June 23rd Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

I made mini strawberry shortcakes

Good Morning! I never got to my blog yesterday, sorry. Other than wishing a few folks Happy Birthday, I really wasn’t online. When I got up, I started working on the salad and dessert I needed to bring with me to the annual church picnic. By the time I finished making them, it was time to jump into the shower and get ready for church.

Ready for a shocker? My hubby came with Dani and me to church, and it was his idea. Two weeks ago, at Dani’s confirmation, we saw the sign-up sheet for the picnic in the vestibule, and I made the comment I would like for us to go. Getting my husband to go to church for something other than Christmas, Easter or a special occasion, is like pulling teeth, so I thought my request fell on deaf ears.

Then on Monday, my mom called and asked to borrow our cooler. I said I had to ask my husband because the cooler was brand new, and it was his Christmas present from PJ and Alex, so it wasn’t mine to lend. When he came home from work, I asked him. He said “No” and that we’d be needing it for the church picnic. Then he said, “We’re still going, right?” I was like, yeah, sure, I didn’t think of that, and tried to play it real cool, but I was doing the happy dance inside.

Now I have no delusion my husband will all of a sudden start wanting to go to church, but it was nice that he actually wanted to go this time. It’s a shame he doesn’t want to go, and I know if I push, he’ll just resent it even more. It’s a battle I choose not to wage, and I’m happy for the occasions when he does join me.

So, we had an absolutely fabulous day for the picnic. It was sunny, there was virtually no humidity, and there was a light breeze. I’d guess we had between forty and fifty people there, but it was hard to tell, with all the kids running in

I wanted you to see what a
cool house they had, but this
is the only photo I could find.

different directions, to get an accurate head count.

Carolyn and John have hosted the picnic for several years now. Their house is up the road from our church. It’s a lovely 200+ year old house on a beautiful piece of property. I did learn something new, the house was originally our church’s parsonage; one of our original ministers and his family lived there.

We did have one uninvited guest at the picnic. One of the church members was in the playground with his daughter when he noticed an enormous moth. He snapped a photo on his phone and brought it over to the grill, where I was helping John and Caroline with the burgers and dogs, and asked about it. None of us had ever seen anything like it, so in turn, we all went to investigate.

I was about two feet away. It really
 was almost as big as my hand.

I dragged Dani with me, and made her take a picture. Can you believe the size of this thing? That’s my hand in the photo (that’s as close as I was going to get – I didn’t want to scare it off, so others wouldn’t be able to see it too). I had every intention of sharing the photo with you this morning because it was something I had never seen before and I thought you would find it interesting. Then, while I was scrolling through this morning’s Facebook posts, I saw a post from one of my friends from High School. She posted a picture of a very similar moth which was on here screen yesterday. Then someone commented with a photo saying she had one on her garbage can.

Clearer photo from the web

Apparently these Mothras were appearing all over New Jersey, so of course, I had to go investigate. After several sites and oodles of photos, I think I have narrowed it down to a Citheronia-regalis, aka, Royal Walnut Moth, and according to the website, there have been confirmed sightings of the moth in our town (ironically a few doors down from my in-laws).

Okay, enough about bugs. Today is going to be a long day. In a couple of hours I have to go and pick up Dani, she slept over a friend’s house last night. Then we have to go do the dog sitting thing. After that, I plan on spending several hours editing. Hopefully, I will be able to complete the job today. Then I am going to take a nap, or at least try to, because I have to leave my house at ten tonight and drive to Newark Airport to pick up Lys. Her flight arrives at eleven.

These late night flights of hers are going to be the death of me. I usually turn into a pumpkin by ten at night. That, plus the fact I hate driving at night. I’ll admit it, I’m getting older, and my night vision is not as crisp as I would like it to be. I find myself having to drive via the white line to try and avert my eyes from the glare of oncoming traffic. This only allows you to see so far ahead of you, but luckily my reaction time has not diminished much…yet. The minute I feel it has, I will avoid driving at night.

Alright, I have babbled on long enough. I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

If household objects had personalities.

If. If? What do you mean if? I have a house full of objects with their own personalities, mostly persnickety personalities. Not one of them works when I want them to or in the way I want them to, and what’s really annoying is when they don’t get along with each other. For example, if I have the Keurig brewing my morning coffee, I can’t nuke a breakfast sandwich or we will lose power to the entire house. Now, I can literally have every other appliance going at the same time with no issue, but the Keurig and the microwave will not work together.

My blender is a bit of a hot head. It likes what it likes, and lord help you if you try to blend something it does not like. It loves making milkshakes, blends them to perfection. It is also a fan of smoothies and potato, bacon

, cheddar soup. However, whenever I try to make split pea soup, some calamity occurs and I end up with green globs dripping from my ceiling, cabinets, and my nose. Now, if my blender was a person, I’d be able to say I didn’t blame him. Not many people like pea soup, and the only reason I make it is for my in laws, but the blender is not human so it should not have a preference as to what it blends, right?

The Lazy boy in the living room, the one which was originally a gift for my husband, but I have since appropriated as my home base for all my writing, hates my youngest daughter. I sit in the chair with no problems what so ever. Others sit in it

with no issue. Dani goes to sit in it, the foot rest won’t go up or down. If she does manage to get the foot rest to work, and tries to recline, the chair tips over backwards. I swear, she’s not doing anything wrong. I’ve watched her closely. The chair simply hates her and doesn’t want her sitting on it.

Your Next Challenge is:

You are a tasty treat in a bakery display.

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.