• Cooking lessons…

    February 17, 2013 / 18 Comments

    On Thursday, my eight year old granddaughter came over to spend the day and enjoy her very first “sleepover” at Grandmom’s apartment.  We had such fun!  First of all, she learned to bake a chocolate chess pie – with her doing most of it!  (We enjoyed a couple of slices of it and took the remainder of it home the next day for her to share with everyone).

     

     

    She came bearing all sorts of toys for us to enjoy – especially her little Polly dolls.  We used my decorator boxes for their homes and let our imaginations create a story for them.

    It was Valentine’s Day, so she wanted to surprise my neighbors (even a few I don’t know ;-)) with special Valentines we created!  She brings joy to her world that’s for sure and the Valentines were a hit.

    We popped popcorn and watched the movie Sarah, Plain and Tall (which is actually based on a children’s book) starring Glenn Close.  When it was her bedtime, she was so tired I think she was asleep a minute after her head hit the pillow in the big guestroom bed!

     

     

    The next morning, we watched part of Anne of Green Gables and then we got ready to return her home for her morning school work!

    On Saturday, my daughter, my thirteen-year-old granddaughter and my two grandsons came over.  (My eight-year-old granddaughter and her dad had driven to Iowa City for the long day of a USA swim meet in her age group).  While my oldest grandson stayed at my apartment to study, the rest of us headed out for a couple hours of “shopping”.  First, it was to Michael’s for a few art supplies and soft, wonderful yarn for a new baby blanket.

    Then my granddaughter and I headed to the pet store a few stores down the walkway.  After enjoying a visit with the pets in the Animal Rescue League section of the store (my granddaughter wants to be a vet when she grows up), we joined my daughter and little grandson in the department store next to Michael’s.

    After lunch, my daughter and two grandsons returned home while my granddaughter stayed to spend the day with me and enjoy her cooking lesson!  With very little help from me, she made a cherry latticed pie.  We snacked on a couple of slices that afternoon then took the rest home with her to share.  It was delicious!

     

     

    She is very artistic and we enjoyed drawing together.  We used her new watercolor pencils and turned our drawings into a watercolor with just a few strokes of water…that was fun!  All too soon, it was time to return her home and I stayed for a delicious dinner of lasagna, french bread and cherry pie!

     

    I will look forward to more cooking lessons in the future.  Maybe next time, we will try some Southern homemade fried apple and peach pies…

  • Sweet company…

    February 12, 2013 / 8 Comments

    Later this week, my eight and thirteen-year-old granddaughters will be coming here for a fun day and sleepover.  Each of them wants to learn the art of pie making, so I will be giving a “cooking class”.  My eight year old granddaughter will bake a chocolate chess pie and my thirteen year old granddaughter wants to make a fruit pie with a lattice top.  Needless to say, that will be a lot of fun!  We will also watch a movie, eat popcorn, maybe have time for some art and just relax together.  They love coming over, exploring my apartment, my art books and hanging out with Grandmom.

    I wanted to be sure that my four-year old grandson did not feel “left out”, so yesterday I brought him home with me for a couple of hours.  I teasingly asked him if he wanted to go home with me and “help me clean my apartment, maybe dust mop”.  He was so excited!  His eight year old sister packed him a backpack filled with books and all of the CARS characters – you know, like Lightning McQueen!  He sat down to put his shoes on and the heavy backpack almost pulled him backwards!  His Mom and I had a good laugh and then I carried his backpack for him.

    We were about two miles down the road, almost to University Street, when he quietly said “I miss Mom”.  That lasted about a second and then he was on to another topic of conversation thankfully.

    I had left the apartment basically in a “mess” with sewing stuff and knitting stuff all over the living room but I knew he wouldn’t care.  When we arrived, I opened the apartment door and he rushed inside.  He looked around the living room and up at me.  He flashed that dimpled smile at me and said, “oh, you’ve decorated”!  I laughed and laughed.

    The next two hours were busy ones.  We played CARS on the hardwood floors in my living room.  He’s very creative and can come up with cute themes for our playtime – like it’s Lightning’s birthday and all the cars bring cake and ice cream.  I’m getting really good at making car sounds and definitely have Mater’s Southern accent down pat.  The only problem is my back can’t handle sitting on the hard floor for very long!

    Then it was time for his first cooking lesson!  He had such fun making “chocolate no-bakes” with Grandmom!  He stood in front of the stove on my stepladder and carefully added all the ingredients as I handed them to him.  He stirred and stirred.  I took the last stir and spooned the finished cookies onto foil.  When they were cool, I gave him a small one and a glass of milk for his afternoon snack.  We took the rest home with him later for him to share with everyone.

