At the age of thirty-five in Ventura with our three kids. Double that thirty-five and add two years and that is where I am today but not in Ventura!

I missed the Hodgepodge last week but am on track for this week. Thank you Joyce From This Side of the Pond!

1. Tell me something you remember (or if you’re not there yet, something you look forward to) about being 35.

In my 35th year, which was 1986, I was nursing our third and last child who was our first daughter. We were living in Ventura, California. Greg was working in a quarry running a front end loader close to our home. He was taking night classes at Ventura College to see if a change of career path was right for him. Our boys were five and seven finishing up Preschool and 1st grade. We were in the busy time of parenting which would last for several years!

2. Last time you ‘burned the candle at both ends’? 

Last week was a burn the candle at both ends kind of week. Getting ready for a garage sale is hard work. A good distraction was our bookend overnight company at the beginning of the week and end of the week. It was wonderful to see them and get caught up. Thankfully those guests are the kind that take care of themselves and don’t need fussing. The kind you are ‘real’ with. My brother in law even mowed the lawns for me because he enjoys that. Saturday our 92 foot tree was felled while I was finishing up at the garage sale. Then on Sunday was a tearful send-off of our beloved Pastor Dennis and Miss Lori which made for some emotional tiredness. On Monday Greg started the demolition of our master shower! I’m fine, we’re fine, everyone is fine. LOL!

BTW: We made a significant amount of money at the garage sale which made the hard work acceptable. 🙂

Here is our granddaughter giving a going away picture she drew for Pastor Dennis and her beloved Cubby teacher, Miss Lori during their Going Away Open House.  Old and young will miss these two.

3. Are you someone with the ‘gift of gab’? Elaborate (which shouldn’t be a problem if you answered yes teehee).  

I have the gift of gab on paper (which you might have noticed when I answer questions here) but not so much in verbal communication.

4. Do you request a special meal on your birthday, and if so tell us what that meal is?

I enjoy going out on my birthday and having a special meal. That special meal depends on the menu offerings. If there is Osso Bucco on the menu I will probably order it.

Do you want the same kind of cake year after year or will any flavor work? Do you want cake at all?

Cake is optional. We might order some dessert off the menu and have bites around the table.

Growing up were birthdays a big deal in your house?

Birthdays were not elaborate at all but they were celebrated. It was hit and miss on how they were celebrated. My older sisters and I got birthstone rings on our 16th birthday from our parents. I honestly don’t remember many of my birthdays growing up.

Are they a big deal now? 

Our kids have made our birthdays of late a time to celebrate with a meal out which we have enjoyed. I don’t need a big deal and the best thing is being together enjoying a meal together. Our kids made a very big deal of my 60th birthday and my 70th birthday which was very special.

My 60th birthday with a limousine ride to the restaurant. Our daughter was busy getting married at the Justice of the Peace in Jacksonville, N. C.  before Andrew’s first deployment to Afghanistan.

My 70th birthday celebrated in Spokane and Colville. The decade between my 60th and 70th grew our family with a son-in-law and another daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.

5. ‘Age is just a number.’..agree or disagree? Tell us why. 

There are some significant numbers when it comes to age all through our lives. Turning one is a big deal and then turning 5 which signified the beginning of public education. Becoming a teenager at 13 is another landmark. Sweet 16 was special in our family and then there is 18, when some of my friends left home and some went to college, the age of independence. Twenty One was a popular age and the legal drinking age here in most of the states. After that the decades were noted, like 30-40-50-60-70! The age of retirement was 65 and now that is more fluid. And then there is that dreaded age when the car keys should be taken away and all ladders removed from our homes!

I’m surprised at how different sixty or seventy looks on different folks. Those who have had a very hard life and made many poor choices in life look older.

I enjoy being around older people who are ‘young at heart’ and who are content and at peace with their age.

Not sure I answered the question but I did prove I have the gift of gab on ‘paper’!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Photos from when I was thirty five years old and busy with these three gifts from God.

Thanks for reading my ‘gab’.