Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Just sayin' Hello

Greetings and salutations, Y'all!  I just got back from a long weekend in Ky with my mother.  Can I just say, "I'm pooped"!  I was fortunate enough to see four brothers and some of my sisters-in-law.  I always have a ball when I get to go up for a few days.  But, it is always good to come home.  I always miss my husband so much and he misses me.  I am very fortunate to have a husband that will let me spend time with my mother.  He just always tells us to have fun, but don't call him if we get in trouble! gggg

I don't have a crafty project to post about, so I thought I would put up a new-ish story that I wrote back in the summer.  To some of my readers, it's not new, but to most of you it will be.  I pray that you can find yourself in this depiction of everyday life:

An afternoon with:

Someone asked me recently,"What one person, living or dead, would you like to spend an afternoon with?" Aside from my Savior, Jesus Christ, I said my grandmother who died when I was eight years old. I so loved that woman and still do. I get my love for all things crafty from her.

The summer I started to the head start program she gave me a Sears Roebuck
catalog and a red crayon and instructed me to circle any dress I wanted one
like. There was so many red circles in that book. She and my mother made me a
dress like every one I had circled. They made them out of remnants that my aunt had brought from Ohio and small pieces left over from making themselves dresses. Some of them even had feed sack material in them. Every dress was special and unique, with buttons, and ric rac, and small pieces of ribbons and trims.

When I started to first grade in the fall I had 36 new dresses hanging in my
closet, perfectly starched and ironed and ready for me to go to school.  Each one was absolutely beautiful.   A girl I went to school with made fun of my "made with love" dresses.  I realized some time later that there are many ways of being rich and many ways of being poor.

I was rich in the sense of having a grandmother and a mother that loved me so much they actually took the time to make beautiful clothes for me. I was rich, too, in the sense of my mother making sure our clothes were clean and starched to perfection.  I would go with my grandparents and help them pick out the feed for the animals so I could get the feed sacks I wanted.  I have a couple of quilts that were made from feed sacks.

But, I said I would love to have an afternoon with my grandmother just to show
her some of the conveniences that I have that makes my life better. Cell phones, computers, microwave, running water, indoor plumbing, air conditioning, electric sewing machine.  And what can be said for all the conveniences in the kitchen. Not to mention all our crafting tools. She would get a kick out of that. I can hear her laughing that laugh I so loved to hear.

We take so many of these items for granted. But I know my grandmother would
love all of it. When I go visit my mom for a few days every once in a while,
she tells me stories about the people on her side of the family and also stories
about the people on my dad's side of the family. I wish I would have written
everything down that my dad's mother told me over the years. I absolutely love
the stories of yesteryear. You know, it wasn't about the struggle, or survival,
it was all about living.  It was all about making the best of what you have in the moment.  It was just about living life out one day at a time and being
thankful for the end of one day and being blessed to go into a new day. Their
lives were hard, but they knew nothing different. It was just living to them.

I thank God for all the generations that went before all of us to pave the way
for us to be here, right now, doing exactly what we are doing. Without those
precious people, your families and mine, ours families, we wouldn't be able to
do what we love.

So, think about your ancestors, and what they left behind. Who in your family
of old loved to be crafty, loved to sew, garden, bake, make jelly from berries
she had picked, mend up torn overalls, and many other things. Be thankful. Be
grateful. Share. Pass on another legacy just like that which was passed on to
you. We can live forever when we pass on what we know.(written by:pjg)

I hope as you read this, that there is a place in your memory bank that you can go and pull up some of those special memories that maybe you haven't thought about in a while.  Maybe you will remember something you have long forgotten.  If so, tell someone, write it down, record it.  I guarantee someone will appreciate it. 

I pray that today is a wonderful day for you all.  I pray that you will take the time to talk to the One that opened your eyes this morning.  Thank God for all He has done for you; going back generations.  Look purposefully around you today.  Watch and look for all the ways God has made Himself known to you today.  Just know that God loves you as much today as He did yesterday, and if you open your eyes tomorrow, He will love you as much tomorrow as He does today!  God never changes!!!!  Things around us changes; even we change; but God never changes!!  Praise the Lord!!!  Be blessed, y'all!

Hugs and blessings, Patty

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