Turn Around

Our Grandson Ewan Theodore turned two on Sunday. He’s learned a lot in that short time, the love of his Mom and Dad at the top of that list. That he can count on them to feed him when he’s hungry, comfort him when he’s hurting and provide everything that he needs. That’s probably the most important lesson we learn as children and we can count ourselves lucky if we have two parents who provide that stability. The importance of family is set by good example. The bedtime story, the good-morning wake-up…these are the things that your children carry with them into adulthood. It’s the little things that count.

We always read to Ewan’s mommy at bedtime. She loved her storybooks and could read at an early age. Books were an important part of her childhood. It’s not the expensive toys they will remember, but the quiet times and special touches that linger in our children’s memories. Let them know how special they are to you every day.

Make memories that become tradition in your family…

Have a pizza night (or their favorite meal).

Take the phone off the hook and work on a jigsaw puzzle or play Monopoly.

Tuck a loving or encouraging note inside a lunch bag.

Buttered toast, hot soup and ginger ale, served in bed when they are sick.

Breakfast in bed for a special day.

Picnics by the fireplace on a cold evening.

Picnics in the backyard or neighborhood park.

Plant and tending a vegetable garden together.
Take walks and bike rides together.

Celebrate half-birthdays.

Make cookies with them.

Make photo ornaments every Christmas.

And then keep going...

For memory’s sake make note of each school year, all the special occasions and pretty ordinary times too, getting grandparents, relatives, friends and neighbors in the act as well. Write an annual birthday letter detailing the ups and downs, laughable moments, special occasions, turning points, memorable conversations, saving them in a memory box with other mementos. Every year start a new box and fill it with drawings, writings, notebooks and of course pictures. By graduation you and your child will have stacks of memories waiting for you!

Get into scrap-booking, pasting in photos, corsages, greeting cards, even a lock or two of hair, thus offering a special stroll down memory lane in later years. Keep snapping away, collecting photos of yourself and your family, relatives and friends through the years so that you’ll have a record of your lives to treasure—and work on the scrapbook together.

Grab a tape recorder or video camera and make a “living” record of your days together, including interviews with grandparents and great-grandparents, and other family members.

This way, your children will never have to wonder what they were like when little or how you spent your days together. Like a time capsule, your family’s memories will be right there at their fingertips!

Nana and Papa love you very much Ewan!

Winter Wonderland

Can you see how thick the ice is on the branches? This was the following morning, no power and no phone. The house is so quiet without Good Morning America, I'm beginning to get "Cabin Fever" already! I did have the presence of mind to brew two pots of coffee yesterday and one is still warm in the carafe. Over the holidays I had bought a new fondue pot with sterno fuel so this will be my only means to hot food over the next couple days. I decided to make oatmeal, maybe a hearty breakfast would keep me full longer. I added butter, brown sugar and banana...feeling very proud of myself for being so resourceful! Immediately I realized eating out of the same pot would eliminate the dish problem (no hot water) and I was beginning to feel a little bit like a pioneer!

Mr. Big came back, hungry and looking at me with his begging brown eyes! It's about 8 degrees this morning so I looked around the kitchen for more junk food, this time vanilla wafers and caramel popcorn left over from Christmas sounded good to this little fat squirrel. He eats the sweets first, then the shelled corn in his cast iron dish!

In the afternoon the trees were bent with the weight of the ice. There was an errie creaking as they began to bend and break. This Red Oak limb was the first to fall, followed by many others down into the woods. The sky was sending sleet in the form of small icicles for most of the day and into the night. When it was all over we had 3 inches of ice on the ground and trees across the Ozarks were split apart with the weight. I kept my radio on for news and I had my cell, but really things came to a complete stop. You couldn't drive, stores closed, even emergency vehicles were stopped by all the downed trees and power lines. My local radio station took call ins from people in distress, an 83 year old lady who had a power line across her fence and unable to feed her horses. Later I learned that the radio station sent an employee out to throw the bales of hay over to the horses. Some guy with a great sense of humor called to say he had stocked up for the storm, had dry wood to burn and a pot of beans on the stove...and he hadn't called for a bailout from the government or assistance from FEMA! We are a hardy bunch here, able to figure out our problems and pull together in a crisis. The kindness of neighbors, the hard work of the linemen who braved the bitter cold days and nights on end; we each have a strength in us that we don't know exists until pressed. My Dad used to call it "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps", meaning getting out of a difficult situation by one's own efforts. It took the combined efforts of many to fix what Mother Nature did in just 24 hours.

Old Man Winter

A week ago we were preparing for a winter storm that was brewing. Our woods were a wonderland of ice, beautiful to look at but so very dangerous. Thick layers of slippery ice covered the roads, trees and power lines. I had stocked up on food, water and other necessities preparing to hunker down when the storm hit. It was that exciting "home from school" feeling that first day, all safe and cozy inside with the fireplace blazing and soup cooking on the stove. Ben slept snuggled on the couch and I kept the TV tuned to the weather channel, amusing myself with my favorite blogs. I watched the icy stuff coat each tree making plinking noises as it hit the decks and iced them thick just like a cake. About mid-afternoon the idyllic Little House on the Prairie feeling evaporated when the power and phone went dead.