticket :-).
6. Who is the person you have hated the most in
your lifetime? I can't answer that on my blog. Let me just say that it took learning that hating someone only hurts me. The other person could care less. This person that I'm thinking about did something really bad. I don't hate easily because I actually believe in lots of love and grace.
7. What has disappointed you the most? Probably myself -- see #4. Actually, my former brother-in-law disappointed me a lot. He had an affair and left my sister after 30+ years of marriage. I had always thought he was a man of integrity. He actually walked me down the aisle when Mark and I married. We were close. I was very disappointed in him and his actions.
8. What's the best possible attitude toward
death? Love and live while we are alive so that we have little to no regrets when we die. As a Christian, I believe that I will be with Jesus when I die, so that sounds pretty good.
9. What's been the longest day in your life? Recently, the longest day of our lives was the day our newest granddaughter was born. It was a rough day.
10. What is the biggest coincidence in your life? I don't have that many relatives and a year or so a lady joined our church and it turns out that our grandmothers were sisters! Pretty cool! I'm sure this isn't the biggest coincidence, but it is all I can think of today!
11. What's the oldest you'd like to live? My mother-in-law is in her late 90's and has lost most of her memory. I want to live a long and healthy life - both physically and mentally. I don't have an exact age of what that would be.
12. Who is the most amazing woman you know
personally? I've been blessed to know many amazing women. My mother-in-law is one of those women. In all of the pictures below, she is over 90 years old.
These girls are 4 1/2 and 8 now so this was just a couple of years ago. |
This was a few years ago, but even in her 90's she was making homemade birthday cakes for her children - she made 3! |
I think she was 96 in this picture at the beach |
13. What was your best experience in school? I loved school and had lots of great experiences. I experienced fun trips. I was in the All State choir. I was in the Color Guard in high school. I was in the National Honor Society. I was a part of an active youth group at church. Now at 65, I'm also enjoying school again and I've had some great professors who have been so very kind!
14. What's the most meaningful compliment
you've ever received? I'm going to have to think about this. I'm not sure. I guess it would be when someone has noticed something I've done and mentions it. I'm always a tad embarrassed by compliments and also, due to that nagging voice in my head, I often discount compliments. One that was very meaningful was a comment/complement from my Sociology professor. She told me that she was really going to miss reading my various writings!
15. What is the most you've spent on something
really stupid? I'm sure I've bought some stupid gadget that I'm no longer using. I bought a baseboard cleaner and used it once or twice. I try not to make stupid purchases that cost a lot!