From Scratch

Today is my Grandmother's birthday, she passed onto to be with Jesus several years ago but I've been thinking about her today. Both of my grandmothers were wonderful woman and I was blessed to live very close (blocks away) from both of them so they were always very much a part of my life. The grandmother whose birthday is today was my mother's mother. She grew up in Alabama and went to school with no schools. She knew how to skin a squirrel! She worked as a librarian but I still spent lots of time with her.

It is impossible to comprehend the impact that one person has another person. Some of my memories of her include: learning how to sew in her basement on her sewing machine (which I loved); eating toasted cheese and tomato (grilled cheese with her on the porch; how clean her how always was; her always reading (in my genes I suppose); playing with my cousins in her attic and basement; sneaking peanut butter out of her basement pantry (which is now in my garage); her baking (also in my genes) apple pie, blueberry muffins, oatmeal cookies- yum; her slaving all day to make homemade perogies that were gone in 20 minutes; making sauerkraut soup (which I never ate) on Christmas eve only for everyone to discover when I was in my 20s that she hated the stuff and so many more.

This song, like no other song, makes me think of her (don't know the people in the video just love the song). I love the last line, "She gave us much more than we thought, from scratch." Very profound, when I think of how much I took my grandmother for granted. As a stay at home mom, I wish I could call her when I want to know how many cups are in a quart (the kind of thing she knew off the top of her head) or how to clean silver (not that I ever do that), she would have been better than google any day!

Happy Birthday Grandma, you are missed!

She loved to hold her grand grandchildren!

With my grandfather, who adored her, and her two children.

Four Generations (Karis was just a few weeks old)- boy do I look tired!