• Time in a bottle…

    March 6, 2013 / 4 Comments

    Remember the old Jim Croce song, “Time in a Bottle”?  Time is flying by.  I see the changes in my children, my grandchildren and especially myself.  I didn’t expect to stay young forever and, truthfully – in my heart and mind – I still feel like the young woman my daughter is today.  Too bad the rest of my BODY didn’t get the memo!  😉

    In a couple of months, my high school graduating class will celebrate our FIFTIETH high school reunion.  Unfortunately, I will miss it.  I have a hard time believing that FIFTY years have passed since I graduated from high school.  It seems like last week!  I think I can explain that rationale.  After six decades and a few years, our long term memory is actually better than our short term memory!  Go figure.

    In the spirit of nostalgia, I’ll share a few photos from yesterday – uh, I mean yesteryear…

    My first two children (fifteen and a half months apart) and I were out shopping one day.  Here, they were about two and a half and four years of age.  I decided to snap some photos of them in a Photomat.  I love their expressions!  Priceless photos and memories. 

    They’re all grown up now.  He’s a physician, happily married and the father of three daughters.  He was a missionary doctor in Peru for almost 7 years but thankfully they’re back in the states now.  She’s happily married and the mom of two sons and two daughters.  She has a degree in fine art and is a wonderful artist but has little time to paint between homeschooling and managing everyone’s busy schedule! 

    Where did all that time go?

     I love this photo.  This is my youngest with his beautiful strawberry blonde hair.  We had been camping in the Great Smokey Mountains that week.  Here, he was walking across a beam that was about two feet above the ground…that’s a lot when you’re barely three years old.  What you can’t see in the photo is that his dad and brother and sister were cheering him across.

    He’s all grown up now.  Happily married and the father of a beautiful 18 month old baby girl (and they’re expecting their second late summer).  He has always been an entertainer…for as long as I can remember.  Now, he’s the executive producer of a successful television show. 

    Where did all that time go? 

     In the three photos below, my sisters and I were having our usual “four sisters” photo taken at one of our gatherings.  The first photo was taken about 1961.  The other two in the mid-1980’s.   As always, there was plenty of kidding as we lined up.  The lower two priceless photos were taken at my late sister Gerry’s house on the hill.  Sadly, two of my sisters are now in Heaven.

    Where did all that time go?  

    Parts of this post were originally published in My Southern Heart…

  • Home for Christmas…

    December 22, 2012 / 5 Comments

    A friend from high school posted the youtube video clip below on Facebook.  It reminded me of a post that I had written about coming home from college for Christmas in that very same 1963 snowstorm!   Thought I’d share the post here and give you a first hand look at what I was describing in the video below…

    Home for Christmas

    Originally published in My Southern Heart…the Stories on November 20, 2008.

    The days on the calendar flew quickly by. Thanksgiving had come and gone, and I was looking forward to a nice long break at Christmas. I was tired and “run down”, to use one of Mama’s expressions, after a bout with strep throat and a high fever. I had even managed to spend a few days and nights as a patient at the infirmary where I worked. The Christmas break would give me a chance to rest and catch up on all the school work I’d fallen behind on…not to mention preparing for the finals the week after my return to school. Not the best way to spend Christmas vacation, but I was thankful for the time.

    It snowed the day before we were to leave for Christmas break. A deep blanket of white covered the campus. Icicles hung from the chapel and other buildings and weighed heavily on the tree branches. Everything glistened in the bright sunlight. It was a winter wonderland in the deep South. No one had come prepared with boots but we still tromped in the snow, throwing snowballs at one another and basically acting thirteen again. It added to the excitement of going home.

    I was riding home with Sandra, one of my friends from Memphis, who was also a freshman there. Her boyfriend Mike had come down to drive us back to Memphis. It seems there was someone else with us on the trip…but I can’t quite remember who it was. I gently remind myself that it has been forty-five years.

