Wednesday Hodgepodge

1.  What's something you wanted to do this summer that you never got around to actually doing?

We had plans to go swimming and visiting the library every week, but the chicken pox, cool weather, and being reduced to a one vehicle family effectively put a damper on those plans.

2. Share a favorite memory of your own back -to-school days as a child.

I really loved school, and as soon as Mom would buy our back to school supplies I would organize them in the bag I planned to use to carry them to school on the first day. Nearly every day after that I'd get everything back out to touch it, look at it, and dream of the wonderful year of school I was going to have.

Mom used to sew new school clothes for us and send them to Grandma for her to hand sew the button holes on them. She did the most beautiful buttonholes, but she always waited until just a few days before school started to bring the finished clothes. Once I had my new dress hanging in my closet ready to go I could almost taste the new school year.

The little dirt road we walked to school on used to have scads of Black Eyed Susan's growing beside it. I always made a point to gather a bouquet to present to my teacher on the first day.

3.  What's one chore or daily task you prefer doing 'old-school' ?

As much as I love my computer, I still prefer the feel of a good pen in my hand and a nice tablet to write in. I have a three ring binder that I always keep close to jot any ideas that pop into my head. Whether it's for a book I want to write, blog ideas, menu plans, school plans, goals, and a whole host of other things that end up being written down.

I have several other notebooks I use for specific things, like keeping track of books I read and enjoyed, Bible study, quotes I like, things the children say that make me laugh and I don't want to forget, and more. I enjoy flipping through all the notebooks I'm currently filling, and the ones that have been filled already. In fact just the other day I came across the list of things I wrote to myself of do's and don'ts to remember if I ever become a mother-in-law or Grandma. I wrote those 14 years ago, but they're still good, and hopefully I'll be able to follow my own advice once I get to that point in my life.

4.  Share something you've learned in life through the 'school of hard knocks'.

I have learned to trust God. For someone who likes things to go a certain way, this lesson took a while to learn. Thankfully now even when things don't go "my" way, I don't get all worked up like I would have years ago.

5.  As a child, did you mostly bring or buy your lunch for school? What was your favorite thing to find in your lunchbox?

We always brought our lunch to school. My favorite thing to find was when Mom would tuck in a little treat for us, like half a candy bar. It happened maybe two or three times a year. Mostly we had very boring school lunches. A sandwich made with homemade bread and a fried egg, and a little bowl of peaches, occasionally we'd also have a cookie or half of a banana.

6. Football season is upon us which has me wondering... how big of a sports fan are you (not just football) ? On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being 'I scream at the players through my television screen' and 1 being 'is knitting a sport?' where do you fall in fandom? 

Football is not my thing, but I am a big fan of baseball, falling in at probably a level 8 or 9.

7. Share a favorite quote you think might inspire students of all ages at the start of a new school year. 

Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Outside my window only a few yards from the house is a cow pasture. In it is a musical cow. Most cows have simple moos, in varying degrees of volume and length, but moos nevertheless. This cow however is in a league of its own. I can't even begin to count how many times I have been startled by this noise, that I then realize is coming from a cow. It could almost sound like she was trying to sing an Amish church song in a very cow-y voice.