Wednesday Hodgepodge

Have you ever written a love letter? Have you written one recently? Had one written to you? Did you keep it?

I can't remember ever writing a love letter, unless you count Troy Cooper and I passing notes back and forth in the first grade that said "I love you. Do you love me? Yes ___ No ___" I would come home with a lunch box full of them. (Speaking of lunch boxes, while at a consignment store last Saturday I came across the exact replica of the lunchbox I had in the first grade! I didn't even remember I had it until I saw it there.)

But back to the question. I am not very good at being mushy gushy. The only thing that would come close would be the story that Rick and I wrote together to put on the back of our programs at our wedding (actually he wrote it and I edited it.) It was called "A Story of Us", which was a love letter of sorts. I still have one of them tucked in a book that Rick gave me before we even started dating.

What's a movie that ends in a way you especially love?

I loved the way The Notebook ended (although they both died, which wasn't the part I loved ... although it was a beautiful expression of their true love, wasn't it?). It was the photograph montage of their life together at the end, a "what happened when the story was over" kind of ending. They did the same thing in Titanic by showing Rose's life in photos after her rescue. I like to see a glimpse of what happens to the characters when the curtain closes. It provides closure. (They did the same thing on the finale of Parenthood, the t.v. series, that I finally watched last night. They showed scenes from the future so you could see what happened to the families. I can now sleep at night.)

Something that makes your heart sing? And for those of you who are parents, I mean something besides your children that makes your heart sing?

A spring day with the birds chirping while I am outside piddling with my flowers or in my garden.

What's the last event you had to attend, phone call you had to make, routine task you needed to complete, or meal you had to prepare, that you did do, but only half-heartedly?

I am guilty of doing this with our schoolwork at times. We have such a routine now that I can almost do it on auto pilot. But that's not fun, not for the kids or for me. If we are not having fun in our learning at home, then they might as well go to the drudgery of public school.

And I always do laundry with only a teensy weensy bit of my heart. And I shouldn't do that. Doing their laundry reminds me of how blessed I am to have them ... even if they are wearing way too many clothes. The alternative is not having anyone's laundry to do. And that would be sad. (Well, maybe not so sad if I had them here and they did their own laundry!)

Tuna fish salad - yay or blech? If you said yay, how do you like your tuna salad prepared? Hey, this is the Hodgepodge, right?

Yes, I like tuna fish salad. I like it mixed with mayonnaise, chopped hard-boiled eggs, finely chopped onion, and a tiny bit of relish, either served on wheat toast with a slice of American cheese or on plain white bread. Don't ask me why I like the different breads, I just do.

What's something you 'know by heart'?

I know my older two kids' social security numbers, but not my younger two. I don't know why I memorized them, but it has proven useful over the years. I should probably start memorizing my younger two before they get to the ages that we need to start using them.

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, what two or three word phrase would you write on a conversation heart for someone you love? That someone could be a spouse, child, parent, cousin, bestie ... anyone at all whom you love.

On Rick and the kids' candy hearts I would write: MY LOVE ALWAYS. Because I will ALWAYS love them, no matter what, no matter where. They can screw up, do things that I wouldn't do, make decisions I wouldn't make, whatever ... and they will still have MY LOVE ALWAYS. I want them each to have a lifetime supply of those hearts so they never forget it. I want their last dying thought to be that no matter what they went through in their lives, their wife/mom ALWAYS loved them. Always.

Your can make your own personalized candy heart image by going HERE. Cute, huh?

Insert your own random thought here.

For the past few years Rick and I have been trudging along with our debt. He has done a diligent job of chipping away at it, but we are wanting to tackle it head on and get it GONE! We have been working on a plan this past week that will, hopefully, have a big portion of it gone in 14 months. We have also devised a plan for how we will not go into debt again, and how we will contribute some savings toward retirement. I feel very encouraged, even though it will be hard.