“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It Goes On.”
Robert Frost
Showing posts with label mother's day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mother's day. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Sooner or Later



It's been a busy week indeed! The weather has finally improved to the point that I can start to do some gardening. Well, not planting yet, but cleaning up and pruning some shrubs and getting ready. My hands are suffering a bit so I must take it easy for a few days. I love finally being able to be outside in the fresh air and sunshine! It's true, I have been neglecting my online shop, blog and social media! *Gasp!* Times does fly when you are having fun though.

And here we are... it's Mother's Day this weekend. I hope you are all going to enjoy a wonderful day with your family. 
The image below is from my Pinterest Board titled Words.  I think it sums up many of our relationships with our Mothers!  'Cause you know what happens, sooner or later.........

 


via

Happy Mother's Day!

In loving memory of my 
Mother and Grandmothers



Thursday, May 9, 2013

A True Pioneer Woman


My Grandmother astride a horse circa. 1920's.


My Grandmother was a true pioneer woman.  She was born in 1900 to a blacksmith and his wife on the great plains of the Midwest.  She graduated High School but had higher aspirations and went on to College.  She became a school teacher and taught for six years before marrying her true love and becoming a farm wife.  They were together for over 50 years until parted by the death of my Grandfather.  She died at age 90 and without a doubt, rejoined the love of her life.

She was a spirited woman who was a devout Christian and enjoyed a good political debate.  She loved gardening and animals.  Her garden was an oasis in the almost treeless, rolling hills of the plains.  The two story house was surrounded by a fenced yard encircled with trees and all sorts of growing things. She grew roses, trumpet vine, herbs and hundreds of other lovely plants and flowers.  It has been so long ago, over thirty years since I was at her home on the farm.... I scarcely remember all of the plants she had there.  Outside the formal yard near the stream was a huge garden, where sweet corn and beans, peas and berries grew in abundance.

She had beautiful cats which she loved and I remember a couple of times over the years after begging my Mom (also a cat lover), we brought one home with us.  Apparently my love of cats (and animals in general) is a genetic thing!

One of the most precious gifts my grandmother ever gave me was something she made with her own hands.  It is a teddy bear.  I'm not sure if he was from a kit or if she made up the pattern for him herself.



He is a little moth eaten but still in remarkable shape for being at least fifty years old. He still sits with me today in my office, a reminder of years gone by. I always loved him and his velvet ears, paws and nose. I never gave him another name other than "Teddy", not very original, but I couldn't have loved him any more. My grandmother made quilts and crocheted throws and assorted clothing for me and the other grand-kids, but they never held up in comparison to this bear. He was one of a kind and she never made one for any of her other grandchildren. I wish I could ask her why.


My grandmother was an extraordinarily good cook and baker.  For years, she cooked on a wood cook stove in the kitchen which remained long after the electric range was installed.  She always loved to cook for us and we had wonderful family meals at the holidays or pretty much any time we visited.  Her famous dessert for Christmas was a Lane cake, which has many layers and a custard filling with raisins and cherries.  Her chocolate meringue topped pie was incredible and her fried chicken delectable. 

The food was wonderful because most of it was grown right there on the farm. The milk, butter, eggs, chickens the vegetables and fruits were all produced right there.  The relatives and neighbors all shared and exchanged their produce and other farm products.  She was not a fragile creature, she was a stout farm woman and loved to cook and eat.  Butter was a favorite of hers and she never went in for that new fangled margarine when it came on the market. Did I mention she lived to be 90!

No one ever left her table or house hungry. When I was a teenager,  I remember her saying to me, "You're too thin, you need to eat!" She was a kind hearted soul and believed in helping others. During the depression in the 30's, drifters (hobos) would come by looking for work and a meal and she always gave them something to eat. Usually there was work to do around the farm and my Grandfather would help them find work on his farm or on one of his many brothers farms.

The picture below was taken after her graduation from college.  I think it is such a contrast to how I remember her in a plain house dress and apron working in her kitchen. She told my Mother and I one day towards the end of her life, that when she was younger she was engaged to a preacher, but she just didn't love him enough. She broke off the engagement and soon met my Grandfather a simple farmer. She told us she never regretted her decision and was quite happy with the way her life turned out.








