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. Summer's here!  In the northern hemisphere anyway. If you're in the southern hemisphere substitute winter for the word summer. What do you love most about summer? What I love most is less rain, more flowers and spending more time  outside. The blue skies and warm sun. Farmers Markets. What's your biggest summer pet peeve? When the temps get above the low 80's and also annoying bugs. I also hate wildfires. 

2. What song always reminds you of summer? Too many to list. Honestly, any song that is upbeat

3. What's something you remember about your childhood summers? I remember playing outside till it got dark. When we lived or visited the midwest I remember chasing fireflies, or lightning bugs as we called them. Do you think kids today get to enjoy summer the way you did as a child? I think in many ways yes, and of course they enjoy summer in different ways. I do think many spend less time outside due to all the technology at our finger tips and it seems there are more two income homes so perhaps they are not exposed to opportunities to play outside as much. Elaborate. I'm not always a fan of comparing one generation to another when it comes to who had it better. It's all going to be different. There's no comparing. Each one had great things and not so great things. I do think that kids have a harder time entertaining themselves, but then who am I to say, there are millions of children on this planet that I don't know or see how they live, or entertain themselves. 

4. We celebrate Fathers Day on June 21st. Do you favor your dad in looks or temperament? Not in looks. I favor my mom more. I also favor my. mom more in temperament, though I'm sure there are a few things that I might be more like my dad in. Tell us something about your dad. My dad loved the outdoors, fishing and bird hunting. He was a taxidermist and really good at what he did. He worked hard to provide for our family. He passed away in 2021. 

Or your husband as a dad. My hubby is a great dad. We have two girls and people would always ask if we were going to try for a boy but he was content with girls. He was and is a great girl dad. 

Or a son/son-in-law as a dad. My son in law is a great dad to our grandkids (girl and a boy). 

Or your grandpa. We moved when I was in 4th grade so we didn't see grandparents that much since they all lived in Ohio. But I did love my grandpas and was blessed to get to have a relationship with grand and great grandpas. They were all different but I enjoyed each of them. 

My great grandparents on my moms side. Her dads parents on the left, her moms on the right. Her dads parents came over from Italy. I don't remember my great grandpa on that side. I think both his mom and dad passed before I was too old. My grandmas parents were also Italian but had been born here. I did have memories of them. I loved going to their house. 

My maternal grandparents at our wedding. 

Both sets of grandparents at my parents wedding. 

My paternal grandpa in the auto parts store he owned with my great grandpa and great uncle. 

My paternal great grandpa and I. 

In 1994 we visited the east coast to see my inlaws and we went to Ohio and visited both my paternal grandpa (bottom photo) and my maternal great grandpa (top photo). 

5. Let's wrap up with a summer this or that-

• flip flops or sandals Both. I wear flip flops around the yard, but sandals when I go out and about.
• beach or pool beach
• watermelon or peaches watermelon
• shorts or sundress shorts, but if I had a cute sundress, I'd wear that.
• iced coffee or ice cold lemonade both but probably moreso iced coffee
• amusement park or water park amusement park

6. Insert your own random thought here. Last weekend was our towns yearly Planters Day Festival. In 2022 we celebrated 100 years as a town. Supposedly this celebration is the oldest and longest running in Washington. If you like history of any sort, this was an interesting video of the celebrations history. We went to the fireworks show on Thursday night and then spent the entire day there Saturday for the parade and carnival with the grandkids. We went back down on Sunday for the car show which was pretty cool. I've never seen so many old cars at the car show. The grandkids loved the carnival and Pepper was finally old enough and tall enough to go on some of the rides. 

Apparently this drone sprays crops. 

This classic car at the car show in town last weekend was so fun. Love how they have it set up.

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin