Hodge Podge Vol 59 - A Few Days Late and Few Dollars Short

On Tuesday through Thursday of this week I was either traveling to, from, or in Gatlinburg for Winter Extreme with our youth at Rock Mills.  Tuesday, on the way up....was sick the whole way...so hence why there was no Hodge Podge posted as per usual.  Sorry I am late guys...I am home, still not 100%....but home and happy.  If you have not already, hop over to Joyce's blog and check out everyone else's answer.  You might want to visit Joyce's Christmas Recap...it is a lovely piece.

Ok so here we go with Joyce's questions and my answers.  I hope you are prepared to be amused and whatever.

1. Share something you loved about your Christmas day.

Easy Peasy....a day at Church with my precious husband reading the Christmas story followed by an afternoon of games, food, and fun with my precious daughter Kat and her precious husband Brian.  It was a perfect day filled with favorite things!

2. You get to put five items in a time capsule to be opened in 100 years, what items would you choose and why?

• an handwritten journal-  handwriting might be a thing of the past.  Most young people think so.  

• a classic book - not an ebook....a real, smell the pages kind of book.  They will be extinct in a 100 years and it would not amaze me if the only place you will be able to find one is in the vault of a library somewhere. My problem is chosing which one.  There are so many awesome ones out there.  

• My 2011 scrapbook and blog in book form - I think the pictures will give 100 years from now the kind of laugh we get now when we look back at the 1950's, 60's and 70's.  I find it hard to believe that I wore that.....ever....and thought I was cute in it.

• the Bible - I would love to pack up my most favorite, dog eared bible, after having carefully marked the special passages I want to share.
• a core set of school books (history, math, english, and science)...that way they will know what kind of role education played in our lives....and what we taught our children.  

3. What do you like on a cracker?

Holiday cheeseball, peanut butter, colby or jack cheese, pimiento and cheese, chicken salad,....yep.... I will pretty much eat anything on a Ritz.....reasonably.

4. Do you make resolutions? How'd that work out for you this past year?

I don't make resolutions.....I break those pretty quick.  I  simply spend a week and reflect on my life from Christmas day until New Years Eve....I look at the good and the bad.....what I succeeded in and failed at....where I need to improve....or accomplish something new.....and pray over them.  I do not write them down....because I have found when I made a big deal of them....I ditched them early on....with it kind of between God and I.....I tend to be a bit more focused because the big guy himself is aware of them.   Last years goals were shot down in the water with all the death and dying in my life.  I hope this year will be better.  If I had to give myself a grade I would maybe get a C-.  I was halfway there.

5. What's a song or song lyric you'll associate with 2011?

Blessings by Laura Story....this is the kind of year I had.

'We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise'

6.  How will you ring in the new year?

I promise you I will be asleep before the ball drops.  I will wake up and it will be 2012.  We will do something with friends or do something together.

7. What is something you look forward to in 2012?

Peace for my family.  A good year. I would like a year with no loss.  I am tired of hanging out at the funeral home.....I am tired of tears.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Youth trips are so fun....especially with all girls....there is never a dramaless moment.  You have got to love them.  We took some of our youth to Gatlinburg to Winter Extreme....it was a wild ride....and the devil had his hand in it from the get go....but...inspite of him....three of our four girls rededicated their lives to God.  Can I get an AMEN on that one.