Mother May I Hodgepodge

The Edisto Post still isn't happening, y'all, but I do have some answers for the Hodgepodge!

1. What's something fun you're looking forward to on your May calendar? 

Camping. Hopefully. If we get our butts in gear and make reservations for Memorial Day Weekend.

2. What are some images that come to mind when you hear the word mother? 

3. What's something beautiful you own or have seen that's made of glass? 

I don't own anything special that's glass. The last time I was in Copenhagen, we went to this glass exhibit that was in an old cistern. THAT was cool.

I found a blogpost that someone wrote that included some pictures. The thing is, you're not supposed to take pictures! I guess the blog author got away with it, but even if I had taken any, I wouldn't have dared put them on my blog because I for sure would have gotten busted! 

You can see the pictures here if you're interested.

4. Was today typical? If not what made it unusual? 

Tuesday was pretty typical. Nothing out of the usual happened. 

5. What is a quality you wish you could have more of?

Not overeating; especially with sweets.

6. What's the next major purchase you need to make? Will it happen in the month of May? 

I have no earthly idea. I don't have a major purchase planned, so I hope it's not going to happen in May!

7. What responsibility/job/work did you dislike while growing up but has proved helpful to you as an adult?

When I was little, it was my job to clean the bathroom. To this day, I detest cleaning the bathroom, so I can't say that! I really don't mind hand washing the dishes now, but it wasn't my job.

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

Just a couple more weeks before Summer Break is here. This year has flown by, but I'll be glad to have a few weeks to get my house back in order, read, and just relax!

Amazing Weekend Wrap-up

Yeah, well...so the Edisto post hasn't happened yet. I started this post last week but never finished it. I had a great weekend a couple of weekends ago to not talk about it!
It all started on Thursday. I went to the local CCW (Council of Catholic Women) Convention that was held about an hour from home. I rubbed elbows with the Bishop, who even put his zucchetto (also known as "Bishop Beanie") on my head for just a few seconds. I told people that it started smoking so he took it off pretty quickly!

Friday, I had the honor of listening to Father Leo Patalinghug. I knew of Father Leo through the Catholic Channel on Sirius Radio. He is the founder of the Grace Before Meals Movement. Even during periods when I wasn’t a regular mass attendee, we always said grace before our suppers as a family.  In this fast-paced world, many families don’t even have supper together, much less say grace.

While Father Leo was cooking, he was doing what he does: preaching. In this election year, people are very nervous about the route our country may be going. Some “words of wisdom” from Father Leo about the subject:

Remember that the U.S.A. is One Nation Under God, and will always be, no matter what. So, don’t get all stressed about the upcoming election; we’re going to be okay.
Some cool facts about Father Leo: He used to break-dance, and he has a couple of black-belts. He also has some nieces & nephews in the music business. They're pretty big in the UK, but haven't hit it big here yet. You can find their website here.

We had a game night Friday night. The games were just so-so, but there was this 90 year old lady who attended the convention. She participated in a game; when she headed back to her seat, she said "I'm a party animal"! She was just too cute.

The last day, Cathy Bonner gave a powerful presentation on domestic violence.  Women Healing the Wounds is a domestic violence prevention resource guide. The guide is free, and includes a page with tear-off tabs for each parish to put information for their local shelter. It is also available in Spanish.  They also have partnered with Verizon to donate used cell phones. If you donate a phone, don’t forget the charger! 

When I got home, there was an airshow going on. We live very close to the airport, and, as it turned out, we knew someone who owns a lot across the street from us. We ended up having a fantastic view. I got home in time to see the Blue Angels. Up until I saw them flying around that Thursday, I didn't see what the big deal was. Oh.My.Goodness! I had chills watching them practice. They really are amazing.

It was incredible how closely they flew to each other. The kids at school talked about it all week long.

It's been rather quiet in the Small Town. Remember when I talked about the daughter of someone I went to school with who passed away in this post? The Bridge was painted, and hadn't been touched since then. Well, until someone thought it would be cute to vandalize the bridge. A local young man took it upon himself to paint over the graffiti and turn it back into something beautiful.

photo credit: WBIR

I noticed last week that white paint had been put on the bridge. I'm assuming it's local authorities who do that when something inappropriate has been painted. It's good to know that there are still young people out there who have respect and compassion.

Right before Easter Sunday I decided it was time to take my Christmas wreath down. (No judging!) I took it down and put it on the table. When I picked it up to take it downstairs, I noticed a couple of eggs. I looked at them, and 1 appeared to be cracked; the other was a little smushed where it had landed on the table. I felt horrible. I put them back in the nest and hung the wreath back up. We had some pretty chilly days after that. Last week I was going to go ahead and get rid of the eggs and put the nest up, when I saw this:

There's a pigeon sitting on the nest! I had the chance to check the nest yesterday; there is 1 egg, and it appears to be larger than the 2 I saw earlier, so there's some hope!  The front door doesn't get much traffic; it was a bit of a fluke that I saw her when I did. 

That gets me pretty much all caught up...except for the whole Edisto post! I hope to get that written up before I forget about it!

Until next time...

Long Time No Write

I'm amazed that it's been over a month since I last posted! March was busy, busy, busy! I kept meaning to write several posts, but it never happened (obviously!). I was super focused on Lent and spending more time writing on my Catholic Blog that I just didn't have the drive to write anything here. I'm afraid to even open up my Bloglovin'; I shudder to think about just how many posts I have to read!
So, what happened last month? Well, at the end of Feb., CH & I took a long weekend trip to see this one for Family Weekend:

It was a really good weekend. We got to see MS, meet his friends/classmates, sit in on a class, go to the casino and a baseball game, and just get a taste of what his life is like. We managed to get in some good food & drink, too!

(Gator...we discovered that it's acceptable to eat gator on a Friday during Lent!)

 (Oh, yes I did! I also found out that Community Coffee has a King Cake Coffee, so I made sure to pick up a bag from Winn Dixie before we left!)

The live oaks on campus are just beautiful.

As an added bonus, I got to meet another Speech/Language Pathologist who invited me to be a part of an online group. We're called The Frenzied SLPs. It's an awesome group...most of us have at least 10 years experience in the field, and we "talk" frequently through FB Messenger. Anyway, this lady is just a fantastic person. We met in a coffee shop with our husbands for beignets & coffee. It was like we've known each other forever!

A couple of weeks after our visit with MS, I had Spring Break. CH took a week off, and we headed to Edisto Beach State Park to camp for the week. We left on Sat. & spent the night with some friends we met on our trips to The Keys. They live on Lake Murray, so they took us out on the boat to see the sites from the lake. We had Laika with us, and we were concerned about how she would do in a boat...with the noise. She was quite the champ; she acted like she had "been there, done that"!

They have a beautiful house. This is what we woke up to on  Sunday morning:

Edisto was absolutely wonderful. Before break, when someone asked if I was going anywhere & I would tell them Edisto, I was immediately asked where it was. When we got there, I think half of East Tennessee was there! Most of the campers were from East Tennessee. After some boyscouts left, a family who lives a couple of streets over from us moved in! Spring Break deserves a post of its own, so I'll save that for another post. This pretty much sums it up:

I guess that's enough for this post! Next up...Edisto Beach, SC!