    It continued to snow all that day, and the roads had turned into a solid sheet of ice. Driving was reported to be treacherous at best. Under normal circumstances, the trip took four hours. We left school about eleven o’clock in the morning right after our last class. It didn’t take long, or very many miles, to know we were not looking forward to this trip. Mike was a good driver but totally inexperienced driving in snow; and now the snow had been packed under a sheet of ice.

    I remember vividly that, at first, there was talk and laughter among us on the trip…and then silence as we realized how dangerous it was. We must have only been traveling about 20 miles per hour, but more than once, we slipped and slid totally across the road and into what would have been oncoming traffic…had anyone else been there. We passed dozens of vehicles abandoned on the side of the road or, even worse, wrecked. There were very few stores open and we needed to stop for gas. We also needed to get some food and something warm to drink. Unfortunately, this was before cell phones so we had no way to call our parents or anyone if, indeed, we were to need help.

    We finally found a store open and bought some sandwiches and hot chocolate. We also filled the tank with gas. I remember calling my dad collect at that point. He said to find some where to buy chains for the car and that he would pay for them along with the gas. Luckily, we did find a store open and managed to get chains to fit. A little while longer and we were back on the road. The chains did help some, but it was still rough going. Twelve hours after leaving school, we pulled up to my front door. We were all exhausted but glad to be home.

    Since that long ago journey, I’ve lived in Illinois and Iowa where it snows a lot. I’ve driven in snowstorms and blizzards with white-out conditions. I’ve driven on sheets of ice.  Yet each time I do, I’m transported back in time to a car full of college kids trying their best to get home for Christmas…

     

  • Snowfall…

    December 20, 2012 / 18 Comments

    Snow fell last night.  I awoke to a beautiful blanket of  white…over a foot deep.  Snow was banked high against the doors of the garages and the tarmac looked icy.  Only one garage had been shoveled out – that of a young man about the age of my younger son.  (Most of the people living here are retired.)  I wondered what this young man does for a living that required his being out in this.

    Of course, I remember the days of snow storms and severe thunderstorms of years past before I became a “retired” Registered Nurse.  It didn’t matter what the weather was…I had to be there.  I’ll never forget coming out of the hospital one January night after midnight.  It was -18 degrees and snowing like crazy.  A few of the nurses had automatic starters and stood at the window on our floor, pointed it in the direction of the parking lot and started their automobile.  They came out to a nice warm vehicle.  I didn’t have one!  I just prayed my automobile would start…thankfully, it did.  I’m glad that my little 154,000 mile Camry is now parked in “her” garage.  Maybe not warm – but dry.

    Snow always brings back memories.  Sledding with the kids, building forts and snowmen, snow “cream” with vanilla and sugar (we didn’t know to worry back then and were always careful where we got the snow for it!).  If I could get to my daughter’s house right now, I could be playing in the snow with my grandchildren as I did during a visit a couple of years ago.  I’m sure there will be plenty of snow here in the Midwest and time for that over the next few months!

    The featured photo above was taken on March 22, 1968.  Sixteen inches of snow had fallen in a rare snow storm in Memphis, Tennessee!  I wrote it about it in My Southern Heart…the Stories.  I wrote My Southern Heart…the Stories for my children and last Christmas published it in book form for them and the rest of my family. 

  • 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.

  • Baking and packing…

    November 20, 2012 / 11 Comments

    Tomorrow I will be up at the crack of dawn and on my way South with my daughter and her family.  Today, I have a “million” things to do.  I must finish baking the goodies that I am taking for Thanksgiving…in addition to running a few errands and packing.  I baked one and a half dozen banana bread muffins that probably won’t make it to Memphis…with seven of us in a van for eleven hours!  I baked three dozen of my son-in-law’s favorite peppermint cookies.  He’s driving most of the way so I’m sure he will enjoy snacking on a few of those on the way to Memphis!

    Peppermint Cookies

    I also baked a double batch of my favorite molasses cookies!  Those I will have boxed up for the trip and for the Thanksgiving reunion.  I made a large batch of trail mix (m & m’s, peanuts and raisins) and divided them into little “snack bags” for the trip.  Easy to reach for that way.  If they make it to Memphis, they will stay in the van since Penny’s grandchildren are allergic to nuts.

