Hodgepodge

Linking up with Joyce for the Hodgepodge

1. What does freedom mean to you? 

Freedom to me means a few things. The most important component of freedom is having the freedom of speech- to be able to criticize the government and/or to freely speak about my Christian faith without fear of reprisal.

Also, freedom means that the government doesn't try to censor speech that is true that it doesn't like. A fairly recent (and egregious) example is when Joe Biden didn't want the media to report on the contents of his son's laptop computer shortly before the 2020 election.  Government officials lied about the veracity of the files on the laptop and convinced Big Tech to not repost links with a New York Post article that broke the story to suppress the truth. Not cool!

2. How will you celebrate Independence Day this year? If you live outside the USA answer this question as it relates to your own country's patriotic holiday, wherever that may land on the calendar. 

We are going to our friends' house for a cook out. I can't wait! We haven't seen our friends since early June- it will be great to reconnect.

3. This or that...red, white, or blue? Stars or stripes? Watermelon, home made ice cream, or blueberry pie? How do you feel about fireworks?  

I'm not sure the context- like in general? I'll say red, stars and blueberry pie. 

I like fireworks on the 4th only please (and thank you!). People light fireworks/loud celebratory (I guess?) sounds for about the week before the 4th and a week after. It's annoying. 

4. What have you purchased recently that made you excited? 

Goodness, I can't think of any really good examples. A couple come to mind though "excited" is a bit of an ambitious adjective to use.

I rarely buy clothes on Amazon but at the last minute, I decided that I wanted a tennis skirt (not for tennis per se, rather the style). I found one on Amazon that could be delivered the next day which was when I needed it. The skirt was super cheap- $11 and there are pockets on the outer edge of the shorts portion of it. The pockets came in super handy when I wore the skirt. The instructions on the skirt say to not machine wash it (yeah, right, I'm not dry cleaning an $11 skirt- I've already washed it in the machine and it's fine).

 

Also this trellis for the garden has me a little bit excited- I've never had a trellis in the garden. We shall see how it goes...

5. I'm thankful to live in America (or fill in whatever country you call home) because____________.

It is a nation where Christians can freely practice their faith.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Abby and I arrived home around 2:00 am on Tuesday. I slept all of about four hours and now, 10:30 pm, Tuesday evening, I still don't feel tired. Sometimes my body impresses me!!

It was great to wake up this morning and look out the window and see verdant grass and leaves on trees and colorful blooms on flowers. We were in the desert and saw beautiful topography; however, the flora here in the Midwest has my heart :). It was also wonderful to hear the sound of rain falling. Summer almost always results in a drought at some point but it appears that now is not that time. I will take the rain when it comes. When the rain stopped, I went outside to my two vegetable garden areas to weed.

How I like my garden clogs to look...