    When it was time to take him home, he exclaimed “but I haven’t helped you dust mop, Grandmom!”  I found the dust mop and gave it to him.  He actually had fun for a few minutes dusting the hardwood floors!

    Then it was time to leave.  I buckled him carefully in his car seat and we headed back to his home.  We were barely out of my condominium complex, when we asked “do you have some music, Grandmom?”  There was a CD mix of country music in the player and I turned it on.  I was introducing my little Ethiopian Prince to Willie Nelson, Emmy Lou Harris, Alison Krauss and a few other of the classics.  Apparently, my sweet grandson likes country music!

    We were about a half mile from my daughter’s house when I asked him if he knew where he was.  “No,” he replied.  “And you don’t either, Grandmom!”

    “I’d better know!  I’m driving!” I replied through the laughter…

     Photo taken at The Great Pumpkin Festival at church. 

    My daughter made the costume for Halloween which you can read about here.

    He loves Curious George!
    (I love the featured photo of him at the top – taken about three years ago, not long after my daughter and her husband returned from Ethiopia with him.)

  • Reflections on a rainy Sunday morning…

    January 27, 2013 / 13 Comments

    It’s a cold and rainy Sunday morning in January.  I’m home from church this morning feeling under the weather and definitely disappointed that I won’t see my 8 year old granddaughter in her new ensemble that I made for her!  Hopefully, my daughter will take photos for me.  I saw her in it the other day after I finished it but she had just returned from swimming and her hair was wrapped in a towel.  Not quite the same effect as today will be!

    We spent yesterday at the Natatorium (love that word!) at the YMCA watching my 15, 13 and 8 year old grandchildren compete in a swim meet.  There were new “times” set and ribbons won.  They are all fast, strong swimmers and competed beautifully.  Afterwards, my daughter made totally homemade pizza (sauce and all) for dinner and it was delicious!  My now 4 year old grandson asked for “a few rounds of Sock Monkey” before I had to leave and how was I to say no to that?!  😉

    I’m in the process of slowly going through the 576 posts of my 4 year-long blog My Southern Heart.  I would like to find somewhere to have it published before I close the blog.  I published My Southern Heart…the Stories for my children for Christmas a couple of years ago, but my blog My Southern Heart is about 750 pages and too long for the publisher I used previously.  Any ideas or suggestions as to printers/publishers???

    In the process of going through the posts, I came across this one and was reminded, once again, of the wonder of it all – how the many traits and characteristics we possess are passed down from generation to generation…

    Fifty-Five Years and A Lock of Hair…

    Published January 2, 2012

    A box came down from the attic today that I knew held some treasures.  There were letters from my older son and my daughter when they were away at college.  There were letters I had written to my parents after we moved to Kentucky.  There was a card to my older son at college written by my third grade son telling his older brother that he ”didn’t like being an only child” and that he missed him.  The tears were falling, of course, as I continued to sort through these priceless treasures…

    Then I spotted the envelope written in Mama’s hand.  On the front it read “Dianne McGregor.  Lock of hair from September 28, 1957?.  55 years?!  I took the envelope outside into the sunlight and carefully pulled out the lock of hair and the small 55 year old rubber band.   (For a moment, I felt just like Bruce Willis when he meets himself as a child in the Disney movie, “The Kid”.)

    I know now why my youngest has beautiful strawberry blonde hair  (besides the fact his two grandmothers did as well).  I held the proof in my hands.  My hair was clearly blonde.  Strawberry blonde.

    A year or so ago, I tried having my hair a darker brown.  It didn’t feel right.  It didn’t feel like me.  Someone asked me, “what makes you think you’re a blonde?”  Besides my coloring and my memory?  I just knew.

    So, today, I held the 55 year old lock of hair in my hands.  It is the exact same color hair as several of my granddaughters.  I was eleven years old on September 28th, 1957…the same age as one of my granddaughters.

    I love the study of genetics.  The link from one generation to the next.  The circle of life…

     

  • Heimlich hugs…

    January 22, 2013 / 5 Comments

    Last night, I had a sweet visit with my firstborn via Facetime.  While it is not as good as an in person visit, of course, it is the next best thing.  The grandchildren were already in bed and I didn’t get to see them but that gave my son and me a little extra time to catch up.  He is a physician, board certified in both pediatrics and tropical medicine.  He spent the first few years, after residency, practicing in a pediatric group in an “upscale” setting.  While he enjoyed it, he longed for more challenges and an opportunity to work with those in greater need.  He spent the next almost seven years as a missionary doctor in the Andes Mountains of Peru.  He and his precious family loved the opportunity and the Quechua people.  There, my grandchildren quickly became bilingual.  (My son and his wife had taken about 6 to 7 months of intensive language school in the beginning.)  While in Peru, they also adopted my beautiful “Peruvian Princess” granddaughter.

