Wednesday Hodgepodge for May 20

How did we get 2/3 of the way through May?  Somehow it's Wednesday, May 20 -- and time for the third Hodgepodge in May.  To join in, head over to From This Side of the Pond and get the questions from Joyce, then answer them on your own blog.  Here are the questions for this week:

1. In a single sentence tell us something about your 40's. If you haven't reached that milestone yet tell us (in a single sentence) something about whatever decade you're in now.

My first thought was, "Oh boy.  Do I even want to admit what decade I've reached this year?"  Then I realized that second question is only for those who haven't reached 40 yet.  So all I have to do is in a single sentence tell something about my 40s.  Well, there's this: My kids were at boarding school and college while I was in my 40s, and that is when my spiritual growth really began to take off.  (For those interested, the book below can be found at Thriftbooks.

The book I decided to study when my nest was temporarily empty.  With it I began my road to greater spiritual growth.

2. Life begins at forty. Agree or disagree? Tell us why. And if not at forty, when?

I don't think life begins at forty; to be really technical, life begins at conception.  (You know, I believe that this is one of those "Joyce making us think" questions she is so good at.) I'm not even sure what "life begins at forty" means.  Some people, after all, never grow up.  And aren't children, teenagers, twenty-somethings and thirty-something living beings?  At forty many people are working their hardest and their homes are often filled with children and teens.   They may not feel as if "this is the life!"  I'm not any closer to a coherent answer to the question, so I'll quit trying.

3. Share a favorite book, song, or quote with a number featured in it somewhere. 

Easy one.  The hymn "The Ninety and Nine" has always been a favorite of mine.  The illustration on the book cover below -- a book I refer to often --  always makes me think of that beloved hymn. 

4. A picture's worth a thousand words, a stitch in time saves nine, back to square one, catch-22, on cloud nine, my two cents...pick a number phrase and tell us how it applies to your life currently.

Those are some good choices for phrases all right.  I think I'd better refrain from adding my 2¢.  Either "a stitch in time saves nine" or "back to square one" could work for my current crochet project.  This is a pretty throw crocheted in panels.  It is a UFO of several years' standing.  This year I was determined to finish it.  I  completed what was to be the last panel, sewed it to the rest, and found it was at least 6 inches too long.  So ... my first thought was to just throw the thing away.  However, my hubby was not having that.  ("You have too many years of work invested!")  He looked it over, determined where I needed to go back to, and helped me figure it out.  Understand that each panel has several border rows crocheted around it.  So those needed to come off, then I had to remove those extra 6 inches.  Thankfully, crochet is easy to pull out.  I did all that, then we both did careful measuring and counting before I replaced the border rows.  So, fast forward to last night when I sewed the panel to the others.  Inexplicably, it was now 6 inches too short!  Aaargh!  Our current thought is that I am going to leave it in place and just do the best I can to lengthen it to match the others.  Then it has more border rows crocheted around the whole thing.  It has all been much more work than I ever envisioned when I tackled the project, and is thicker and heavier than I anticipated.  I'm no longer sure the recipient is even going to like it.  I've learned lots of lessons from it, however.

Creativity: I'm going to need it to fix this crafting dilemma

5. Last time you drove more than 40 miles from home? More than 400 miles from home? Where were you going? Was it before or after this current season of social distancing?

The last time we drove more than 40 miles from home was last Saturday.  My hubby was purchasing a small used sawmill to use in sawing out lumber from our property and our son-in-law's land as well. The owner happens to live in a very scenic corner of the Lakes Region.  We took the camera along but failed to take any photos.  We also (gasp!) stopped at a lakeside ice cream place and ate our ice cream sitting on the dock in an area "not maintained according to CDC guidelines" which we could "approach at our own risk".   So thankful that was an option.

Same lake, different day, month and year

I can't even remember the last time we drove more than 400 miles from home.  It must have been when our younger daughter (now in Nevada) lived in South Carolina.  I'm thinking it must have been 2004. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Today has been a really gorgeous day here, blue sky, warm temps, a lovely breeze.  Just the perfect early spring day.  I got out for a nice long walk and it was so nice to see yellow forsythia and purple azaleas, among other flowering plants.

Photo is from Pixabay

So ends another Hodgepodge!  Happy Wednesday, everyone!