Strawberry Memories

I love strawberries. I mean, I LOVE strawberries. LOVE LOVE LOVE fresh, plump, super ripe, sweet strawberries.

My grandparents used to have a big farm in southern Illinois and they always had a good sized field of strawberries. Our summer vacations were never early enough in the year for us to be there at strawberry pickin' time, but Grandma always put strawberries up for us in the freezer so we could have "fresh" strawberries, strawberry shortcake and the like. So much of my love of strawberries is tied to my grandparents, their farm and their strawberry field.

My grandmother's strawberry shortcake can be beaten by none. It's amazing. Most people have never had strawberry shortcake with shortbread but once they try my grandmother's they *never* go back. For the past 5 or more years, every spring my aunt would go to a local strawberry patch and pick strawberries for us all. She and Grandpa would clean, hull and macerate them. Grandma made the shortcake. And we'd eat strawberry shortcake nonstop until we pooped pink. Grandma always made extra shortcake for me to take home. It was like her special treat just for me. I loved standing in her kitchen watching her make it and talking to her.

On the farm when we visited, strawberry season was well over so we'd ride on the fenders of Grandpa's tractor while he turned the field. Once it was just him and me, an unusual occurrence because my younger brother was almost always velcroed to my grandfather's hip growing up. We were going down the incline and hit a nest of fireflies. We were swarmed and it was so amazing! Later on, we hit a nest of mosquitoes and were swarmed. That wasn't as amazing.

I remember getting up at 8 am on the farm, all the windows open all night because of no air conditioning so the house felt like morning dew, and eating cereal with Grandma. She always had her Grape Nuts with strawberries on top. It was the only time the house was cool during the day and it was soothing and comforting to sit and eat breakfast together.

Homemade strawberry ice cream. My grandparents always had a Pig Pickin' for 4th of July and made homemade ice cream. Grandma always made sure there was strawberry ice cream.

My birthdays... If we were at Grandma's house on my birthday, my cake was always angel food cake with strawberries or some kind of cake with strawberry icing that she made from scratch with real strawberries.

Strawberries are very emotional for me now. I guess I need to have my aunt teach me how to make the shortcake now. I almost don't want to learn because it makes it very final that the torch has been passed on.

The significance of a freckle

How insignificant a freckle can be.

I have a very dark one on my right shoulder. It's in just the right spot so that if I'm wearing a tank top, I usually catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye and have to do a double take thinking it's a bug.

Growing up, we spent every summer on my grandparent's farm in southern Illinois. It was always hot, always humid and they didn't have AC so we dressed appropriately. I cannot even estimate the number of times I walked past my grandmother only to have her smack me. "OW! What was that for??" "You've got a tick on your shoulder." "No, I don't. That's my freckle." "Oh. I forget." LOL

As I was drying off from my shower earlier, I caught a glimpse of my freckle and thought of my grandmother and smiled. That's the significance of my freckle.

Hello in there

I wrote this in January 2006 while I was pregnant with Shaggy.

Little baby girl, I feel you wiggling and stretching. You're not big enough or strong enough to be felt on the outside of my body yet, but you and I have a secret in that I know when you're feeling frisky and wanting to move around.

I wonder what it is that compells you to stretch or to wiggle or to roll around. Do you think about moving? Or is it just your nervous system starting to take over? Are you trying to say, "Hey! I'm here already. Start loving me now." or are you trying to remind me that this is just the beginning of a life long endeavour?

Who will you be? Will be you happy like your brother and full of spunk and humor? Will you be quick to smile and love easily like he does? Will it bother you that I look at the two of you for similarities as well as differences? Will you be as girly as your brother is totally boy?

Will you be in awe of the world around you? Will you explore and discover? I ask these things because this is what I see your brother do and it's my only frame of reference. But I want you to be you. I want you to be happy and charming and loving .... and loved. Loved by your family of course. But loved by all those who come into your life and by all those lives you touch.

Hello in there? What are you thinking today?

Don't let your brains fall out!

1. If you're too open-minded, your brains will fall out.

2. Don't worry about what people think; they don't do it very often.

3. Going to a church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

4. It isn't the jeans that make your butt look fat.

5. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.

9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.

12. A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel good.

13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway. (Just remember how lucky you were to get a free trip around the sun.)

14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.

15. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

16. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.

18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.

19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.

20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.

21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

22. By the time you can make the ends meet, they move the ends.

23. Thou shall not weigh more than thy refrigerator.

24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.

25. If you must choose between two evils, chose the one that you've never tried before.

How do you live?

There are two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.The other is as though everything is a miracle.
-- Albert Einstein