A Heart-melting Hodgepodge

Waiting for Daddy
photo sent to us by our daughter

A heart-melting moment
for this grandma

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Join Joyce and the Gang

for Wednesday Hodgepodge.

She writes the questions, we write the answers.

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1. When did someone last suggest you 'chill out'? Or, when did you last tell someone (or want to tell someone) to 'chill out'? Or, when did you last tell yourself to 'chill out'?

See Number 3. 

2. What most recently caused your heart to melt?

The photo above, 'Waiting for Daddy', sent to us by our daughter.

 January in Wisconsin

3.  "An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered." G.K. Chesterton  

Your thoughts? When did you last experience either an adventure or an inconvenience? How did you see it at first, as an adventure or an inconvenience?  Does it feel the same in hindsight?

My thoughts are that I wish G.K. Chesterton had been my next-door neighbor. I love his attitude, I love to read him because he had such a contagious joy in Christ. It overflows into everything.

The most recent inconvenience was when I was walking my blind, deaf dog up and down the cold, snowy driveway, waiting for her to do her business, although, unbeknownst to me,  Mr. C. had already taken her out and she had done 'the full meal deal,' as he so crudely puts it.  Me: 'If I had known that, I wouldn't have spent time wandering 40 years in the wilderness,' I snapped, being annoyed at walking pointlessly in the cold for what seemed like ages. 'Why didn't you tell me??'  Him:  'You didn't ask.'  

Okay, fine. It's another example of the sinfulness of my human nature and why I need Jesus every day. Was it anything to be upset about? No, of course not. But I still would like Mr. Chesterton to explain to me how I could have thought of that as an adventure. I'd like to spend a whole day with that man, if he were not dead, listening to anything he had to say. The being dead part kinda puts a damper on that relationship. At least we have his books.

via

 Chesterton, in one of his less curmudgeonly poses

Believe me, I hunted!

4.  A Wendy's Frosty, root beer in a frosty mug, or a frosted chocolate cupcake...of these three, which one is your favorite 'frosty' treat?

All issues with sugar and dairy aside, I would say that I could eat a Wendy's Frosty every single  afternoon for the rest of my life. I love those things, enemy though they are.

5. Would you say your life so far this year has been more like a circus or a symphony? Explain why.

I'd say it probably only seems like a circus at times, but really, it is a symphony in the composition stage. Think Stravinsky, morphing into Bach.

6. Since it's a 'snow day' here, what's your favorite song containing the word 'white'?

'White is The Color of My True Love's Hair.'  (That's for Mr. C.) Other than that, maybe 'White Christmas.'

...and Baby Oliver

7. If you had to leave the city you currently live in, what would you find the hardest to leave behind?

I live in the country, and wouldn't find it hard to leave any city behind (well, maybe London). BUT, if I had to move away from the area I've lived in all my life, I would find the most difficult thing would be to leave the shared history and the invisible anchor of The Great Lakes.

8. Insert your own random thought here.



Shared history: There are many people in my area that I don't know personally, but do know enough to say 'hello' when I meet them on the street, or even spend a few minutes in conversation with them. So it's not like we're best friends, but we have a shared history. If I moved to a new location, no one there would understand about Wisconsin's long and cold winters, about ice fishing (I don't even understand that, actually, but I do know about it), about the beautiful old court house 

 Polk County Courthouse

similar in style to the former Barron County Courthouse

that was torn down so that a very utilitarian and ugly Soviet looking courthouse could be built, about the old Farmer's Store (where Butterfinger candy bars were about a dime) that is now the Dollar Store, about the First Baptist Church that was torn down to build a Hardees turned Subway, about the little gas station on the corner where Mr. Ecker would give us kids caramels when we would run across the street to his station after VBS; about the Treat Shop, run by a little old man who I think had escaped Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and ran a treat shop for the Junior High kids to get their Mallo Cups during recess, etc. etc. etc.

Who in Texas or California or Florida or anywhere warm, would know that stuff? No one there has a shared history with Mr. C. and me. 

 Who else would know about the old Woodside School?

(where I broke my arm in second grade)

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Although I usually forget to do it, there is a chance that this post will be linked to one or more of these great linky parties:  Amaze Me Monday and Inspiration Monday and Mosaic Monday and The Barn Collective and    Treasure Box Tuesday and Vintage Bliss Tuesday and KatheWithAnE and Rubbish Tuesday and Our World Tuesday and Tuesdays at our Home and Tuesday with a Twist and  Knick of Time Tuesday (vintage)  and   Tweak it Tuesday and Vintage Inspiration Wednesday and Ivy and Elephants Wednesday and Adorned From Above  and Artsy Corner Thursday and  All Things With Purpose and Home & Garden Thursday and Good Fences on Thursdays and  Time Travel Thursday and Freedom Fridays and Vintage Inspiration Friday and Simple Saturdays Blog Hop and Saturday's Critters