It Really Is a (Wednesday) Hodgepodge!

1. Share one fun thing you did last week, while the Hodgepodge was on 'spring break'.
~ The young adults from our church organized an open mic night and invited several local Christian musicians.  Tim didn't go, but Megan did!!  It was a lot of fun.

2.  April 10th is National Sibling Day...do you have siblings, and if so are you close? Share a favorite story featuring one or all of your siblings. If you don't have siblings, did you ever wish you did?
~ No siblings for me.  Yes, I did wish for a sibling...an older brother to be specific (don't ask me how I thought that would happen). 

3. Is it important to you to 'buy American'? Why or why not? How much of an effort do you make to 'buy American'? If you're not American, insert your own country in the blank. 
~ Wellllllll, it's kind of important, but I don't really go out of my way to find "made in America" stuff.  If it's  there, it's made in America and the price and quality of the product is comparable to the same item made else where then I will buy the American product.  Sadly, all too often the price is higher or the quality inferior.  In that case it comes down to the better value for my hard-earned dollars.

4. Besides The Bible, what book has impacted your spirituality in some way?
~ If I'm being honest, in my younger, pre-Christian days I was greatly influenced by Confessions of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach, the same man who wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull.  Complete new age drivel.

5. April showers bring May flowers or so the saying goes.  Do you find rainy days calming or depressing?  When were you last caught in a rainstorm? What's blooming in your neck of the woods today? 
~ I'm not a fan of endless rainy days one after the other....the gray begins to depress me.  However, I love a good thunderstorm and there is nothing like a nice all day rain in the summer as an excuse to close the blinds, pop some popcorn, and pop a favorite chick flick in (mine is Dirty Dancing).  As for being caught in a rainstorm....I don't know, probably last Fall.  Not a lot is blooming here, yet.  The crocus are up and I did see a few daffodils yesterday, but that's pretty much it.

6. What's your favorite yellow food?
~ Fresh corn on the cob, cooked on the grill, dripping with butter, and seasoned with a pinch of seasoned salt.

7. April is National Poetry Month...what's a poem that holds special meaning for you, and why is it special?
~ I've always liked The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.  I like the imagery of facing a fork in life's path and having to choose and the choice making a difference in how life turns out.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost 

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

~ I just finished up Writing to God: 40 Days of Praying with My Pen this week.  My friend, Dawn, over at Beneath the Surface: Breath of Faith invited her readers to join her in following the daily prayer prompts and to meet up once a week on her blog to reflect and share on our experiences.  We actually followed the prompts for longer than 40 days because we did this over Easter and the book contains special reflections for Holy Week.  Today is the final meet up and the author, Rachel G. Hackenberg is hanging out with us.  Head over if you've been following along or if you just heard today and you're curious.