Mothering the Wednesday Hodgepodge

Today I'm linking up with Joyce @ From This Side of the Pond and all the other lovely ladies who play the Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. What are your ingredients for a perfect Saturday?  You know, it really doesn't matter what I'm doing as long as I'm doing it with family or friends.

2. What skill do you wish more people took the time to learn?  Listening. People do a lot of talking, but very little listening to what others have to say.  It takes effort to focus on someone else. It requires eye contact. It requires lowering that cell phone. It requires letting someone know that you value what they are saying. That you value them.

3. What's something you ate as a child you can't stand now as an adult?  I can't think of anything I ate, but I loved Mountain Dew as a child and now the massive amounts of caffeine and sugar give me a nearly instant headache.

4. Something parenting has taught you? If you're not a parent tell us one important lesson you learned from your own parents.  Parenting has taught me that my house will never look like those houses in the magazines and that all of my best laid plans will go through a whole lot of rewrites and I will rarely (if ever) come off looking like I have it all together....and that is okay. 

5. Share a favorite quote or saying about mothers or motherhood.  If you have a mom, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been. ~Robert Brault
6. Insert your own random thought here.  It's that time of year again. The countdown to the last day of school is under way. I have 14 more days to go. I cannot wait. The kids are getting antsy and rather than excited and happy that summer's all most here, they seem to be getting cranky, miserable and ugly with each other. I really cannot wait until May 31.