one last blanket

 

This little baby blanket has a story behind it.

My mother is in a nursing home due to a severe stroke that weakened her legs and her hands. She no longer can stand on her own and her arms and hands won't move as they should. So she has lost the ability to do the things that she enjoyed in the past.

All my life I remember my mother doing one type of craft or another. She was always sewing, crocheting, embroidering; she even painted a mural on our living room wall. But the one thing she did the most was crocheting. I am sure she had learned this art form from her mother, my grandmother. Through out the years my mother crocheted a blanket for all of us kids and as her family grew she made sure to crochet a blanket for each grandchild and great grandchild, as did my grandmother. Here is a picture of the blankets I have from my mother (second in the pile and bottom) and grandmother (middle). The top blanket is the one that she made for her great grandchild.

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Fourteen months ago our son and his wife gave birth to my mother's third great grandchild. At that time my mother told me that she wished she had her crocheting hooks and yarns with her. I wasn't sure why she wanted to begin crocheting again, but I thought it couldn't be a bad thing, it could help in her therapy. So I went out and bought her a crochet hook and a couple of skeins of yarn.

Last month I flew out to visit her. This was our first visit since the nursing home had completely opened from being locked down from Covid. One day while I was there she asked me to look in a gift bag that she had tucked behind her bed. In it I found a half completed baby blanket. She told me that she had used one of the skeins of yarn but she just didn't feel like she could finish the blanket due to her hands hurting. She asked me to finish it for her and then give it to her new great grandbaby. 

It was important to her because I'm sure, even though she didn't say it, she knew this would be the last blanket that she would ever make for her children. This makes me sad because I know that she is in her last days, but I admire her for trying to make just one more. 

this is what makes for a happy and peaceful life

Galveston Island, Texas, January 2021

 

"I just don't think I'm looking for the big moments in life anymore. It's more the simple ones that make for a beautiful day now. Like the sun rising and the moon dancing, and the wind singing and the leaves grooving, and kids laughing and music playing, butterflies twirling, heart-smiles staying -- and me being present to witness all these little beautiful things. This is what makes for a happy and peaceful life. I'm sure.

S.C. Lourie

Bella Grace Magazine

After reading this quote, I realized that it was exactly how I was feeling while on our winter vacation in Galveston this past month. On this trip I just wanted to slow down and enjoy every little thing, relax either in our travel trailer, on a pier over looking the Gulf, or on our bikes riding through the wonderful architecture of this beautiful old town.

So I ask you to slow down and really take a look around you, not at the big things of life, but at the small things, things you might not even think are important. Leaving your heart open for God to speak to you and then maybe you too will find a more happy and peaceful life. I'm sure.

 

heritage

 "and this is the part where you find out who you are"

                                                                                                                 May 29, 1954

christmas cards

I was cleaning the house today, putting away the last of the Christmas decorations and I gathered up the Christmas cards that the Preacher and I had received during the holidays. As I was going through them one last time before packing them away, I began to think about how great it was that people still mail out Christmas blessings. 

In today's time of social media it is very easy to just send out Christmas wishes through our social platforms. And while I type this I am really talking to myself. Every year for the last several years, I have said that this year I will sit down and write out Christmas greetings to all of my family and friends. Then the days move on fast and I feel defeated that I didn't get it done.

Christmas cards were special during the years of my growing up. We enjoyed going out to the mailbox and seeing how many cards we would receive. The most special card for my mother and I was the card that she would receive from her pen pal who lived in England. The fact that our family who was living in the middle of Indiana would receive a card from across the world was exciting. 

The amount of cards that we receive has diminished over the years but I have some family that sends them out faithfully every year and if they stopped sending the cards I think that would make me sad. We also receive cards from old friends and it is good to see pictures of their children growing and knowing that they are doing well.

So through this post we want to say thank you to those who sent us Christmas blessings.

We love you all!