Love and Wisdom

Emmett made a new friend in Great Grandma Mary's full length mirror

Sometimes I get caught up in myself. My busy schedule. My busy kids. My busy calling at church. My desire for a date with my husband.My thousand things to do. My, my, my....
Then sometimes I stop, and when I give myself enough time I recognize that my life is everything in the world I would ever want. Everything I do is exactly what I would want to be doing. My life is very busy but my joy is so full. This is the season in my life that I am in and I am growing.
There are others in different seasons who I am loving and being loved by. Two of which are my grandmothers. They are both mothers of 5 children. They have both been and lived through my season. They are both widowed now and they are both wonderfully wise and gracious women. Better yet they both live near. Yesterday my family was again blessed by their love and wisdom.
Great Grandma Mary is my dad's mom. She just turned 81. She has the most beautiful flower beds I've ever seen and she always has. She loves to work in the yard and to cook. Two of my favorite things to do as well. She is also really busy (maybe I inherited that too?) I have wonderful memories of eating dinner at Grandma Mary's my favorite of which has always been fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy. When Jeff and I were dating I remember inviting him to Grandma's house for dinner and telling him it would be the best meal he'd ever tasted.
Grandma Mary's birthday was last month and the kids and I had stopped by her house 3 times in about 3 weeks and she wasn't home any of the times. So we scheduled a date for yesterday. Easy for us, all we had to do was show up and be served.
Grandma's house always has gold fish crackers for the kids. Adelle is usually the first to remember and ask for her little dish. She has toys and stools that the kids love to sit, stand, play with. Emmett loved the full length mirror in the hall. Grandma made us lunch of huge, grilled, gooey, cheese sandwiches, chicken nuggets and fries for the kids and pie and tapioca for dessert. She always insists, "eat up you guys," and we do. Yum! Then before leaving I was able to whip out my skirt that had a tear and within about 30 seconds she had sewn and reinforced the seam. Good as new. Grandma Mary loves it when we come over. She loves visiting with us and hearing all about our lives. She loves the children and how fast they are growing. We love to be at Great Grandma Mary's.
Gramy is my mom's mom. She is 72. She is an amazing woman with so many life experiences. She got married really young and her husband, my Papa, was a truck driver and was gone a lot of the time. I've heard stories about her surviving winters in Montana and having to go under her house to unfreeze pipes with a blow dryer. She also loves to garden and this past spring she was the one to bring over cases of seeds that she had purchased for my little family to have our own garden.
Gramy remembers everything. She knows every birthday, anniversary,...of all of her loved ones and always recognizes when it is someones special day. I wish I would have inherited that trait but I did not. I think Braxton may have:) My Gramy also loves to cook and is a wonderful homemaker and mother which I hope I have inherited. She loves children and teaching them. I remember when Braxton was a baby. He was a bit fussy and one time Gramy kindly asked me if I ever tried reading to him to get him to sleep. I had, and it had been frustrating and I told her that it didn't work. I may have said something like, "nothing works except laying down with him." Shortly after that she stopped by one afternoon and was reading to Braxton. I looked over and he was sound asleep in her arms. Gramy had the special touch.
Yesterday after Jeff had gotten home and we were getting ready to eat dinner there was a knock at the door and it was Gramy. Bearing goodies. She had her arms full of apples, apple-cider and caramels for our family. This is the most recent of many gifts we have been recieving from her. All out of pure love and all such a blessing to our family.
One night a few months ago, shortly after Jeff had been laid off, I was gone at a church activity and Jeff was home with the kids. Things were really tough then and Gramy stopped by with her arms full of groceries enough to bring my husband to tears with her gracious prompting. We all love it when Gramy stops by. She always has warm open arms and I can feel the love she has for all of us.
I love both of these women so much. They inspire me and help me to not just think of myself all the time. I think of their lives now, living without their dearly beloveds and I feel sorry and lonely for them. I can't imagine what life would be like by myself. For me, they do so much. For them, I am able to take time out of my day and visit with them and share my precious little ones with them.