Summertime, and the Hodgepodge is Easy

 Remembering a distant July, when I was taking a load to GoodWill.
Meanie Mr. C. stood the teddy bears in the back of the truck just to make me feel guilty about giving them away.


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

I would hope that I'm influencing my world, rather than the other way around, but lately my world seems very, very small, like from edge to edge of a single bed and my only influencee being Tuppence, who's snuggled beside me. 

Tuppence, looking rather possessive, don't you think?

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 use a tape measure often. The blaze orange one marked 'MOM' in bold Sharpie, that's supposed to be in the drawer next to the stove, is the one I use most often (if it's there).  What I measured most recently was probably a piece of furniture to prove that it could, indeed, fit through that doorway. I'm a pretty good judge of distance if it's inches or feet up to about 20 10 feet. Beyond that, I'm lost. Mr. C. thinks in yards, as in the mailbox being so many yards from the house, it's so many yards down to the creek, the garden is so many yards long. I suffer from a football-viewing deficit in my childhood, so I never got that idea of yards fixed in my head. 

 July of 2015
our favorite migrant workers

I feel blessed beyond measure that my hip revision (that means done twice now), was done in early June, although I was feeling pretty sad last fall that my surgeon was booked so far out. Now I see how blessed I am, that I can have the door OPEN between the library (which I'm currently using as a bedroom) and the porch, to feel the warm summer breeze, to go out onto the porch and view all God's gorgeous creation (even those perennials that persist in giving me beauty though I've not pulled a single weed since last year and not many last year), to look out at beauty instead of immense snowbanks, etc. etc.to know that the Creator of the universe loves me and cares about the details in my life. I am definitely feeling blessed beyond measure. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that bad things never happen or that God is somehow my fairy godmother, granting my every wish. If that were true, I wouldn't be in this seemingly interminable no-weight-bearing season of my life. But I see God's gracious hand in my life daily, and I'm so grateful.

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? 

Narnia. After the thaw. When all life is joyously restored and horses and dogs talk once again. 

 Narnia, before the thaw (see that bright speck of hope?)

Narnia, after the thaw

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

Either in the middle of the night or very early morning. After 4 PM, it's downhill. BUT, I do awaken very early, usually by 5:30 AM, although I don't actually get up at that time. I'll read my Kindle, pray, read, listen to Morning Edition on Minnesota Public Radio, listen to David Suchet reading Isaiah, on my phone, no less. (If I ever complain about technology, remind me of this.) 

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

Jericho just became available on Acorn, so Mr. C. and I started watching it last night. We got about 15 minutes into it and nearly fell asleep switched to watch a repeat of Vera. Although Jericho is set  in the most gorgeous Yorkshire, a good mystery keeps my attention much better. And Vera is exceptional. I'm going to try Jericho again at some point just because I want to see more of the Ribblehead Viaduct. George Gently (sigh) comes back to Wisconsin Public Television next Friday. We've probably already seen all of the episodes, but we love them and will watch them over again.  And of course we watched the season finale of Endeavour. Why are those seasons so short?? They better hurry up and make more, although that is one for which I have to turn on Closed Caption. Endeavour mumbles so fast! :-)) 

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.

We always had to wait an hour to swim after we'd stuffed ourselves with a picnic lunch at Silver Lake. It was just common medical science that we would get cramps and drown if we went into the water at 59.9 minutes after eating. 

Another Wisconsin lake

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

If fear of people keep us from doing the things we'd like to do because we're worried about what others will think, the reality of it is that those 'others' are usually far too self-absorbed to be thinking about anyone other than themselves. It's pointless worrying about what others think.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

"Doubt is not at odds with faith; irony or cruelty does not cancel out beauty or truth. God knows all of me, including the darkest parts. Sometimes I can even see heaven easier for the clouds than for the perfect blue. And He loves me still?"  - From Surprised by Oxford, Carolyn Weber

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