Wednesday Hodgepodge

We have been on vacation and then home for housecleaning, grocery shopping and Brynne's birthday. So I am running a little late.

What would you say is the key to success?

Getting through life without overextending yourself thus allowing yourself to actually enjoy it.

Have you ever been to the Florida Keys? Any desire to visit that part of the US of A?

I have been to the Florida Keys, Key West to be exact. It was a destination on a cruise we were on with friends when I was pregnant with Eli. I even have a picture of me at the Southernmost Point of the U.S. If I had any energy I would get up and look through my scrapbook and take a picture of it to show you. But, I don't really have that much energy.

When and where did you last see a real life donkey? Monkey? Turkey?

We saw some donkeys on our drive from Reno, Nevada, to Las Vegas last week. Well, actually they were probably burros. But they were authentic.

A monkey? When I was in college I was driving to school and could have sworn I saw a monkey jump through a fence and into a pasture. When I told my parents that night they made so much fun of me. But the next day, on that same road, there was a sign advertising a lost monkey! I knew I wasn't crazy!

We see turkey pretty often around these parts.

An old Portuguese proverb says, 'Beware of the door with too many keys.' What do you think this means? Share an example of how this has proven true or false in your own life.

If I was to see a door with lots of keys, I would assume that what's behind it must be very valuable! I would spend lots of time turning keys and unlocking locks and might find that what was behind the door wasn't anymore valuable than what was behind the door with only one lock. I would have wasted a lot of time and energy acting on the greed and excitement of seeing what was behind that door!

This is what happened when Rick and I lived in Oklahoma. We wanted what was behind the door with lots of keys. We knew it must be better! So we spent all of our time turning keys to achieve what we thought we wanted. And when we got there we realized that it was a whole lot of work for not much of something.

Choose the simple things in life.

Besides your home, vehicle and special jewelry, what is something you keep under lock and key?

I would have to say my kids. In this world I find myself wanting to protect them more and more. The outside influences are just horrific.

When's the last time you got keyed up about something?

Well, it's been a pretty common occurrence lately as I witness Kyndal struggle with some extended family issues. Now that she is a young adult, almost 20, I have to just let her handle things the way she thinks is right instead of jumping in and handling things the way I would like to. That's hard to do, but necessary at this point in her life. Nothing I would do would help so I just have to deal with the frustrations of being out of control and let her navigate the waters of her own relationships.

Who thinks we need an easy one right now? Key lime pie ... yes please or no thank you?

Absolutely ... key lime pie!! Yum!

Insert your own random thought here.

See my Random 5 on Friday post!