My New Favorite Pictures

I just can't pick just one.  Love them all - his personality shines through - he is a little ham!

Winter Weather, Summer Pictures

We had eight inches of snow today and there is going to be a hard freeze tonight, so what better time to post summer pictures?


Hanging out with friends on the porch

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Helping in the garden.

Making faces.

Story Time

One of my fondest memories of my son's childhood is story time.  We always read before naps and bedtime.  I saved some of his favorite books and got some of them out this summer to read to Kaiden.

I read some of these so many times, I had them memorized and so did Nathan.  If I would try to hurry the story up a bit by skipping a few lines here or there, he knew it.  Long before he could read, he would flip through the books and tell you what was happening on each page.  The Richard Scary book has such wonderful illustrations and the imagination to create the "things that go" - a carrot car, a pickle truck, a eggmobile.  Kaiden loves the toothbrush and toothpaste cars.  This book also has a little "Goldbug" that hides on each page to find.  Kaiden will look and look until he finds him and is so delighted when he does.  He will chant "I think I can" with me while we read The Little Engine Who Could.

My favorite was always the Monster at the end of this Book, so when Kaiden crawled up in my lap and said "Gram can we read the Grover book", so of course we did.

Pumpkins

I had help picking the pumpkins today.

Watched over by Witchy Bear until it is time to carve Jack O' Lanterns and make pumpkin pie.

Family

 

Myself, Millie, Ruby, Raymond - front Melvin

My husband and his siblings joke about growing up in different homes because they all remember things differently.  In my case, this is not a joke.  I am the youngest of five - my siblings are 21, 20, 19 and 12 years older than I am.  All my life I have been mistaken for a daughter of my sisters or my oldest brother.  My other brother left home when he was 18 and I was 6, so most of my growing up years was spent as an only child.  Ruby, Millie and Raymond grew up on a farm.  In a house without indoor plumbing or electricity.  My parents moved from the farm when I was 2.  To the city.  We had indoor plumbing and electricity.  I did not grow up using an outhouse, or carrying water to the wood stove to heat for a bath.  I did not grow up milking cows, picking cherries for 50 cents a crate, gathering eggs, learning to drive on a tractor. 

This summer my sister, Millie, has been here from Kansas and staying with us off and on.  For a variety of reasons, I have not been as close to her as I am with Ruby.  It has been a great experience hearing stories of my family from her point of view.  There are stories I have never heard before and others I have heard from a different angle. 

Ruby had rheumatic fever when she was seven and was bed ridden for almost 2 years.  Even after she recovered she was restricted from doing a lot of the normal farm kid things because of her weakened heart.  So the stories I heard from her were more of my mother and the house.  Millie loved working outdoors with my father.  Both of my brothers have said Millie was the best milker.  She told me many things I never knew - the chores that were done on the farm before going to school - milking, feeding the animals (I never knew they raised rabbits to eat), gathering eggs.  She told me she hated to gather the eggs because the hens would peck at you to protect their eggs. She solved this by putting a tin can over one hand for the hen to peck at while she slipped her other hand in to get the eggs.  She also said Mama would have had a fit if she would have known. 

She talked about the fun things they did going to the lake across the road to wade and swim on summer afternoons; a haunted house my mother and her friend put together for the 4H club, coming home from school to sweet rolls fresh from the oven, how my Dad had to take the battery out of the truck to power the radio so they could listen to The Shadow after Saturday night baths.

There is one story that I just love because it illustrates how gentle and loving my Dad and Mama were.  One of the first times Millie drove to town by herself to run an errand she backed into something and dented the fender on the truck.  She dreaded telling our parents all the way home.  She went to Mama first and told her what had happened.  Mama said "I will go with you to tell Dad."  Millie said they went to where Dad was pitching hay from the top of a pile.  Mom looked up and said "Millie has something to tell you."  Millie hesitated so Mom spoke up and told him, "Millie dented the fender of the car."  Dad leaned on his pitchfork and said "Well as long as Millie is okay, I reckon I can fix the fender."  With that he went back to work and that is all that was said.  As I am writing this, it doesn't seem like much, but somehow it wraps up all my feelings for my parents.  They worked hard, they loved their children, they knew what was important.

This has been a hard summer for my sister, she has been away from her home for 3 months.  She came here because her oldest son had stage 4 cancer.  He went home to Jesus yesterday.  He is not in pain anymore, but we are.  His family will miss him.   

The circumstances of my sister's visit were not ideal, but I am so glad I got to spend this much time with her.  I will miss her a lot when she goes home. 

Tito's Chair

He has it all figured out.  He says, I just push the button and go.

Drum Set

He has used the empty can as a drum for some time, but last week he wanted a cymbal.  He kept asking where is my cymbal.  So Tito got a lid and he had a great time.  Tito did learn that although holding the cymbal so it dangled down produced a better sound, but turning it over hurt less!