Wednesday Hodgepodge: The Pleasures of Today (or Yesterday)

 

1. Is your life simple? Elaborate. 

Oh dear. Is anybody's? I mean, to make your life perfectly simple, you'd probably have to walk away from legitimate challenges and responsibilities. I have never been a fan of the song "Gentle on My Mind."

But by "simple," do you mean not terribly overstressed and overworked and overwrought, able to enjoy simple things? Well, yes, my husband and I keep working on that. Homemade pizza and all the rest of it.

2. What simple pleasure are you are currently enjoying?  

Right now, this minute? Sunshine coming in through the loft window, the last of the microwave brownies, and the swish of a thrifted silk maxi dress which I decided to wear around the house today since I have no special other place to wear it to.

3. Travel by plane or go on a cruise? walk or ride a bike? swim or ski? ocean or mountains? 

Top choice out of all of those: walking. But I would travel by plane if it landed me somewhere interesting.

4. What's the last thing you bought online that you really loved? 

Do books for the Kindle app count? I haven't bought much else online lately.

Now if you asked me about flea markets, I might have a longer answer.

5. What’s your 'back in my day we__________' story? 

I go "back in my day we" way too much as it is, especially at flea markets and antique barns.

This morning I was thinking about a camping trip with my grandparents and my little sister in a very old travel trailer, when I was maybe five years old. I don't think we can have gone too far or been away too long, because I'm pretty sure my parents weren't there, so maybe it was just for a weekend. Anyway, my grandpa was worried that the two children were going to fall out of the quite-high bed in the trailer, so he scrounged around for a big flat board (because he always had that sort of thing around, it was like magic). He wedged it against the bunk and penned us in for the night. My grandma, as always, thought he was overdoing the worry thing, and said so; but that was just the way he tried to take care of things, and I still appreciate the thought (even if we had to be penned in like puppies).

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Well, that last one was pretty random.

Since the theme here seems be enjoying the simple things, here's a summer lemonade recipe I learned years ago from Amy Dacyczyn's Tightwad Gazette: 4 cups water, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup bottled lemon juice. Blend with a big spoon. You can halve it, double it, or whatever you need to do with it to make the right amount. It can also accommodate a bit of leftover canned pineapple juice or random things like that.

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond