Friday, December 21, 2012

The Best Christmas Gifts

As I stood cooking some holiday food this morning, I was feeling pretty good about where I stood with preparations for Christmas. Most of the gifts have arrived and I’ve almost finished wrapping. The house is adequately decorated, although I didn’t drag out every single piece of sit around stuff this year. We’ve found some time to entertain friends in a simple way.


Then my thoughts turned to all the intangible gifts I’ve been given in my lifetime…and the thoughts just spun from one to another.

I was cooking my mama’s caramel icing in an old pot I bought the first month I was married. The memory of being in my grandmother’s kitchen where somewhere around twenty cakes were baked each year to fill orders taken at the St. Michael’s Holiday Bazaar popped into my head. My grandmother, great grandmother, Mama, and a great aunt were all doing their share while I watched intently hoping to get to lick the spoon as they worked their magic on the lard and sugar and flour. I was in heaven. My mother continued the practice of baking and donating to her church bazaar for many years . Those women showed me the gift of generosity and gave me a social conscience centered on faith. The gift of a sweet tooth is a mixed blessing, but it is still something I treasure. The gift of seeing four generations gathered in the kitchen amicably is an even greater gift.

I never thought much about getting a gift from my daddy, as I was well aware that the gifts under the tree each year were purchased and wrapped by Mama. She operated in the guise of Santa in the early years, but signed gift tags in her handwriting in later years. I am absolutely certain Daddy never purchased a single bauble for me in my life. But he gave me some gifts too. He made sure I got a good education. He found opportunities for me to work as a page in the Alabama legislature where I watched the civil rights struggle unfold. He pulled strings to get me a job at Yellowstone Park, back when it required a congressional appointment to do so. He didn’t even fuss much when my college bank account became seriously overdrawn that summer I was at Yellowstone! He obviously enjoyed my company and our shared common interests in politics and finance in his later years. There were no price tags on those gifts, but they were certainly treasures.

After I finished the cake, my husband headed off to face the Kroger crowd without complaint, even though I had supposedly done the grocery shopping yesterday. He has given me the gift of patience even if it comes without a lot of understanding. He doesn’t complain and indulges me when I simply must have beauty surrounding me…even though his needs are totally different. He’s also given me the gift of feeling safe and protected, which is a special kind of love.

My girls have given me the gift of joy in seeing them become better mothers and homemakers than I ever dreamed I’d be while having successful careers too. Each has her own style and somewhat differing economic situations, but each has created a beautiful home, and they provide their children with tender loving care in a much more conscientious way than I ever could. (Can I count pride as a gift? This is my piece… and I think I will!) That pride encompasses Walker III whose conscientiousness is an inspiration and his loving cuddles are most treasured.

The grandchildren have given me many small joys, especially when the little ones light up when they see me and run as fast as they can into my arms, almost bowling me over, or allow me to read an “antique” storybook with them, or debate me on politics in a not quite grown up way.

My friends continue to shower me with gifts, some tangible and thoughtful, others just spontaneous. They give me the gifts of acceptance and empathy, accompanied by a hefty dose of laughter and joy.

Most of those gifts I treasure most dearly cost absolutely nothing except a small amount of time and patience. I hope I give some gifts back that aren’t just the ones under the tree. I’m trying hard to make sure I do, and I hope someone notices, but even if they don’t, I’ll know.

Christmas Blessings to All,
 Janie

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Giving Thanks



Shortly after Walker III was born, I was thumbing through the Book of Common Prayer looking for anything that might make me feel better, some words of wisdom…anything. I happened upon a service entitled “Thanksgiving for the Birth of a Child” and I knew that I had found what I was looking for.

I called the young priest at our church in charge of caring for special needs of the congregation and told him I’d like to celebrate this child. I don’t know why it was important for me to do so. I hadn’t had anything like that when the older girls were born, but it was important this time. Jim was at our house within minutes and Walker and I, our two girls, and my mother read the short service along with him. From that day forward, I began to look for something to be thankful for in my strange little guy.

Sometimes when he was little, I was thankful for small milestones…he could lift his head, he could scrooch forward on his belly, he actually slept through the night, he woke up with a smile. Today, I am thankful for his tender hugs when he knows I need one, for his bringing fun music along in the car, for his ever present reliability with his chores, and for his unquestioning faith.

It really seems counter intuitive to give thanks when bad things happen to you. The tendency is to give up on God, and decide that he’s no more in charge of this crazy world than I am. Those of deep faith are no less challenged by the prospect. Can we truly be thankful for a case of cancer or Alzheimer’s Disease or the death of a small child or marital strife and divorce?

We not only can, but we must. We can be thankful that God has stayed with us along the path, however rocky, and will never leave us completely because something of God is within every soul on this earth.

