Hodgepodge

Linking up with Joyce for the Hodgepodge

1. February 26th is National Tell A Fairy Tale Day...have you read a fairy tale lately? What's your favorite fairy tale? Do you believe in 'happily ever after'? 

I did not know that February 26th  was National Tell a Fairy Tale Day. I always associate the day as my brother's birthday. He's celebrating a BIG one today- Happy Birthday to my bro Joe!

My mom would sometimes recall that when she was younger, it was her dream to have four children- two girls and two boys. When she hadn't married by her mid thirties, she likely had to realize that the probability of having four kids was diminishing day by day. Then she met my dad and after dating for a short amount of time and an equally short engagement, they got married. After the marriage, it was get 'er done time. My brother John was born nine months after they were married. My brother Jay was born one year and one week after my brother John was born. My sister was born one year and one month Jay was born. I was born seventeen months after my sister was born. Shew, just in the knick of time, biologically, my mom had her four kids (in a few months short of four years!), two boys and two girls, no less, just as she'd dreamed.

But wait... there was more. My baby brother was born twenty two months after I was born (the longest age gap of any of the siblings). Joe was a sweet and adorable kid- the perfect caboose to the lot of scruffy country kids that we were. 

Today as always, I'm grateful to call my little brother my friend and am proud of the man that he is. I know few whose character is more impeccable than Joe's. He loves the Lord and his family and is genuinely kind and gentle (though he's very opinionated; he's interested in politics like I am (he just manages to not lose his cool when he disagrees with someone and stays saintly sweet)).

I think his youngest looks a decent bit like him!! Not sure their age differences in the two pics.

Joe in college

A pic of Joe and me in two years ago

Back to the question- I have not read any fairy tales recently. I will go with Cinderella as my favorite, though I don't feel strongly on that subject :). I would say I believe in "better ever after" more so than "happily ever after" because it's realistic. No one is "happy" all the time. 

2. Complete one of the following sentences with a thought relating to your life currently-

• Once upon a time___________
• A long time ago, a little country rube never imagined a life in suburbia... and couldn't feel more grateful that, just as my mom's dream sort of kind of came true vis a vis her kids but actually turned out even better than she wished for, my life so far, despite a handful of losses, has turned out better than I ever dreamed possible. 
• In a place far far away__________

Me, my pot belly and two of my siblings a long time ago, lol. We are sitting on this partial stone wall that was on our property near our house. 

3. Which of the following 'fairy tale foods' is your favorite? Which have you made/eaten most recently? 

porridge/oatmeal (Goldilocks and The Three Bears), an apple (Snow White), a gingerbread cookie (The Gingerbread Man), pumpkin soup/pie/bread (Cinderella), peas (The Princess and the Pea), beans (Jack and The Beanstalk) or a cup of tea (Alice in Wonderland) 

I realized, just recently, that porridge and oatmeal were the same thing. I think I thought that porridge was sort of like Cream of Wheat? But I don't know why I thought that exactly. Anyway, oatmeal and tea are what I've had the most recently. My favorite would probably be tea.

4. What's your idea of fun? 

Spending time with the people I love the most- my family and close friends. Ideally, a scrumptious meal would be involved (that I didn't prepare!), perhaps a game after dinner, and if the weather was nice, a walk as well. I'm a simple gal :).

5. Next week's Hodgepodge lands in March. Is that right? I guess so.  Give us one noun, one verb, and one adjective that tell us something about your February. To make you think a little harder, you cannot use the words cold or snowy. 

Enjoyable- I liked everything about February. A couple of two hour delays at school, a bit of snow, a fair bit of cold, the "sting" of which was diminished by knowing that spring is just around the corner, celebrating Valentine's Day, sitting outside on the nicest of days where being outside was pleasant, the first walk outside of the season with Donnie on a nippy but sunny Sunday afternoon, celebrating our friend's Clint's birthday, seeing Jacob and Abby a couple of times, getting together with my brother- it was just overall quite enjoyable. It's not like unpleasant things didn't happen, of course. I didn't walk around in a state of euphoria or bliss constantly. But, overall, I can't think of much to complain about and have liked the month so far.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

In listing my February "enjoyables" when describing February, I realized that February was (/is, since it is still February) the only month of my life when I have not seen our own little family's caboose, Alyssa. Obviously, this was not an enjoyable part of the month- I just mean in recounting the month, whom I've seen and what I've done, I realized that seeing my baby was not one of them :(.  Since she goes to college not far from us and has had periodic breaks like fall break, Thanksgiving break, winter break, etc- well, the breaks lent themselves to being able to see her at least once each month since dropping her off. February proffered no breaks so we didn't get to see her. That makes it the only month where I've ever not seen her. (I guess proof that life goes on is true since I listed February as an enjoyable month notwithstanding the historic break in not seeing my baby!)

My little sidekick from day one- 

Sweetest little smile

I had gone back to work after having Jacob and Abby (though I quit my job shortly after going back to work after having Abby) but was a stay at home mom by the time Alyssa was born. We spent a lot of time together when she was a wee one and then, thankfully, as her years at home were coming to a close, we got to spend even more time together.  She only went to school half days her last two years of high school (she did online college classes the rest of the school day- from home and was able to ace them without putting in an extraordinary amount of time :)). Grateful for every memory made (ok, there are a few I wouldn't mind forgetting (keepin' it real!)) and moment spent together before she went to live in the big city.

Now the good news is that her spring break is coming up soon and if all goes according to plan, we'll have a great deal of mother- daughter time.  Hopefully the biggest issues during the languid, sunny days of her break will be trying not to get sunburned and wondering where we'll go to eat dinner that evening. Yes, we have a beach trip planned and I could not be more excited about spending lots of time with Alyssa while enjoying much warmer temperatures (though it got up 59 degrees today and was sunny- pretty great Ohio February weather!)

Last year in the airport at spring break- Alyssa has this expression like, "Are you really taking a picture of me reading my book?" And I am like, "Kid, there's no such thing as a free Starbucks drink!"

Can't wait for another iteration of "you, me and the sea"