In His Presence

Thoughts from the Heart

What a wonderful day it is today! Every day is just beautiful because it is the day that the Lord has given. The home is rather quiet now until 2:45 when my niece comes home from school. As I stood at the kitchen sink washing dishes by hand, the window just above the sink was open and there was this gentle breeze blowing. The cool air was so very refreshing as it was scented with the faint scent of the lilacs that we have in the back yard. How I just love open windows, especially on a cooler, overcast day like today. I could hear the birds just singing away. How peaceful it is. I have a chocolate cake in the oven almost finished baking and homemade meatballs just waiting to go in. I work as a nursing assistant at a local nursing home from 11pm to 7am. It was on of the aides birthday on May 1. On the small unit that I work on, we started celebrating our birthdays to just celebrate that person and how thankful that we are for each one of them. We have a pot luck meal. It is so very funny. There are 3 aides and 1 nurse on the unit that I work on and 1 nurse and 1 aide on the other unit at the end of the hall. No one else knows how to cook or cares to. I try to understand about the nurse that I work with because the nurse is a man. It is just that the 4 aides and the other nurse are women and mothers'. I wonder what they feed their husbands and children? One aide has told me that she cannot cook and her husband does the cooking. Granted I am not a chef, but I am a very good cook. It is something that God has blessed me with and is something that I enjoy doing. Usually one can make some of the foods that their mothers had made when they were growing up. To get back to the story, though. Every time someones birthday comes around, every asks me what I am making and usually someone makes requests. I am so happy that they enjoy homecooked food. Well, I was talking with my niece, who is 10, this morning on her way to school. I was telling her how I was going to be making a chocolate cake and meatballs for sandwhiches for work tonight, she started to plead with me to leave some meatballs home for supper tonight. How she "really, truly" wanted to have a meatball sub sandwhich tonight for supper. I guess my plans for a London Broil and corn on the cob will have to wait for until tomorrow night. I do have the London Broil in the crockpot now.

After lunch, I am going to work on copying some more of my mother's recipes into a 3 ring binder that I have. I have been slowly having my mother show me how to make some of our favorit meals that she does not have the recipe written down for and then copying from her recipe box the ones that she does have. My idea was to eventually have them printed into a nice recipe book or a cookbook scrapbook for each of my mom,. brother, sister, myself and for my niece to have when she is older. It is part of our family history these foods. We all have our favorite foods that our loved ones make and unfortunately, when they are no longer with us, we do not have those recipes. What a wonderful way to remember our mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts each time we make one of their recipes for supper. It is like having them with us each time we eat together as a family. A funny stroy of sorts I must tell. One day, I had made a large pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. My mother should me how she makes it and took me step by step as we made it together and I was writing down the instructions. It tastes so yummy, just like she makes it. That evening for supper, my niece wanted some for supper with grilled cheese sandwhiches. What a nice mea and easy meal. My niece just devoured the soup and wanted some more. She had said that grandma's soup was delicious. I looked at my sister and we started to chuckle. When I told my niece that grandma did not make the soup but that I did following the directions grandma had showed me, my niece corrected herself by saying that the soup was good but not as good as grandma's chicken noodle soup.  When I chuckled againd and said to her that she just got done saying that "grandma's soup was delicious" , and then when she found out that even though it was her recipe but I made it, it was good but not as good as grandma's, what changed? My niece firmly replied, "grandmad puts MORE LOVE into HER soup and her cooking". Well, I guess I stand corrected.

My mother, sister, niece and I have been going to many yard sales lately. I, like my mother and both of my grandmothers before me, look for kitchenwares and charming classic books like Heidi. This past Saturday we found a yard sale and I purchased this charming pink mixing bowl that reminded me of one that my mother had when I was younger, except her's was a light lemon color and this one is pink. I asked the man how much he was asking for it and when he asked his wife how much, she didn't hear him because she was too busy talking to someone and not paying attention so he made a price of $1. What a bargin for me. I hope that it was alright for his wife that he sold it so cheaply. But it is such a treasure for me. One can find many treasures at yard sales. About 2 Sundays ago, my mother and herfriend from Conneticut went to Kentucky for a quilt function. Around 11 that morning, my sister, niece and I were out and passed this yard sale on our way out to lunch. There stood to my amazed eyes a roll top desk. It is not a big one. It is a smaller one, like for a lady. They only wanted $8. I am looking at it, thinking that surely something must be wrong. I walked over to my sister and asked her to look at it to make sure and nothing was wrong. It is in beautiful condition. I had to make room in my bedroom for it, because my room is so small. My niece told me that she would put it in her room for me. I laughed. Seeing how much my niece liked it, I quietley asked my sister if I could get it and put it in her room for her. My sister said no because she knew that I hade been wanting one for some time now. It seems that even though my niece is 10 now, she tries to be like me in her own way. She likes a lot of what I like and will want what I want. I remember in the move Anne of Avonlea when Anne is teaching at the girls school and she is the house mother for the girls who board for the school. Anne is getting ready for the fundraiser ball that the ladies group is having and a few of the girls who are not old enough to go to the ball are watching Anne get ready. One of the girls says to Anne that she wants to wear hear hair like Anne when she gets older. Anne then replies, "Imitation is the best for of flattery."  This does get me to think of how impressionable children are and how they learn from the things that WE do. Even though I do not have children, I do have a niece and her friends are over our house frequently or I will be helping with something at her school. It is so very important to be a positive role model for children because they may not know now, but maybe one day they will remember how kind an adult was to them.