I hope you’ll find something to be thankful for tomorrow…most of us have bounteous reasons…but even if you feel like you don’t, look for something, however small and thank our Gracious God for his blessings, seen and unseen.

Blessings,
Janie

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Just Peachy

I will preface this blog with the fact that I am a fanatic about good peaches. Ever since I was a little girl and Mac McKee, an old Marine buddy of Daddy’s, would show up every summer with a large basket of absolutely perfect and delectable Chilton County (Alabama, of course.) peaches, I’ve lived for that moment, usually in July, when the peaches are freestone and perfect.

When we moved to Tennessee, it took me a while to find farmer’s markets, and I really didn’t have much time for the quest for peaches, but one fine day in mid –summer, about 1973, I glanced at a nearby truck rolling down Summer Avenue and realized that it had Alabama tags and the familiar wooden wicker baskets that I associated with perfect peaches filled the truck bed. I chased that truck down and talked him into selling me a basket…it was $12…highway robbery indeed.

On our visits to Montgomery, when we drove, which wasn’t too often, we always stopped at Peach Park for homemade peach pies and peach ice cream and a basket of peaches. Once when I was under the weather, Walker drove by there on his way home from a Montgomery cousin’s dove shoot and brought me some peach ice cream in a cooler alongside his doves. This was one of the most thoughtful gifts he’s brought me through the years and one I clearly remember.

Fast forward to last week. We were having company for the weekend, and I planned to make a peach dessert to go with our summery menu. Peaches at our local farmer’s market, while not quite up to my Alabama standards, were really nice… just mostly a bit under ripe. I sifted through the piles and finally found six or so ripe enough to use in the next couple of days. I put those in one bag, and picked out eight or so more to leave out to ripen over the weekend. When I got home, I discovered that the ripened bag was not with my purchases. I was annoyed that I couldn’t find the receipt to prove I had bought the peaches,so I got up early Friday morning and drove out to the Agricenter again, purchasing a half dozen or so perfectly ripened peaches.

We then left for the lake with our visitors, leaving the previously mentioned too green peaches on the counter, expecting them to be just perfect by Monday when I returned. I planned to slice and freeze some and eat the others sliced with a tiny scoop of ice cream after dinner as had been our custom during peach season.

Well, this batch of peaches disappeared also.

Was I losing my mind? The first batch that disappeared could have been left in a grocery cart other than my own, so that didn’t bug me too much, but twice in one week to lose a whole bunch of peaches?

Since Walker III had been home all weekend, I entertained the idea that maybe he had put them somewhere. Not too many places to hide a bag of peaches at our house, though, and it was impossible to imagine him eating one, much less eight of them. When he came down for dinner last night his dad asked him if he knew what happened to the peaches.

“Oh yeah…John forgot his so he had to borrow them.”

Mystery solved; my errant son in law, John, and my sweet daughter, Katie, had come over to swim and cook dinner for themselves and Walker. John is a really good cook, especially when he steals one of my five ingredients or less recipes like the one for Peach Cobbler and my peaches. (This one is really more of a peach dump, but delicious...recipe in a previous post http://onlycasualobservations.blogspot.com/2008/06/taste-of-home.html )

I called John and he confessed that he had not borrowed my peaches, but stolen them as a favor to me so they wouldn’t rot before we got home.

Thanks, John. I’m going to the Agricenter this morning, and if they still have nice peaches, you’re forgiven.

Blessings,
Janie

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

A True Patriot

Walker decided to ride with me in the car rather than with his dad and the dog in the truck on our weekend trip to Moon Lake. After a few minutes in the car, he asked if I had my i-Pod. When I said I didn’t, he reached back into his ever-present back pack and pulled out a CD featuring The Beach Boys greatest hits and popped it into the CD player. I turned the volume up and he and I sang along almost all the way to the lake. I realized that of all my children, Walker is the one who doesn’t roll his eyes when I belt out a song and miss some words or sing off-key, probably because he’s doing the same thing.


The weekend at the lake was tranquil, filled with blasting heat, skiing and tubing, homemade ice cream, Corky’s Barbeque and hamburgers and hotdogs.

When it was time to go home, Walker again chose to ride with me…which was a little unusual, because he is usually careful not to offend and chooses to ride with one parent to the lake and the other to come home. But I was leaving first, and he was anxious to get home to do his ritual Sunday night chores…taking the garbage to the street and doing his laundry…so off we went.

After a few minutes on the road Walker pulled out two pins to show me. “You know when I go to work on Wednesday, the 4th of July…I’m going to wear both pins.” He has one that has his picture and says “Born in the USA” and another with a flag that says “God Bless America”.

