Wednesday Hodgepodge

Linking up with Joyce for the Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. June 12 is National Simplicity Day. In what way is your life simple? What's one way that it's not? 

I am not driving and I am not working so I would say my life is simple in that I am home a lot and don’t have a lot of stressful responsibilities.

It is not simple when it comes time to making decisions about the future regarding work. Simply put, it is not going to be easy to find what I will be looking for- part time, ideally flexible, ideally with benies. 

2. Something you remember from a 'simpler time'? 

Childhood was a simpler time due to... childhood! But even given that most childhoods are representative of a simpler time, my childhood was very simple in comparison to others. I wasn't in activities, and we lived so far remotely from others such that play dates weren't really a thing for us. My siblings and I were pretty insular with each other. 

As an adult, definitely a simpler time was when Donnie and I didn't have cell phones but most adults did. We were young and eschewed them for as long as possible. It is so weird to think that not that long ago, we were only accessible by phone if we were at home and someone called us :).

3. Do you like squash? If so what's your favorite variety? What's a favorite way to prepare squash? 

I like squash all right- no big emotions either way. I like zucchini squash the best. I have two beautiful squash plants growing in my garden. I *think* (and hope) they're zucchini squash.

Zucchini squash- I prefer this grated and as a small, though necessary component of zucchini bread. Most things are better when part and parcel of an end product with plenty of flour, sugar and butter :). 

My beautiful squash plant :).

4. Do you shop the warehouse stores (such as Costco, Sam's B.J's, etc)? If so how often do you go, and what's something you always buy in this type of store? 

We shop at Sam's since we have a Sam's pretty near to our house. We often get a rotisserie chicken since they are cheap ($5) and good sized. We also get grilled chicken that they have in their refrigerated ready to eat (or heat) food section. Donnie likes their peanut butter filled pretzels, so we've been buying those. 

We tend to go often or a little bit in spurts. Lately we have been going once a week (Donnie likes the chicken breasts for his lunches at work so he buys a package or two each week).

5. Father's Day is this coming Sunday. Any plans to make the day special? Tell us something about your own father, or something about your hubs as a father, or about someone who stepped into your life and acted as a father if yours was not a part of your life. 

We are hosting a Father's Day meal for my father-in-law, Donnie and a couple of other men in our lives who are special to us. The theme is going be "Thankful for you." That is an overarching theme of Father's Day but especially of this one because I am making a turkey and ham so it's going to be a Thanksgiving type meal. The reason is simple- I have both a turkey and a ham in the freezer and I want both of them out! And most everyone likes a Thanksgiving type meal (the guys do anyway...). So, I am going with a theme of Thanksgiving. 

Something about my husband- it's interesting because we dated when we were in law school (so not like, real life with jobs). We also didn't know anyone, either friends or family members who had young kids or babies. We were in a young people sans kids bubble with our friends and no family members had young kids in our circles. I didn't think about that at the time, except that when it came time for our wedding, there was no one in contention to be a flower girl or ring bearer. We simple knew no young kids.

When we had our kids, I realized what a great dad Donnie was and realized that his interactions with our kids were the very first interactions I saw of him with any kids. It wasn't surprising to me that he was a good dad; he was a man of good character, that I knew, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he'd be a good dad. I was fortunate in that he was a good dad but of course the real beneficiaries of that were the kids.

Back in 2008 or 09- these were simpler times with our kids as it predates them being in time consuming activities!

Donnie and his mini him from earlier this spring

Donnie and the girls recently

...and with Jacob

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

We are in for some hot weather which doesn't impact me in my new, simpler lifestyle; I used to run outside regularly and hated to run in extremely hot conditions so I would check the forecast often in the summer to plan when I would run to escape the heat. Now, I can't run and am cool as a cucumber inside my home :). The heat (at least the sun) does impact something positively and that is my garden plants. Thinking about the squash plants reminded me of the garden and how much growth that hot summer sun brings to garden plants. I cannot wait to see even more growth in the garden. Part of my simpler lifestyle is having the time to care for a garden and enjoying it quite a bit.