Tag: family
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To Grandma’s House
Each November our grade school music teacher had us sing, “Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother’s house we go,” probably in reference to Thanksgiving with the grandmother. As I consider it today, it reminds me of both my town and country grandmothers. I am thankful for both although neither fit today’s mythical,…
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And then they were gone
As I write this the Pennsylvania grandchildren are packing their suitcases, preparing for the long trip home. We will cross paths with their mother somewhere in Tennessee. It has been an intense month. These old folks enjoy every minute of having time with family, but having four additional people in the house for a month…
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magical reunion
April 25, 2011 column By Friday evening the last of our family converged for a mini-reunion in Branson, Mo. interrupting my evening of watching the youngest four grandchildren. In a flurry of activity, parents introduced their children to their great aunts and uncles, “This is Aunt Karen, Uncle Frank, Aunt Rosemary and Uncle Robin,” their…
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photographic connection
Thunder rolled and lightning flashed outside my bedroom window. Time to try taking a picture using lightning. Standing in front of my second-story screened bedroom window, I waited for the next long flash of light. As the explosion rolled across the valley, peering through the view finder, I snapped one shot. That’s all I dared…
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the family bed
Building the bunk bed kept my husband’s hands busy as we waited for the eldest son’s return from a Teen Mission trip to Honduras the summer of 1979. We did not have a lot of cash; we could not afford the best wood, but he could at least make a sturdy, bed out of pine…
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the quandry of quilting
If I would just keep my mouth shut, I could save myself a lot of work. But no, I had to tell my parents about the quilt family members assembled for my neighbor’s 50th wedding anniversary. It had foot square blocks with an different embroidered picture for each family member. With my grandparents’ golden wedding…
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This car will just have to do
For many, many years, my friend has prepared a homemade Sunday dinner as her gift of love for her family. The list of possible guests has grown from children to grandchildren and now great-grandchildren. Not all can make it every week. Some live farther away than others, but every week, she prepares a family dinner…
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pray for them?!
Praying for family and friends is easy. When my children hurt, need a job or a new home, I pray for them. Likewise, when friends enter a difficult time, I pray for them. I would like to say I naturally pray for all the people in my life, but I don’t – not the ones…
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one mother’s choice about drug abuse
The choices of drug addicted loved ones impact their families as a local couple learned after their smart, beautiful daughter began using drugs. They drug abuse came to the fore in the months after the girl’s favorite grandmother – who lived with the family – died during the girl’s senior year of high school. “The…
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Happy is the bride with friends and family
Our second granddaughter’s wedding ceremony demonstrates the component of family sacrifice necessary for any couple to succeed in sharing their lives together. It began when a friend gave the bride an new formal gown with a chapel length train and the bride’s mother committed her time and talents to make seven gowns for the bridal…
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Always birthday cake time
The great thing about having a big family is it automatically guarantees lots of folks to eat birthday cake. With five children in six years, my parents insured that even in January – when we had three birthdays inside of a week – the cakes would disappear. At the end of the birthday supper, Mom…