Wednesday Hodgepodge...Let's Have a Celebration

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.

I'm going to apologize for not getting around to commenting last week on very many posts. Uggh! I hate when time gets away from me and the next thing I know, it's a new week. 

1. What was the last thing you celebrated? Our grandsons 8th birthday on the 12th. There was a great get together at his house with a bunch of his friends, pizza, yummy ice cream mud pie, and good times. 

I took some fun liberties with the middle image of the boys playing baseball after opening gifts. My grandkids are blessed to have great friends and lots of family (mostly on my son in laws side).

2 July 29th is International Day of the Tiger. Besides the wild animal itself, when you hear the word tiger what's the first  person-place-thing-whatever that comes to mind? I probably think of the zoo. I haven't been in a few years but when we went with the grandkids, this tiger was looking pretty regal.

3. The expression 'eye of the tiger' describes someone with intense focus, determination, and the drive to succeed. What area of your life are you currently bringing that kind of energy to?  I'm not sure that I am. I don't think it's a bad thing, there just isn't anything in particular that is requiring this of me. The area I should be having the eye of the tiger is in my fitness, and perhaps even my time management. 

4. What was the last meal you cooked? I'm starting this post Tuesday night and getting ready to try making some fried chicken thighs. I also have some potatoes roasting in the oven and some zucchini rollatini (basically lasagna roll ups but with zucchini). I'm hoping it all turns out or we'll be eating hot dogs. I am now finishing this on Wednesday and I will say the fried chicken and zucchini all turned out. No hot dogs here. The recipe I used is from Michael Symons book Fix It with Food. This fried chicken used a batter which was really good. The chicken thighs were really tender. 

I also love salads in summer, but here in the U.S. there have been some "issues" with lettuce in the last few months...last weekend my hubby and I visited a local farmstand and I bought a bag of lettuce and radish sprouts. On Monday night I made a yummy salad with those items, chicken, and also beets and green onions I got from a farmers market. So good!!!! 

5. Describe your July using exactly five words. Slower, warmer, gatherings, reading.

6. Insert your own random thought here. Yesterday I had the grandkids and we have gotten into a rut of going places, doing crafts etc. Mostly because they have a puppy and so we can't be gone all day, but also, who knows, we've just gotten out of it. We'll play games, but I wanted to do something, so yesterday we visited a local botanical garden I've wanted to go to. It was more of a "natural garden" but still pretty, with paths that the kids had fun walking on and exploring. There were also some trails in the woods and that was the highlight for them. After that we went to another park where I had seen turtles sunning themselves on logs, but we got very distracted by a splash pad. They didn't have swimsuits, but we decided YOLO and I said just go in your clothes. We'll take them off in the car and you'll be fine. I'm so glad I did because they had so much fun. Years ago I would have said no because we had no clothes, no towels, nothing. BUT what's the fun in all that! I'm learning that some things just don't matter. Now if it had been a mud pit, that would've been a different story.

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin