Grandparent Road Trips

Joyce gave us a heads up that there will be no Hodgepodge next week.  We all need a fall break at some point.  So, I will see you back here on the 25th.  In the meantime, join the rest of the Hodgepodgers on Joyce's Blog to see their answers.

1. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your sense of direction? 1=can't find my way out of a paper bag and 10=if I've been somewhere once I can find it blindfolded ten years later.

I'm a pretty good 7 or 8.

When was the last time you looked at/used a map you could hold in your hand? (phones don't count!) 

In the summer when we went to Mackinaw Island.  I usually do MapQuest on the computer before we leave for a lengthy, first-time trip, then print out certain enlarged screenshots of the map.  We also use our Garmin and iPhone.

back east, down south, out west, up north

Choose one of these directional expressions and tell us why you chose it.

Up North!  Because we have decided it's time to go see our "up north" family.  Of course only six weeks later we'll turn around and go back up north for Christmas.  It's nice to be able to do just-because things sometimes.  By the way, our up north collegiate soccer player got a pretty bad concussion when a very hard kicked soccer ball hit her in the face a couple weeks ago.  She is still having some problems, but is improving.  Scary!

2. Did you do more talking or listening yesterday? Is that typical? Describe your yesterday in one word.

Most of my days involve very little talking.  My listening is mostly to music rather than conversation and no day-time TV.  As this will post on Wednesday and I'm writing on Tuesday, I will project and say that my day will again be spent mostly listening.  I had Pilates at 5:30 AM where I listened and will later have handbell choir, which requires very little talking and a lot of listening.  One word?  So far, its been"Peaceful!"

3. Time, money, water-power-resources, opportunity...which one on the list are you most guilty of wasting? What might you do to change that?

It would probably be time because I have the liberty of choosing what I want to do with it.  Some days are more productive than others.  I don't know that I want to change it.  I feel sure I also waste opportunities to do things that would benefit others as well as myself.

4. Did  your family take regular vacations when you were a kid? Tell us something you remember about a family road trip from your own childhood.

No, we did not.  The only road trips we took were to see family who lived on extreme opposite ends of our home state.  Mother would always pack food for eating and if we needed a bathroom stop, it was along the highway in the bushes and trees.  I remember as a small child riding on a pillow in the middle of the front seat between mother and daddy and thinking what a big girl I was.  There were no car seat restraints or laws in those days.

5. If you could grow anything you wanted, what would you grow? Why?

Watermelons in the middle of an herb garden.  We can never get enough watermelons in the summer and I love growing and picking my own herbs.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

This weekend we will be going to our youngest grandchild's Grandparent's Day.  Needless to say, she is the only grandchild young enough to still be having this.  Actually, her school, Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Tx, makes a really big deal of Grandparent's Day.  We always start the morning with a joint worship service where there will be at least a couple thousand in attendance.  Then we visit the classroom.  She is now in the 5th grade which they consider Middle School.  I would rather not think about that.

We have gone every year, but for some reason I could only find pictures of the last three.  We enjoy sharing this day with our Ava Grace and her other grandparents, Charles and Sandra.

It will be a fun weekend and I'll tell you about it another time.