One is Silver and the other Gold

It seems oddly appropriate that today would be the day that the Girl Scouts celebrate their 102nd birthday.  Some of my best memories were made in that organization.  With these girls.

We are no longer the bright eyed Brownies in that photo.  We're in our forties now.
Two of us still live in Wichita.  One is in Arizona. And one is now in Heaven.  Today also marks the anniversary of that day.

We had so many good times, the four of us.  Movies, sleep-overs, camping, years and years of school together.

We didn't get to celebrate enough as adults because we weren't always in the same city, or even in the same state.  It as supposed to be a wedding that was going to bring us together again, but that didn't quite happen.

Memories, though will live forever.  I've learned that friendships can be fragile and precious.  We should handle them with care.

So today, we raise a toast to JillyBean.  Love you forever.  We may make new friends, but we will always keep the old.  You, darling, were golden.

Rolling toward Christmas

What are your holiday traditions?

As a child, it was Midnight Mass, all of my grandparents and great-grandparents at our house, getting to open "just one" present on Christmas Eve, and the home made candy.  Especially my Gram's peanut brittle and divinty and fudge.  Those are the things that you get once a year and they bring back special memories.

As an adult, I bake every year.  Occasionally, I make some of my Gram's candies.  This year the divinity and fudge are done.  Every year, though, I make a recipe that was handed down to me from my mother-in law.  It's a Polish walnut roll that John's Nana used to make.

I never met the woman whose recipe I make every December.  She passed away when John was in high school.  I've heard wonderful stories about her, though.

I was lucky enough to know John's grandfather.  Everybody called him Saik, short for Saikowski, which was his last name.  He was a giant of a man.  Big in stature with a huge heart.  He taste tested my first few attempts at the nut rolls, and since they seemed to pass, I kept at it.

So, here I am, lot of years and hundreds of nut rolls later. I didn't grow up with them, or the family that introduced them to me, but I can't imagine what my life, or my Christmases, would be like without either of them.

My grandmother's baby brother

is my great Uncle Lawrence.  And today he turns 92.

Most people would wonder about the things that he's seen in those 92 years.
I often wonder about the things he hasn't seen through most of them.

His sight was slowly taken from him before I was born because of a condition called Retinitis pigmentosa.

And although his eyesight has been mostly gone since he was in his 30's, I can't say that I've ever heard him complain.  In fact, he's probably one of the most inspirational people I know.

In spite of the challenges that came with his lack of vision, through the years he still ran his own business, mastered many home improvement skills, learned to dance and lived independently until the age of 91.

In 1940 he was a handsome 19-year-old.

And this was his birthday in 1942.

I will take him home made carrot cake for his birthday today.
I have no idea if my baking skills are as good as my grandmother's.
I do know that I have been blessed to be her brother's niece.

Bringing in the Wheat

I didn't grow up on a farm.

Up until a few years ago, I didn't know anything about our farm except where it was.  And even that was only in general terms. 

Today, I don't pretend to be an expert and I certainly wouldn't be so presumptuous as to call myself a farmer, but I've come to love the land that has been in my family for nearly a century. 

June is harvest time for winter wheat and this year the wheat looks good for us.  What was green just a few weeks ago has turned into a sea of golden grain.  We are blessed to have wonderful people who farm for us and take care of our land. Without them, this simply could not happen.

 The more I learn about the farm the more respect and appreciation I have for the people have dedicated their lives to working the land. It is hard, dirty work and the hours are ridiculously long. They must do it for love, because it certainly isn't about getting rich. 

I've had the chance to ride on the combines.  I've seen beautiful sunsets and we've run from a hail storm - all during the same harvest. 

I didn't grow up on a farm. But knowing the way I feel about it now, I really think I would have liked it.

A peony for your thoughts

I've been pondering the things we keep to remind us of our past.

They're memories mostly.

Images in our minds of a place or a person.

Maybe the scent of something baking in the kitchen.

Perhaps a song that takes you back to another day and time.

Every once in a while, though, it's something tangible.

Something that you can touch.
A real, physical connection to the people and the places that are gone.

Before the city tore down the house that my grandparents and great grandparents had lived in for over 40 years, I took a knob off of one of the kitchen cabinets.
I also have a brick from the front porch.
They're nice to have, but they just sit in a closet. 

But every spring, when I look out my window, I see peonies popping up in my garden.
And when they bloom, there will big beautiful flowers in shades of pink and purple.

They're the peonies my Gram and Great-Grandmother planted so many years ago.
The flowers from these plants were cut and taken to the cemeteries every Memorial Day. 
Their flowers were put in a vase on the kitchen table as the prelude to my Gram's roses every summer.

 

They're more than flowers.

They're a connection to my past.

They're living reminders of the memories I hold in my mind.

And if I ever leave this place where they grow now, they'll go with me.

Everything old is new again

The kitchen. 

The heart of the home.

Everything from pop-tarts to gourmet dinners come out of this room.  We become obsessed about its design.  I've spent hours upon hours thinking about the most cost effective way to bring this space up to date.

I want it to be current.  Modern.  Efficient.  Timeless.
And yet, I still want to leave it semi-original. True to the age and the style of the house.

So what do I do? 

It's a plaid, plaid, plaid world.

The biggest project in any house remodel is usually the kitchen.

Ours was no different.

Here's what we started with:

60+ year-old appliances.

One short wall of cabinets with minimal counter top space.

Disconnected plumbing.

Worn through linoleum.

Peeling plaster walls.

And wallpaper. 

Lots of wallpaper


On the walls

 


And on the ceiling.


I kind of liked it.




I wanted to keep it.


I got out-voted.



But it all worked out in the end.