Wednesday Hodgepodge

It's time for Wednesday Hodgepodge with Joyce, who blogs at From This Side of The Pond.  Each week she'll pose some questions for us to answer. What a great way to journal life.

1. What's a characteristic you admire in others?  Elaborate. I think there are many characteristics I admire in others, but I admire those who are resilient. Who have been through so much, and yet their lives are filled with grace, forgiveness, and they had the ability to make something beautiful out of the ugliness they had to experience. 

2. Do you have a favorite mug? Let's see it. Why is this one your favorite? I have a lot of favorite mugs. I'm drawn to mugs. If I had my way, I'd buy one every time I saw one I liked. However my husbands philosophy is if you buy something, get rid of something. Ha!

These are just a few of my faves. I love a bigger mug for coffee, a smaller one for tea. I do have a few others, but I'm later than I wanted to be getting my post done so we'll just go with these for now. 

3. July 15th is/was National Give Something Away Day...will you (or did you, depending on what day you answer these questions) give something away? I'll be working, I doubt I'll be giving anything away specifically on that day. If so what?  However, I do regularly give books away, or the last puzzle I finished. Last week I invited a friend over to pick some of my blueberries, which are in abundance. Do you regularly give away or do you tend to  'accumulate'? I don't accumulate for two reasons...one, my husband is not one who accumulates, his philosophy is "if it's not being used, get rid of it"..haha. This has caused some friction because while I don't "hoard", I don't have a problem keeping things if I think I will use it for a craft, or something else. The other reason is I don't like "clutter" so if I can't have a good storage space, then I probably won't keep it. 

4. You're planning a trip. Do you prefer exploring big cities or smaller, more off the grid towns? Both. I enjoy seeing all that's out there. World Atlas lists these 12 'off the grid' towns to see in 2025. How many on the list have you seen? Two of them are in the PNW. Neah Bay and Hood River. We are closest to Hood River and visit at least once a year. We may have driven through Neah Bay when we visited the Olympic Peninsula but I don't remember if we stopped there specifically.  Of those listed which one would you most like to visit? I would LOVE to visit the ones in the NE states, and Ouray, Colorado is on our list to visit this fall when we head to Colorado. Tell us why? I love the NE states and the small towns are just wonderful to visit. 

Boothbay Harbor Maine, Middlebury Vermont, New Hope Pennsylvania, Rehoboth Beach Delaware, Brevard North Carolina, Saugatuck Michigan, Medora North Dakota, Ouray Colorado, Lamoille Nevada, Neah Bay Washington, Hood River Oregon, or Cambria California

*You can read more about each destination by clicking the link above. 

5. Have you ever...ridden a motorcycle? Once, in college I rode on a motorcycle. I think a friend of someone came to visit and he was taking people on a quick ride. He was probably cute which was probably the only reason I did it. Oh brother.  been to a Disney park? Yes, many times because we would visit family in Florida, and while there we'd always go to the parks. Some fun times when our girls were little. met a celebrity? Ummmm...I'm not sure. I don't think so. won a contest? No. I've won giveaways, but not a "contest". Though I did enter a recipe to a magazine and it was chosen, so does that count.  Tell us something about whatever you answered yes to on this list. Not long after we were married, one of the magazine I received was called "Cooking for Two" from Taste of Home. I entered a recipe for summer bean salad that my mom often made. I wrote a blog post here.

I also entered a photo of my girls in a local family magazine. That was fun. I couldn't find the picture though. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.  I didn't get around to joining in last week to the Hodgepodge or Tuesday Four. I just couldn't seem to get it done. I made two early morning airport runs, had to pick up my hubby from work one day, and we're trying to stay on top of keeping our grass and everything else green in the heat. I was determined to get it back to them this week. It's currently Monday night and I'm finishing my post ahead of time..I'm making a late night airport run (flight comes in at 12:50 am). I'm working to keep myself awake. I knew if I tried to sleep for a few hours it wouldn't be a good idea. 

I sure wish I could do the stay up late and get up early thing....I'd get so much more accomplished. Monday I had to do an airport run to pick up my oldest daughter and her family. Their plane originally was scheduled to come in at 12:27 A.M. Tuesday morning. I knew it wouldn't be a good idea for me to try and get a few hours sleep and then get up and go, so I just stayed awake. Their flight arrival kept getting pushed to later. Finally they arrived at 12:40, but then didn't get their luggage..we didn't get home til almost 2:00am. Still no luggage and it's now Wednesday night. They leave tomorrow to go camping and watch the motocross races nearby. To say she's not happy about not having luggage is an understatement. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin