Hodgepodge: One Giant Leap for the Year

Can you believe it's already the last day of the second month of the year Two Thousand Twelve? I think the date February 29 is so cool . I have friends who celebrated 52 years of marriage on their 13th anniversary because they got married on this date .

Let's leap onto the next lilypad of Hodgepodge questions From This Side of the Pond, shall we? Get your cup of coffee, your spot of tea, or your Bud. Weis. Er, whatever you want to sip on to toast this special day as you read my answers and then hop around the worldwide pond of Hodgepodgers today.

1. The Hodgepodge falls on the last day of February this year, a leap year. How will you spend that extra day?

If you must know, I have a to-do list that is packed solid:

-Drop boy off at school

-Deliver crockpot of soup to church

-Get eyebrows waxed

-Buy a shaper (My hubby says, "You mean a girdle?" and I say, "They don't call them that anymore. A girdle is for old ladies, which I'm not. I'm middle aged and need my shape shaped up a bit under my dress for the wedding."

-Buy a strand of pearls (which, looking in the mirror, reminds me of the phrase "casting your pearls before swine.")

-Pick boy up from school

-Rest

-Paint my nails

-Attend ladies' meeting

-Pack up my art lesson and stuff for Thursday's class

2. What has recently required a leap of faith on your part?

My brother-in-law's cancer diagnosis and the ensuing tests, surgeries, and what-ifs that accompany such a trial.

3. We're one week into the season of Lent...are you marking these 40 days in some way? Giving something up or adding something extra to normal life? How's it going so far?

No, I've never really observed Lent. I grew up Baptist/Methodist/sometimes Jewish/Episcopalian, you name it, so my traditions flexed. But if you count a wedding as adding something extra to normal life, then yes, but it has nothing to do with Lent. Except that we're giving up a lot of money .

How's it going so far? Okay. I'm just really, really, REALLY glad I'm not the mother of the bride. The stress this week about what we're responsible for as the groom's parents has been getting to me, as well as the stress of knowing I can't forget to pack anything because the wedding is two hours from home and we're going up there the day before. Plus I'm not wild about the haircut I just got. Grrr.

4. When was the last time you sat beside a fire?

It was a Tuesday in early January. I got as close as I could to the fireplace at Panera when I met my hubby for a dinner date. I think it might have been the one and only night of such wannabe winter weather in January, so maybe we were just there to celebrate White Precipitation Day??? The wet powder fell from heaven and dissolved on the sidewalk like communion wafers in the mouth as we sat near the fire "mmming" and "ahhing" our "You Pick Two" of tomato soup and a portabello sandwich." The fire was just for ambience: more like an extra on a Hollywood set than a leading role.

5. Surf and Turf is on the menu. Do you order as is or do you ask for just the surf (lobster), just the turf (steak), or a menu so you can select another option?

I order by my mood, but Surf and Turf is often very fitting to my mood, for sure. If lobster were the only "surf" choice, I'd take it, although I much prefer jumbo lump Maryland Blue Crab. The steak would be cooked medium.

6. If you could have any television program back, not in reruns but in new episodes, what program would you choose?

Hmm, that's a toughie to answer. Leave it to Beaver, Lost in Space, or the Andy Griffith Show. I think I'd go with the Beave, since our youngest likes the show, too. And he sort of reminds me of Beaver when he is sorry for getting in trouble with his teacher. Last week he was telling me after school that he lost his stamp for inappropriate talk. I asked him what he said. "Well, Mrs. K is always telling us she's the Queen, that her chair is her throne and stuff like that. We were walking out for recess and I was first in line behind her, and I said, 'I'm walking behind the royal behind.' "

She reprimanded him, made him miss some of recess, and took his stamp away for the day. (A stamp is what they get on their calendar for good behavior.) He was really sorry for saying what he did because he loves and adores his teacher. He just didn't think before he spoke and wanted a laugh from the class. It was all we could do not to laugh as he explained and confessed.

7. They say an elephant never forgets. These days would you say your memory is more like an elephant or a gnat?

I had to read the question twice because I forgot the first part of it before I got to the end.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Speaking of leaps, I heard about a program called FROGS that I want to get involved in. FROGS is a clever acronym for Friends and Relatives of Great Students, and is a mentoring opportunity at the school across from our church. Volunteers go in and read and study with the elementary aged kids. I can so picture myself enjoying that since I love schools. I do. They rev my engine. And I love helping kids succeed academically. And I have time on my hands. So it seems a perfect fit for me in this stage of "what to do that's meaningful in life now that I'm not a young mommy or a homeschooler or staying up late nights with teens whose day starts at 11 pm with a need to talk or college kids who need me to edit their papers or cut out 16 Easter bunnies for a seasonal preschool learning game?". Now I have time in between helping grade 32 math papers as a "favor" for my daughter-turned-first grade-teacher, fixing dinner, teaching art, folding laundry, blogging, running carpool, scrubbing toilets, and zoning out on Facebook. I think I can leap like a frog in my schedule right now--after the wedding, that is. After a certain Handsome Prince marries his beautiful Princess and begin their "Happily Ever After" story.