A transitional Hodgepodge…

Feel the rhythm, Feel the Ride, get on up, it’s Hodgepodge time!  (Extra bonus points if you can tell me where that *albeit slightly modified* quote comes from!)  Join up on Joyce’s page by clicking the image below – but not until you’ve left a fun movie quote in the comments below!

 

1.  Are there any men or women in blue on your family tree?

No men/women in blue in my family tree – I have many friends whose spouses who are police, and as a former military spouse, and with friends who are firemen, police, etc I have the utmost respect for anyone who puts honor and duty above themselves, to protect others, and to sacrifice the way they do on a daily basis. And not just the service member – but the whole family.  It’s an all-hands-on-deck sacrifice.

2. Are you someone who suffers from the Sunday night blues? What helps you get over it?

No, I don’t really suffer the Sunday night blues – part of that may be because our church small group meets on Sunday evenings and it is such a wonderful way to end the weekend/start the week!  They are truly our closest friends, and I love how we laugh, cry, and pray each other through the roller coaster of life.  I have family members, though, who live with depression, and it can be debilitating.  Good diet, exercise, prayer, a good support system, and meds help them.

3. I read the color blue is an appetite suppressant since there are very few naturally blue foods out there. How do you feel about blue cheese? Love it or blech? If you’re a fan, what’s something you like that’s made with blue cheese?

I do like blue cheese, but in small amounts, since the taste is so strong!  I love a good blue cheese dressing on a cobb salad… yumm.
4. We can’t head in to the Labor Day weekend without a related question, can we? Complete this thought: I work best when____________________. 
I am uninterrupted, with music in the background.  And the type of music depends on what I’m doing – if I am studying, or writing, or engaged in a detail-oriented project, it can only be instrumental music, no lyrics.  (Otherwise I end up singing along with the music and completely lose my focus.  … Lets see, move this section of logarithms over here, add them together, drag and drop the you’re my brown eyed girl – darn it!)

If I’m cleaning the house, doing laundry, gardening – then the music must be fun to sing/dance to while I work.  80s Hair Band station on Pandora… that sort of thing.

5. ‘Everything yields to diligence.’ Antiphanes Your thoughts? (on this particular quote or on diligence in general)

Interesting… I wouldn’t say that this is necessarily true, in that you will for sure see your desired outcome if only you are diligent in pursuing it – but I”ll bet your bottom dollar that YOU will be changed as a result.  Which may have been the point all along.

6. The National Park Service turned 100 years old on August 25th. Have you been to many of America’s National Parks? If so share with us a favorite or two. Which National Park would you most like to visit before the next birthday rolls around?
Yes – as a child our family vacations were always camping in National Parks, all out west, since that is where I grew up.  I have been to Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Bryce, Zion, Death Valley, Sequoia, and many many more.  My favorite is the Grand Canyon – my family went there when I was 14, and then my hubs and I spent our newlywed years living near there.  We even hiked down to the bottom and camped down there for our one year anniversary.  What a fun trip!

I’d love to visit Yosemite again before my next birthday, but I don’t think that is going to happen.
7.  Bid farewell to August in seven words or less.
School started, fall beckons, bring it on!
8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Of all the transitions in parenting, this one we are in right now is the toughest we have been through so far… having a college student still living at home, wanting/needing/deserving his independence, and yet still wanting/needing boundaries.  Seeing him struggle, trying to figure out this new world he is in, figuring out who he is and how to communicate and when to ask for help and when do we rescue and when do we not and…

you know, as I talk to young parents and lead through parenting classes and MOPS groups, my basis summation of parenting is this:  You do the best with what you’ve got at the moment, with hopefully some pretty solid principles to guide, and you pray a lot, you laugh a lot, you cry a lot, and with the grace of Jesus and a whole lot of coffee, you all get through it at the end.  I’m holding onto that this morning.