Wednesday Hodgepodge #5

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge hosted by Joyce From This Side of the Pond where summer fun prevails.

1. What's something people might ask you for help with?

Kind of depends on who is asking, but I am sometimes asked to help edit resumes or generally help edit other types of writing or help with ironing (my family).

2. What's something you might ask someone else for help with?
Killing bugs.

3.  Did your family take summer vacations when you were a child? If so, where did you go? If you're a parent, did/do you plan summer vacations with your own family? Did/do they resemble those you took as a child?

My parent didn't take us on vacations when we were children. With our kids, we camped a little, visited my husband's family, or traveled to the beach.

4.   Pool-lake-ocean...which one is most appealing to you on a hot summer day?

I'll take any water I can find - including a squirt gun.

5.  Have you ever justified using the expression, 'you gotta be cruel to be kind'?  Was it really necessary or were you rationalizing?

I don't think I've ever used the expression.

6.  The Journal of Psychology recently mentioned the results of a survey identifying the ten most hated foods as-liver, lima beans, mayonnaise, mushrooms, eggs, okra, beets, brussel sprouts, tuna, and gelatin.  Of those foods, how many do you actually hate? Anything you'd add to the list?

 I don't hate any on the list, although I don't love several of them. The only food I really hate is brie.

7. What's your favorite book or movie set in a beach or lake town?

I can only think of Persuasion by Jane Austen.

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

I'm glad I'm not in my 20s anymore. I see my kids in the midst of all sorts of dilemmas, changes, and decisions and remember how difficult (but often exciting) that decade can be.

eXhale!

There are great reasons to exhale with relief today.

• It is Saturday.
• A difficult job I've been working on for months is, finally, near its end and I don't have to work this weekend.
• The A-Z Challenge, while fun and stimulating, is Whew! almost over.
• I am spending the weekend at the beach.

What could be more enjoyable than a weekend at the beach with people you enjoy?

How about you? Do you have any reasons to eXhale this weekend?

Note: I know exhale doesn't begin with an X, and it is X day in the Blogging A-Z Challenge, but the beginning e is silent, so we're just going to go with that.

College? Bring it On

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.

John Adams

There many directions I could take in choosing to write about the transition to college life. As a mother of four kids whose youngest entered college in August, I could share important tidbits you need to know to prepare for college. I could tell you even more things you as the parent of a college-bound child need to know.

And since I homeschooled my children for 17 years, I have even more valuable advice to share about the transition for kids from education-at-home to the free-for-all life of a dorm-living college student.

I'm not going to tell you any of that. I want to extol the benefits I have reaped as the mother of college kids. 

I can sleep in as late as I want now. No more dragging the kids out of bed so we can begin our school day. (I work from home as a free-lance editor so I can begin my work day at noon if I want and work at night if I want.)

I cook a lot less food a lot less often, and I don't have to grocery shop as much.

People think I should be nominated for sainthood because I homeschooled for so many years and my children have grown into normal adults.

The highlights of my year are no longer the gigantic homeschool convention, the monthly homeschool meeting and yearly mom's retreat, or getting curriculum catalogs in the mail. Since my life is no longer kid and school focused, I can do fun things like to go a sheep and wool festival (maybe not fun to you, but glorious for me and it sure beats back-to-back soccer games on a Saturday).

Vacations don't have to be educational anymore. I went By Myself, no husband, no kids, on vacation last fall and hung out eating, knitting, shopping, laughing and talking with some of my best buddies for five days.

So you see, adjusting to college or having your kids grow up and go to college doesn't have to be the traumatic event some writers warn about. In my opinion? College is great.

Welcome to the Blogging from A-Z April Challenge 2013. I'm aiming for short, entertaining and occasionally insightful posts. Topics addressing transitions are the goal . . . but we'll see.

Image: cooldesign/freedigitalphotos.net

Is This the Room Where They Beat You With Rubber Hoses?

That's what I asked my husband as we neared the end of four grueling hours.

Image

After many years of phone calls where we discovered we were the winners of a three-day, two-night getaway, we finally gave in and took advantage of our "prize."

That's right.  We went on one of those time-share trips where you listen for 90 minutes to the sales spiel, say "No thanks" and go on to enjoy the rest of your mini-vacation.  Only we didn't get off so easily.

Ninety minutes grew into four hours, we were driven from one holiday resort to another, taken back and forth to the sales office, said "No" in as many ways as we possibly could and grew so weary and confused that we forgot where we were and where we parked our car.

I told my husband it reminded me of the wrestling matches I watched on television with my dad when I was a little girl.  There would be special tag-team matches with two, two-man teams.  When one wrestler grew weary he would fight his way to his corner and slap the hand of his tag-team partner whereupon that man jumped in and our weary warrior stepped out to regroup.

But there was always one team who would fight dirty.

We were not that team.

No less than three salesmen tried to befriend us and find our weak spots, wearing us down to the point where we would sign on the dotted line.  One salesman even inferred that I didn't care enough for my husband because by saying no, I was not allowing him enough relaxation time so he might have a heart attack and die.

I'm not kidding.

I'll spare you all the details, but in the end we said "NO" and stuck with it. But I'd love to share a piece of advice.  If you ever decide you want to buy a time-share, just keep saying "NO."  You would not believe just how low a price we finally got them to offer, just by being stubborn.