A Tiny Photo Frame

I was working on choosing photos for my daughter's senior page in her yearbook. This meant getting out the photo albums from the early years! The albums are labeled by year, the photos placed in the sleeves when they were fresh from the developer.
Way back before digital cameras, you had to take the film to the drug store to get it developed. And remember to ask for duplicates for the grandparents. And there were always those odd random shots when you were trying to use up the film. Seems like there are cameras around here that held 110 film, 126 film, 35mm, and those funny little canisters that you got back and you have to store those forever.
I can tell exactly when I got my first digital camera because the albums, as they were, stop and the computer files begin!!
As I was looking through the albums, I was swept back in time.
To the first time she came home from the hospital in her University of Tennessee sweat suit and then the second time she came home after having to be re-admitted, this time in a beautiful pink smocked Felton Brothers dress, complete with slip, bonnet and tiny white leather shoes. Her first bath, with Grandmother pouring water gently over her hair. Grandmother, who jumped on a plane, and came to stay with us when my baby girl showed up several weeks early!
To her first day of preschool, when I took her picture standing next to the stairs and she is barely taller than the third step. I've taken her picture standing in the same spot on the first and last day of school every year. On the last day of PK, she couldn't go to school because she had chicken pox. Her teachers came to visit her after school was over that day and brought her papers and things from school. In her picture that day, she is dressed in a yellow outfit, a faint dusting of cornstarch powder covering her face.
To ballet recitals, first bike rides, visits to the pumpkin patch, the apple orchard, the fire station, carnivals, a series of cow girl halloween costumes, classroom parties, snow days, Easter egg hunts, holidays in Tennessee, birthday parties and loving aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.
She sat on the floor with me and helped me select the photos, knowing that I would give her final say in what appeared in the yearbook. Both of us laughing and remembering some fun times.
I am glad I was able to be her room mother at school and capture so many images. I am glad that she has been in school with so many of the same children since lower school. I am glad I have gotten to watch them grow.
As I started to scan the photos and she went back to filling out a college application, I realized that those little photos give me great memories to enjoy, for now, for later and when she is away from home.
I love you, my brown eyed girl!

A Tiny Silver Car

Just a quick thought...
It is a good thing when you see the car in front of the car in front of you completing a good traffic manuever...using their blinker, making good driving decisions...and realizing it is your child driving their own car...yes, a good thing!!

A Tiny China Plate

I was talking to a friend today and the subject of family heirlooms came up. She was talking about how her mom and aunts were arguing, fighting and bad mouthing each other over things they thought should belong to each of them upon the eventual demise of their mother. That's right, they are fighting and the dear lady is still using all of those silver knives, lace doilies and sitting in that particular velvet chair!
My friend asked me what I would do if in that situation and I told her that I could not imagine.
So, let me go on record...Mike, Melinda...if you want it that badly, it's yours!

Anyway, it seems that what they are fighting about are family photos, the china and that red velvet chair.

I had a photo of my mom and dad at a high school dance that I loved and had on a shelf for many years. One day, my sister asked me to make a copy of it for her. I figured I had had the original long enough, made myself a copy and gave her the original. I still have the picture, it still makes me smile! So, if you are fighting over photos, invest in a high quality photo printer, make copies and share them...making sure to include names, dates, places, favorite memories and the photographer if known. Share the memories.

I have a little white china saucer hanging on the wall in my kitchen. It is about 6 1/2" round, shiny white with a green border. It doesn't match any other of the dishes, not the fine china, not the Christmas china, not the nice everyday china, not the everyday china, not the Fiesta ware, not the Dan Finnegan handpainted china...nothing.

So, why would I have this single china plate hanging on the wall? This is the saucer that sat under the coffee cup that my great-grandfather, known as Pap-paw Goodness Gracious, used every morning for his coffee. Pap-paw would spill over a little coffee into the saucer, add some milk and let me drink it. I don't know if I have this actual memory or have heard the story so many times that is is real to me. It doesn't matter, what matters is that he loved me and shared his coffee...I still love coffee, with a little milk, no sugar...any wonder why?! This plate is one of my treasures, of value to no one but me, a reminder to share what you know is good.

I have two corner china cabinets, one from my great-grandparent's house and one from my grandmother's house. I brought them with me to Virginia when I got married and they are treasures for the beautiful pieces of furniture that they are and also as they remind me of the dining rooms in their houses...meals shared with family.
My grandmother used to tell me that she wanted certain people to have certain things of hers. This china cabinet came to me and another piece that stood in her entry hall went to my sister. They were focal points in her home and in ours.
After I lived in my house for several years, I decided to paint the dining room. I carefully unloaded all of the china, crystal and silver out of the cabinets and gently moved them to the center of the room. I started painting and as I worked my way around the room, I ended up behind the china cabinet...and there, on the back, written in white chalk, in my grandmother's handwriting, was my name. I stopped in my tracks and gently traced around the letters, remembering her beautiful handwriting that I saw on many cards, letters to camp and recipe cards. I had never noticed this in the two moves and since it was up against the wall, the chalk marking had not been erased, a minor miracle in itself.
So, the cabinet still stands in my dining room, filled with treasures I love, my name in faded white chalk on the back, a reminder of family meals taken together over the years. And being intentional...if you have a specific wish...let it be known.