    As I finish this post, there is another favorite in the oven:  Cream Cheese Pound Cake.  I love the smell of almond and vanilla filling the apartment right now!

    Wishing each of you safe travels and a joyful Thanksgiving with your families and friends…

    Trail Mix Baggies

    Molasses Cookies

    Cookie Recipes…

    Dianne’s Favorite Molasses Cookies

    2 & 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

    1/4 teaspoon salt

    1 teaspoon ginger

    1 teaspoon cinnamon

    2 level teaspoons baking soda (don’t heap these)

    2 tablespoons hot water

    1/2 cup Crisco soft shortening (make sure it’s fresh!)

    1/2 cup granulated sugar

    1/2 cup molasses (I use Grandma’s Molasses – unsulphured)

    1 egg

    6 tablespoons cold water

    1/2 cup seedless raisins (or more if you’re a raisin lover)

    Start heating oven to 400 degrees. Follow directions closely for the best cookie! SIFT together the flour, ginger, cinnamon and salt. Dissolve soda in hot water. Mix the Crisco shortening, sugar, molasses and egg until creamy. Mix in flour mixture alternately with the cold water; then mix in the dissolved soda and all but a few raisins. Drop by rounded tablespoons – 2? apart – onto greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with remaining raisins. Bake 12 minutes or until done. Makes about 2 dozen.

     

    Favorite Peppermint Cookies

    2/3 cup Butter flavored Crisco

    1/4 cup granulated sugar

    1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

    1 egg

    1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

    1/2 teaspoon baking powder

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy canes

    Cream Crisco and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed.  Beat in egg.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Blend well into creamed mixture and stir in crushed peppermint.  Shape into small balls.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 11 – 12 minutes on ungreased cookie sheets.  Makes about 36 cookies, so I usually double it…they’re so good.  Don’t wait too long to get the cookies off the pan or they will harden and it won’t be easy!

  • One week from today…

    November 14, 2012 / 5 Comments

    One week from today, I will be in a mini-van with my daughter and her family (seven of us) traveling (11 hours!) home to Memphis for Thanksgiving.  Memphis is where I grew up, fell in love and got married (39 years) and had three wonderful children.  My three sisters (two now in Heaven) and I spent so much time together in Memphis and Mississippi.  My nieces and nephews are so much a part of my life there.  The closer I get to Memphis, the more the memories come flooding in…whether I’m flying into the airport there or on a rare drive.

    The last time all of my children and grandchildren were in ONE location (always my dream), was in June 2010 in Chicago.  What a wonderful time we had!  My precious little Peruvian granddaughter – never shy – walked in first to the hotel room where we all were and proceeded to introduce her big sisters and then herself.  A perfect introduction.  Of course, she didn’t realize that she was the one everyone  was meeting for the first time!  (Except for me of course – I had been to Peru in 2008 where my son was a missionary doctor.)  Special memories.

    I’m looking forward to making more special memories as we are all together in Memphis with my late husband’s sister Penny and her family.  This time, my younger son’s fourteen month old  baby girl will be there too!  I can’t wait to hold her!  Although now she is so “busy” I probably won’t be able to hold her for long, but we can definitely play.  She will be so excited to be with all of her cousins!  My precious niece Sharon and her husband will come over for a fun barbecue dinner.  I can’t wait to see them!  I miss everyone and wish that we ALL lived closer to one another!  My youngest says “but, Mom, you gave us roots and wings”!  Let that be a lesson to me – about the “wings” that is!  😉

    Chicago 2010

     

    Featured photo at top:  Sweet baby girl!  She will have so much fun with her cousins in Memphis!

    I would be tempted to stay in Memphis and visit a while longer then fly back home to Iowa; however, I do not want to miss the first birthday that my baby girl and I have been able to spend together in a very long time.  My birthday (and her late Dad’s birthday also) is December 1.  Her birthday is December 4th!  She was almost born on OUR birthday.  She took the photo below at arm’s length under flourescent lights the night of the Great Pumpkin Party at our church!  Please remember:  flourescent lights are not kind to anyone!  😉