Mommy and Me

Mommy and Me
Sharing life with you is fullfilling

Sunday, January 15, 2012

reflection

I'm sitting in my living room watching Masterpiece theater and thinking of some memories from years and years ago. 
My great grandma Dortha, a wonderful woman!  Every summer my mom would let my sister and I go and spend a week a piece (sometimes I got lucky and go two weeks) with my great grandparents.  We got to sit and read, or play with her very old toys, or we could play solitaire, or learn to sew, and then share the best meals ever cooked, and help out with piddly little chores that my grandmother was getting to old for.  Things like taking out the trash, or cleaning the cat litter, or replacing trash bags... seriously they were the easiest chores ever!
The meals were absolutely wonderful!  Every morning for breakfast there was cornflakes (yeah I know not that special) fried eggs, toast, bacon, cream of wheat, applesauce, apple juice milk, and sugar cookies... can you imagine making all that every morning?  But she did, at least every morning I was there.
for lunch it would be something much lighter, sandwiches probably or soup.  For dinner full meals like Fried chicken and mashed potatoes and corn and you name it... Grandma's fried chicken and gravy were the absolute BEST!  and all day I could freely snack on sugar cookies (grandma's own special ones, they were more like little cookie shaped cakes) and apple juice, since her sugar cookies were not overly sweet the juice and cookie was perfect together.
There was an incredible collection of books, some of which were just school work books from when Great Grandma, or perhaps their son, my grandpa was in school.  But then there were these real gems by Mrs. Southworth!  You can also find her writing under the name E.D.E.N. Southworth.  Every book I've read by her has been incredible and just wraps you in and keeps you there, under mystery and twinges of romance, and old fashioned language and humor.    Treasures really!  My sister and I enjoyed them so much that we looked up the author and found and purchased as many as possible.  I gave my copies to my sister when I thought I'd be moving across country, one day I hope to get them back.
Back to my current story though, while staying at Great Grandma's house I was introduced to masterpiece theaters. Every night my grandma would get out her cards and play solitaire and watch tv.  She almost always ate those nice crunchy cheese curls, and then finished the evening with a bowl of vanilla ice cream...
I remember my summers at Grandma's house so clearly, and loved them so much!  I did learn one very important lesson from those summers though, and that is that when a person wants to give you something you MUST accept.  My grandmother would always pay me for staying with her, but I never understood why since I knew she was living off social security checks and the things that she wanted to pay me for were much easier than the things I did every day at home.  I told her one summer that I really didn't want to accept her money and that i wanted to help her for love, not for money.  A few weeks later my mom informed me (and I cried when I realized it) that I had actually offended my grandmother when I suggested I didn't want her money.  The lesson I learned is that it blesses other people to bless me, or anyone that they choose to bless.  I don't have to feel bad about accepting a gift from someone who wants to give it... and yet this is the same lesson I've been learning my whole life. 
Learning to accept gifts from others, learning to accept help when I need it, Learning to ASK for help when it is needed, learning that I'm someone special only because God has told us that if we bless the last of these we bless him, so if I am 'the least of these' once in awhile then I give someone else the opportunity to serve Jesus!
Right now, I'm on bed rest to try to keep this pregnancy, and I am having to accept help, and ask for help, and organize my help.. giving MANY people the opportunity to serve Jesus by serving me, and it is an incredibly humbling experience.

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