Wednesday Hodgepodge

Yeah, I know today is Thursday. It has been a crazy week! I have been enjoying a morning at home feeling a bit like a zombie but chugging lots of coffee. Blogging is something I have had the hardest time fitting into my schedule lately, but I felt like a little Hodgepodge reflection this morning.

The first day of summer is this week. What are 10 things you'd put on your list of quintessential summer activities? Will you try to manage all 10 this summer?

Our summer is half over, so we have been at the majority of these things already. Most of them will continue over the next month and a half.
1. Swimming
2. DQ (ours is only open during warm seasons)
3. Softball
4. Lake
5. Kids staying up late and sleeping in
6. 4th of July festivities
7. Grilling hotdogs
8. Sports camps for the kids
9. Lesson planning for the upcoming school year for me
10. Kansas City Royals baseball

Do you collect seashells when you're at the beach? What do you do with them once you get them home? What's your favorite place to comb for seashells? How many of the Best Beaches for Hunting Seashells have you visited? Which one would you most like to visit?

I do not collect seashells, but I do enjoy looking for them while on the beach. The only beach we really get to regularly is in Pensacola and there's not much in the way of shell combing there. We could head to Sanibel Island or another area with more shelling, but I wouldn't say that we are interested enough in it to do it.

At a snail's pace, shell out money, come out of your shell, go back into your shell, drop a bombshell, happy as a clam, clam up ... which 'shell' phrase could most recently be applied to some event or circumstance in your life? Explain.

Definitely go back into your shell. There has been way too much going, people, and activity for me this past month, and I do not operate at my best under those conditions. I, so desperately, want to go back into my shell and hibernate in my house with some mindless television, coffee, and good books. What I wouldn't do for a cool, rainy day. Most people just don't get how important, even necessary, it is for me to have a lot of alone time, peaceful days, and minimal activity. It is not just a mental thing but a physical one, as well. When I have been around too many people with too many activities I grow extremely weary and even start to feel physically unwell. I feel like I have to defend that all the time, even to those closest to me who cannot relate. But it really is just the way that I am, and I am prepared to protect it at all costs. In fact, it has become a sort of mission of mine.

What summer activity do you dislike? Why?

Sweat. Here is a newsflash. I DO NOT LIKE SUMMER! Actually, there is not much about it that I like AT ALL. Out of the activities above, I do not like to: swim, be at hot softball practices and games, be at the lake unless it's a rainy day, stay up late, or listen to the noise of the 4th of July. Instead, I would rather pick up some DQ sandwiches for dessert to eat after we have our grilled hotdogs, then sit down to do some reading (even lesson planning is relaxing to me) and watch a Royals baseball game on t.v. And I would prefer to do all of those things when it's about 45 degrees outside, and raining or snowing.

What's something you see as quickly becoming obsolete? Does that bother you?

Respect. Just look around. It's so sad.

Insert your own random thought here.

Can't wait to see Backstreet Boys in Las Vegas in a little over a week!