Wednesday Hodgepodge - 25 May 2016

1. How should success be measured? Using that as your standard, who is the most successful person you know? (Or one of the most successful?)

I really don't know how to answer this one. Money, career, and material things are what society generally uses to measure the success of a person. But, I think that a person can have all of these things and still be unsuccessful in the ways that count, like family relationships and walk with Heavenly Father. Or, they can be materially the poorest person around and be the most successful. What matters most, what means success to me is a home full of love and happiness and the strength and faith to make it through the not so happy times. Without love, nothing else matters. Without love, that 10,000 square foot house or that Tesla is pretty empty and joy-less.

I know many people in both categories, too many to be able to pin the title of "most successful" on any one person.


2. Have you ever been to a hot air balloon launch/fest/party? Ever taken a ride in a hot air balloon? Is that on your bucket list? According to Frommers, the ten best hot air balloon adventures in the world are-

Loire Valley (France), the Serengeti (Tanzania), Napa Valley (California), Lake Champlain (Vermont), Cappadocia (Turkey), Istria (Croatia), Gstaad (Switzerland), Yarra Valley (Australia), Muelle (Costa Rica), and Albuquerque (New Mexico).

Which one on the list would you most like to experience?

For years back home in Anderson County, South Carolina, there was a summertime event called Freedom Weekend Aloft. It was a huge hot air balloon festival. It was great! We loved watching the balloons fly through the air and sometimes chase them to see where they landed.

I can't choose one from your list. They all sound like exciting places to visit and hot air balloons are cool no matter where they are flying.


3. May 25th is National Brown-Bag It Day. Did you/will you pack a lunch today? When did you last pack a lunch for someone and what are your go-to ingredients for a brown bag lunch?

There is no reason for me to pack a lunch for anyone today. We are, in effect, retired and, as David loves to say, "There's nowhere to go, nothing to do. Just relax and let it happen." I can't remember the last time that I had to pack a lunch for someone. The kids were homeschooled, so lunch was at home most of the time. Once they started college, they ate lunch most days on campus and other days out with friends or here at home.

4. What's one of your favorite dance scenes from a movie or television show?

There is only one dance scene that comes to mind at the moment and that is the final dance scene in the original Dirty Dancing. It doesn't come to mind because of the dance itself, but because of what Johnny (Patrick Swayze) says to Baby's (Jennifer Grey) father before he grabs her hand for the final dance.

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

Those six words say a lot. Yes, we should respect our parents no matter our age, but we have to live our own lives. We have to make our own mistakes in order to grow into the people that Heavenly Father created us to be. That won't happen if we're in the corner, literally or figuratively.


5. John F. Kennedy made famous the line, '...Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." So what can you do for your country?

Well, we've donated two sons to the cause of our country. Does that count? Other than that, I do not know what I can do for this country, aside from praying that it turns back to Heavenly Father.


6. Weekends are made for __________________________________.

Michelob. Okay, not really (we don't drink), but that is the first thing that came to mind. It used to be one of their advertising slogans years ago.

Weekends were made for relaxing and having fun with ones' family. Weekends were made for family.

7. On this last Wednesday of the month, bid farewell to the month of May in seven words or less.

Bye-bye, spring wildflowers. See you next year!


8. Insert your own random thought here.

Things were so much simpler when I was a little girl.



Please also visit David's contribution to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge at: Random Thoughts and Observations. Thanks!