Wednesday Hodgepodge - 13 July 2016

1. Do you find yourself influencing your world, or is it more the other way around?

I think more often than not, it is influencing me, and not necessarily for the better. There are things going on that are bad enough in their own rights, but reactions to them are making them even worse for everyone around. Why should I be punished for something someone else did just because I have some things in common with them? It's all making me pretty cranky!

'79 is the year that I met David.

2. July 14th is National Tape Measure Day...the device was patented on this date in 1868. When did you last use a tape measure? Do you always know where to find one in your house? Tell us one way in which you feel blessed 'beyond measure'.

I last used a tape measure a few days ago to measure the circumference of my pony tail. Did you know that people buy human hair to make wigs? While I likely won't cut my hair for any reason, including selling it, I measured it to see what I could possibly get for a 3" circumference, 6" long, gray, virgin (as in undyed, untreated, etc.) hair. If it were accepted by the place, I could earn $118 dollars for it. David likes it long, so it is worth much more than that staying on my head!

Update! I missed parts of this the first time through. I almost always know where to find my tape measure.  I have a bucket near my chair with my knitting/crocheting things in it and it is almost always in there.  Sometimes it goes on walk-about.

I am blessed with a great husband and beautiful children. I am blessed with generations of strong men and women behind me.  All of them make me who I am today.

3.The Plaza Hotel (Eloise), The Land of Oz (The Wizard of Oz), Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia), The Hundred Acre Wood (Winnie the Pooh), Wonderland (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), or Never Never Land (Peter Pan)...which storybook land (on this list!) would you most like to visit and why?

It would be between The Hundred Acre Wood and Never, Never Land. I love Winnie the Pooh, but Laynie has played Tinkerbell for the last few years at a local character breakfast. So, Never Never Land would be perfect.

4. Where and when do you get your best ideas?

It most often happens when I am somewhere without a pen and paper, like in the shower or in bed. If I'm lucky, I remember them long enough to write them down.

5. So what have you been watching on TV this summer? Anything good?

We don’t have a TV service anymore. When we watch something, it is a DVD or something on Amazon or Netflix. We generally watch My Little Pony and the cutest little movie called Hotel Transylvania II. It has the most adorable little curly-haired baby vampire baby. :)

6. 'Don't swim for an hour after you eat', 'Dog days of summer', 'Knee high by the Fourth of July'...choose a summer saying from the list or share one of your own, then tell us what image or memory comes to mind when you hear it spoken.

I don't know that this saying is inherently "summer", but it is one that I remember from my childhood. We had a neighbor named Joanne with a husband named Epp and a daughter named Dawn. We spent a lot of time at their house. She even let me vacuum her house, which I thought was way cool (we didn't have a vacuum cleaner or carpet). Anyway, one phrase that I often heard at her house and never anywhere else was, "I'll be jumped up!" It was an expression of surprise or wonder. I know what it means; I just can't seem to find the words at the moment.

7. In a single sentence, sum up one life lesson you've learned.

No matter what anyone else says about me or my worth, Heavenly Father made the determination of my worth when He sent Jesus to die for my sins.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

This world is not perfect, neither are the people in it. Sometimes we can hold so fast to our own thoughts that we do not open up to the possibility of a solution. We close our minds and hearts when the answer is standing there right in our faces, but we refuse to see it. If we aren't going to be open to a solution, then we need to quit whining about the problem.