I hope my friend's mom and her sisters can get beyond the "things" and see past them to the memories that are brought about by a meal on that china, a look through that picture album, a quiet nap, nestled in that red velvet chair or a tiny sip of coffee presented in the simplest of vessels.

It is the memories that count, the feelings that matter and the comfort in knowing we are loved.

A Tiny Little Map

Last week, I went to orientation and training for my new job. The drive from my house to the interstate can be long and arduous, passing house after house, field after field, over a river, over a lake, down a curving road.
On this trip, I took a different route to the interstate, one that passed fields, rivers and farms...beautiful farms with grand names and perfectly green meadows, dotted with horses and a few cows. Some of the farms had deliberately planted rows of trees, marching up the hillsides and disappearing back down over into the valleys. Some of the farms had wild groves of tress that looked like they had been there for hundreds of years, with driveways and roads carved into the fields next to them. I saw an old church, complete with stone walls and a carved limestone cross. I saw more white fences than I have seen anywhere except for Middle Tennessee.

In the place where I was staying, I had no internet access for my computer. I could get access on my phone, but it is really hard to do a lot of typing on that little screen! So, instead of staying in my room, I took a drive or two.

I explored back roads and one evening, I just drove south for about 45 minutes, taking in the beauty of the mountains, the warm air rushing by. And in those peaceful moments, I found the simple pleasure of an afternoon drive. The smells of fresh cut grass, honeysuckle and wild flowers perfumed the air and it was nice, very nice.

Taking a route, never taken before, can be a gift all in itself.

A Tiny Silver Rattle

This afternoon, I attended a baby shower for a friend who is having her seventh baby girl! That is right...seven baby girls. Suwema, Elizabet, Stella, Daines, Regina and Neema will be big sisters to the new baby in just a few weeks!! The mom, Jerida, is a beautiful lady with a lovely smile that lights up her whole face.
As she was opening presents, she would look around the room to identify who had brought her gifts. After she finished, she hugged each person, saying "Thank You" and "God Bless You".
I have taught two of the girls in Sunday School, taught two of the girls in ESL preschool and have turned a jumprope or two for the other two girls!! Sweet girls who take care of each other!!
This will be Jerida's first child born in the USA, first born in a hospital, first child whose first home will not be a tent in a refugee camp.
Blessings to this family, mom, dad, sisters and new baby!!

A Tiny Silver Strawberry

Early this morning, Bob and I set out for the Farmer's Market on Rt. 3 in Spotsylvania to see what was available today. Since we are so early in the season, the produce consisted of beautiful lettuces, radishes, assorted onions, fennel, beets and the most amazing asparagus. I didn't start eating asparagus until about 16 years ago, when my friend Tia introduced me to steaming it and dressing it with a bit of balsamic vinegarette...delicious!
The strawberries are also in...Westmoreland Berry Farms has berries that are a pure red, sweet and juicy...perfect to just slice and eat!
Also at the market were a vast array of cut flowers, peonies and iris, ready to take home and arrange. We have several peony bushes in our back yard, planted by the lady we bought our house from and they have continued to bloom year after year, providing a profusion of blush and bashful colored blossoms!
There were blooming plants, ready to be bought and brought home to add to our flower garden in the front yard. Vibrant geraniums, their peppery smell filling the morning air. Lantana that reminds me of the walk way to the swimming pool at Old Natchez. Hanging baskets, already planted with an assortment of summer blooming plants, ready to hang on a front porch.
And don't forget the little potted vegetable and herb plants...get a couple of tomato plants, a basil plant and stop by the tent where the folks are selling fresh mozzarella and you have the makings of a beautiful caprese salad.
After a quick trip to the grocery store, we headed home. A few more errands in the afternoon, with a stop at the Sonic for a Diet Cherry Limeade ( for me) and a vanilla milkshake ( for him) and back home to enjoy the sunny day.
Tomorrow is Youth Sunday with a picnic after church...and it is supposed to be 61 degrees and raining...unlike the the 82 degree sunny day we are having today.
Well, we can only hope that the cold front blows right by here and tomorrow brings a sunny day...complete with strawberry pie at the picnic!!!

A Tiny Little Wedding Cake

Last weekend, we celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary!! Surprisingly, I am not going to wax nostalgic about being married so long...suffice it to say, it seems like a long time and it seems like no time at all...at the same time!! Someone asked me what the secret is to a long marriage and I told them that when I found out, I would tell them!
I know that I am not the easiest person to live with...I don't like to share closets, bathrooms or checkbooks...I think that if you can keep those separate, you run out of things to fight over really quickly.
I am not much of a fighter, and as long as I follow the old standby of "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all"...then we all win.
I think I am funny..really, I am funny...so having a spouse that also thinks I am funny is a bonus. He laughs at my jokes and I laugh when he makes up words or draws little pictures on the grocery list of what he wants me to buy or pictures of our cats on the church bulletin.
I give him a lot of credit for learning quickly that I need a lot of quiet time, to read, to draw, to think, to nap(!) and time with my friends.
He gets an A+ for taking care of things like keeping my car clean and full of gas, so I don't get my hands all stinky. He likes to cook and knows just how I like my steak...really rare, barely done.
He thinks I am smarter than him, but still likes to amaze me with some tricky answers on Jeopardy.
So, what is the secret of staying married...I don't know, but I wish you well and remember, if it isn't going to matter, really matter, in 5 minutes, then just don't worry about it!