Here are a few things I learned from her. 
She taught me about kindness towards humans and animals. She taught me about nature and being gentle to the earth and how its abundance will bring joy to your life through food or flowers. She taught me to love cats and how to make a rhubarb pie.

But the most important thing I learned from her, is to be true to yourself 
and only do what feels right in your heart.



Thank you for indulging me in this memory of my Grandmother as we approach Mother's Day.
I hope all of you enjoy a special day of your own.  ~~ Diane

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Remembering My Mom

My Mom has been gone for almost twenty years. Every now and then I dream about her. It almost always takes place in my childhood home and is always a little fuzzy and not spectacular at all. Kind of like the real thing. Time spent at home with my Mom. Just doing the simple everyday things in life. It usually feels like I am around ten or twelve and my Mom would have been about 40ish. She is almost always in the kitchen and I am usually in the adjoining room at the piano; where I spent most of my childhood (it just seems that way). The dreams are comforting to me, like a gentle hug.

My Mom's illness took her away just at the time in our lives when we both were appreciating each other the most. The miles had separated us for a few years and we were finally starting to  get to know each other as adult women and not as mother and daughter.  Sadly she slipped away far too soon. I often wonder what she would have been like at 70, 80 or even at 90 -- which was as long as her own mother had lived. Would her beautiful dark hair have turned white? She hardly had a gray hair when she left me. Unanswered questions that I shouldn't dare ask, but I do.

I think I was quite lucky to have had such wonderful, strong women in my life. My grandmothers were both true 'Pioneer Women' or maybe 'Prairie Women' is more accurate. They were the typical farmers wife in the 1930's in the prairie states of the Midwest.  They did all the things in the poems below -- baked, cooked, cleaned, quilted, gardened and mostly without the modern conveniences of today. I want to share a few family photos and some poetry I came across that reminds me of my own Mother and Grandmothers.


art by Edith Holden




Grandmother's Recipes

Her cookies are the best ones made;
No one can match her lemonade;
She cures the best of country ham
And makes delicious berry jam.

A better pie no one can make,
Or even touch her chocolate cake.
Her pickles are so crisp and nice;
Her peaches are just right with spice.

And when I ask her recipe,
She shakes her head and smiles at me,
"Oh, I just guess at it, my dear."
And now it seems to me quite clear,

One things that's used, all else above --
Her main ingredient is love.

Esther L. Dauber



         Mom at Graduation                   Me & Mom                Before marriage she worked as a secretary




 
Old Quilt

Like swift-winged swallows, her small hands flew,
Dipping and darting the bright thread through,
Over and under the steel flashed true--
Silent staccato and constant rhyme.

And, oh, I wonder -- did she divine
That the threads would hold, and the quaint design
Should someday rest on a bed of mine,
Bridging the mystical gulf of time?

Betty Cornwell



Art by Edith Holden



Memory Garden

Lengthening shadows bring memories
Of days that have passed us by;
And I think of time and I think of life,
And I sometimes wonder why

That time can't be stayed and enjoyed without loss
As the sun and earth and sky.
and the more I think, the more I am sure
That nothing can ever be lost,

That time is the garden of memory
And life is but part of the cost.
So we trade our lives for those memories
And we live each golden day,

And the flowers we grow in our garden
May have petals bright and gay,
Or they may be dark and depressing things
If we live our lives that way.

So each one may choose and invest his time,
For time is a part of the cost;
And each one must live with his memories
For nothing can ever be lost. 

Robert M. Clarke










Here is something dear to my heart. I found this poem in my Mom's things a year or so after her death when I was sorting through a box. Here it is pasted in my journal. 
It's a poem by Longfellow, written in her own hand.


 Thank you Mom for this wonderful gift!

Friday, May 4, 2012

The Best Moms

Some of the best moms I have ever known were not human. No I am not taking about little green aliens, I am talking about animals. Usually the cute, four legged and furry kind, (but not always). Here are a few photos to prove my point.




Hugs from Mom are always the best...

A Mother’s Love





Mom helps out when you get tired.


Napping while mom glides through the water




This foster Mom Dog treats this raccoon baby as her own.

Baby raccoon found a new momma...










Momma Hen thought this puppy needed some TLC.

hen and a puppy












So darned cute!

Playing it in safety way


Always there when you need her!

Celebrating Animal Moms: African Elephants


my mom and I ^_^


Thanks for all kinds of Moms!