Sweet Summer Hodgepodging

1. The sweetness of summer...where have you found it recently? If you're in the Southern hemisphere, feel free to tell us about the sweetness you're finding in winter. 

So far, I'm experiencing the "sweatness" of summer, as I am working outdoors with my buddy Fred trying to get this house ready... purge, purge, purge ... clean, clean, clean. If the house doesn't sell, I will still be better off with all this stuff done!!! How's that for making lemonade out of lemons before you even have the lemons? 

But, to answer the question, the sweetness of summer has been the friendships and the people who have helped and encouraged me so much in all I do. 

2. Take your sweet time, sweet tooth, home sweet home, short but sweet, the sweet smell of success, sweet talk...choose a sweet idiom and tell us how it fits your life currently? 

Sweet tooth!! I'm finding myself indulging in sweets of some kind every day, can't open the pantry without seeing those chocolate covered almonds or peanut butter cups, and, thanks to me, the freezer is now running low on brownies and chocolate chip cookies!!

3. Sweet as honey, sweet as sugar, or sweet as pie, which phrase do you use when a sweet phrase is called for? Sweet as honey, I think. What's the last sweet treat you indulged in? Oh dear, yesterday at lunch with my friends, we had her chocolate birthday cake, and last night after dinner, I had a big slice of Alice's Italian Cream Cheese Cake. She baked it for a wedding! Not only was it delicious, it was quite lovely decorated with real flowers.

4. First thing that comes to mind when you hear the word fidget? 

Kids who can't sit still or maybe Fidget Spinners in the hands of kids who can't sit still!

5. Share with us one of your favorite childhood travel memories. 

I still smile when I remember how our family traveled to Illinois one summer, along with my aunt and uncle and their boy, Lonnie Wayne: five of us and three of them. Yes, I have shared this story and the pics a few times in the past! We traveled in an UN-air-conditioned, 57 Chevrolet. We drove all night from Arkansas to Illinois to visit another aunt and uncle and cousins. We enjoyed a wonderful time there and Aunt Gerry took us kids to the public swimming pool to cool off. Sweet! Swimsuits were available for rental since we had not brought our own. Ewwww!! It is hard for me to imagine us doing that today even though we were just kids about 9 and 7, I think. I remember threatening a little boy who put a frog down my sister's back!

We always loved going to Arkansas!

6. Insert your own random thought here. I am just posting some random photos of recent happenings. Not too many thoughts except I'm doing my best to not get my hopes up too much about my moving to a new location.

Fred working on the stairs to the upstairs deck

Cute kids at church meeting for first time.

The boy is gonna break some hearts!

Things around the house ... some sentimental and

some odd finds!

Here a mess, there a mess,

everywhere a mess, mess!

Lunch on Monday with long time friends was indeed a sweet summer treat. We celebrate 46 years of friendship and meet through the year on our birthdays. Yesterday was for my May birthday and Sherri's July. The you-know-what virus prevented our meeting in May as Nancy is 80 years old and at risk. Can you believe she is 80??? Anyway, we have a Willow Tree figurine that we pass on to each of us who is celebrating a birthday. In light of the clutter in my house now, I left it with Sherri to enjoy until we meet again.

Left to right, Sherri, me, Nancy

And the frosty mugs were in my DH's little fridge. It brought back the sweet memory of him singing, "Put it in a frosty mug for me, put it in a frosty mug, glug, glug, glug, put it in a frosty mug!"

The kids LOVED singing that with Grandpa as I poured up the chocolate milk or whatever beverage they wanted in a frosty mug!