“Do they let you wear those pins at work?” I asked.

“It’s a free country, isn’t it?” he answered, seeming a little puzzled that anyone might disallow his patriotism.

“Well, I suppose, but your boss might not like it, and if he doesn’t, you’d have to obey him at work.

Walker shrugged and I gave it a rest, assuming his tribute to the country’s birthday wouldn’t be a problem.

A few minutes later, he pulled another CD out of the back pack, Lee Greenwood’s, “American Patriot”. As we rode along, I realized that Lee had been just as instrumental in building Walker’s fervent patriotism as any high school civics class. I listened to Walker recite the “Pledge of Allegiance” and belt out all the patriotic songs along with Lee as we drove along through the Land of Cotton, and I was so glad he had shared this moving tribute to our country with me. Hearing “This Land is Your Land”, “God Bless America”, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, “America the Beautiful” and “The Star Spangled Banner” made the time and miles melt away in the blistering heat, and I came home refreshed and revived.

God Bless America, and God bless Walker, a true patriot.

Blessings,

Janie

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Mama's Gardenias

Ahhh…Mother’s Day…That great Hallmark Holiday that it would be a crime to forget. Who doesn’t have strong feelings about their mother? They are the center of our universe from birth, and even when Daddy knows best, it’s often Mama who has the final say in family matters…at least around our house.

My mama was the glue that held the family together through thick and thin, for richer and definitely for poorer, she always managed to keep it together. She was a central touchstone that allowed my brother and sister and me to communicate without communicating, and it kind of smoothed the sibling rivalry to get most of our news through Mama. Once she was gone we had to kind of reacquaint ourselves with each other, sometimes more successfully than others, but because it was important to Mama, I think it will always be important to us to be a family.

Yesterday, I deadheaded over 150 blooms from the gardenia bush I planted to remind me of Mama. It was her favorite flower, although I don’t really remember her having a bush of her own. For her, gardenias were the reminder of dates who brought corsages and danced the night away. She asked for a gardenia corsage at each of the girls wedding. The smell of those gardenias as I pulled was as close as I can get to what Mama seemed to smell like, so I sat in an easy chair near the bush and just enjoyed the smell for a while after I finished deadheading… and thought of Mama.

I wonder what symbol my children will remember me by? I hope it’s something as sweet as the gardenias that remind me of Mama who could be just as sweet as their smell…just not always, I’m afraid. But even when she was difficult, she put up with a whole lot more difficulty from me, the child she just couldn’t quite get to fit the mold she had in mind, and she loved me anyway. Happy Mother’s Day Mama!

Blessings,
Janie

Mama's Gardenias

Ahhh…Mother’s Day…That great Hallmark Holiday that it would be a crime to forget. Who doesn’t have strong feelings about their mother? They are the center of our universe from birth, and even when Daddy knows best, it’s often Mama who has the final say in family matters…at least around our house. My mama was the glue that held the family together through thick and thin, for richer and definitely for poorer, she always managed to keep it together. She was a central touchstone that allowed my brother and sister and me to communicate without communicating, and it kind of smoothed the sibling rivalry to get most of our news through Mama. Once she was gone we had to kind of reacquaint ourselves with each other, sometimes more successfully than others, but because it was important to Mama, I think it will always be important to us to be a family. Yesterday, I deadheaded over 150 blooms from the gardenia bush I planted to remind me of Mama. It was her favorite flower, although I don’t really remember her having a bush of her own. For her, gardenias were the reminder of dates who brought corsages and danced the night away. She asked for a gardenia corsage at each of the girls wedding. The smell of those gardenias as I pulled was as close as I can get to what Mama seemed to smell like, so I sat in an easy chair near the bush and just enjoyed the smell for a while after I finished deadheading… and thought of Mama. I wonder what symbol my children will remember me by? I hope it’s something as sweet as the gardenias that remind me of Mama who could be just as sweet as their smell…just not always, I’m afraid. But even when she was difficult, she put up with a whole lot more difficulty from me, the child she just couldn’t quite get to fit the mold she had in mind, and she loved me anyway. Happy Mother’s Day Mama! Blessings, Janie

Friday, February 10, 2012

25th RD Crops


This one is for my Sidney Lanier Classmates Class of 1962.  Most of the rest of you won't be interested.  Promise to write something of general interest when my muse returns.  In the meantime...

Poets, Y'all are gonna LOVE this.  Click on the picture above to take you to my Picasa Album composed of pictures sent in by Robert Dow of the 25th Reunion.  I cannot identify a goodly number of these folks, so if you can, label them or send me a note to morrishome1@bellsouth.net.  I missed this one, but felt like I'd been there after seeing these pictures