    When they returned to the states a couple of years ago, my son accepted a position teaching at an outstanding medical school.  He teaches residents and medical students preparing for a future in pediatrics.  (And he has a much better disposition and personality than Dr. House!)  😉  He sees patients in a clinic setting as well.  He still uses his tropical medicine specialty teaching in frequent mission opportunities and at the medical school.

    He told me about an episode this past week which, thankfully, had a happy ending.  A three year old boy presented in acute distress after aspirating a GRAPE!  It was a scary time as he and his team worked to save the young child’s life.  At first, repeated efforts of the Heimlich hug were unsuccessful.  The child became unconscious and the parents were hysterical.  They were just before having to perform CPR, when one last abdominal thrust dislodged the grape!   No doubt the parents as well as my son and the rest of the team breathed a big sigh of relief.

    Over a long nursing career, I participated in more than my share of “codes”.  I’m thankful that I don’t have to do that anymore.  However, I am around four of my precious grandchildren often now and need to review my CPR!  I also need to teach them how to correctly perform the Heimlich maneuver.

    And I don’t think that I will feed them grapes anytime soon…

     Featured photo at top:  my son biking out west during college.

  • A little Déjà vu…

    January 7, 2013 / 4 Comments

    I was thirty-four years old when my youngest child was born.  His older brother and sister were twelve and ten.  Needless to say, he never wanted for entertainment.  It’s a wonder he learned to walk before he was one year old, since someone was always carrying him, but he did.  When he started talking, it was in paragraphs with an extensive vocabulary.  His outgoing and sweet personality was evident early on.  He still has it.

    He grew up, graduated from college and married his beautiful college sweetheart.  Now, they have an amazing baby girl.  She has the sweetest disposition to go along with her beautiful blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair.  Her mom says she’s just like her dad…and she is!

    Above and below:  love their similar expressions!

      

     

    Below:  walking with her Dad, wearing her Urlacher jersey with her tutu and Mary Janes!

  • Over the river and through the woods…

    November 26, 2012 / 6 Comments

    Over the river and through the woods, to Aunt Penny’s house we go…

    Actually, it was eleven hours by interstate and the prairie farm backroads of Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas…but the end result was definitely worth it!  It had been two long years since we’d all been together in one place…my children, my grandchildren and myself. Not since the summer of 2010 when we all met in Chicago.  At that time, my oldest and his family were returning home from almost 7 years on the medical mission field in Peru.

    Thanksgiving 2012…and all my precious grandchildren

    We all drove from three different directions to meet in Memphis…where I had grown up…where my children were born and, sadly, where their father is buried.  My children’s paternal Aunt Penny and Uncle Mike graciously hosted our family in Memphis…along with their three sons, wives and four grandchildren.  Thank you, Aunt Penny and Uncle Mike!  We love you!  My oldest and his wife are host parents to a fourteen year old South Korean foreign exchange student this school year so this was her first Thanksgiving. Altogether, there were 27 of us there for the Thanksgiving feast!  It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and I found myself wishing more than once that their Dad could have been their with us…no doubt he was in spirit.

    On Friday night, my niece Sharon and her husband joined us for a fun Corky’s Barbecue dinner.  Delicious food and fun fellowship!  Sharon and Tommy’s son and his wife and their two children stopped by to see us.  They were headed to the Christmas tree lighting at their church so they couldn’t stay for Corky’s.  It was so good to see them!

    I loved watching all my grandchildren playing together and sometimes pairing off by age and interests.  It thrilled me to see the love (and talent for) art in all my grandchildren as well as the love of music.  Four grandchildren are superb on the piano and one plays the violin beautifully.  (I know I sound just like a grandmother – what can I say?!  It’s true all the same.)  The love of books and reading was evident as well.

    I was in grandmother heaven until it came time to say goodbye to each one…then I was a crybaby.  Now, it will mean flights to see my sons and their families…and waiting until we are all together again.  Thankfully, for my daughter and four of my grandchildren, I can just get in the car and drive 14 minutes.  😉

    To see more of the Thanksgiving crazy fun, enjoy the slideshow below!  Just click the arrows to forward or reverse pics.

     

     

    P.S. For those of you who asked for them, the cookie recipes are now at the bottom of the previous post! 😉

    Note:  The Thanksgiving song above is here.