GREAT grandparents

One of the best things about moving back to my hometown is the opportunity for Esther to have lots of time with her grandparents, who are great. Yesterday was an especially fabulous grandparent day. After swim lessons, Gram took us to a local pond to feed the geese. Esther had a blast calling the "Quack-quacks" and "Honk-honks" and throwing "bed" (bread) at them.

Later we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner. This included lots of eating and lots of playing.

After dinner, we came home (Gram's house) and I ran out to yoga. So Esther got to stay up a bit late, enjoying ice cream and an impromptu photo session when Esther picked up a picture frame from one of Gram's art projects.

I am so thankful for great parents turned great grandparents.

Grandmom Esther

My mom's water heater flooded the basement recently. Unfortunately, this resulted in a bunch of wet family artifacts. The silver lining is that Mom went through the artifacts and she and the rest of the family are getting to look through this stuff for the first time in ages (or even the first time ever!).

Most of the images I've seen of Grandmom Esther (mental or photographic) have been of her in the nursing home, old and frail. There were a few of her in various homes for birthday parties when I was super-young, but even then, she was in her late eighties.

This one is from Halloween when I was super-young, I don't have a memory of this at all.

(See the water damage in the corner?)

So it was pretty exciting to be looking through the pictures and run across pictures of Esther as a young woman. 

Here she is with her parents-in-law on the stairs of someone's home.

In naming my baby Esther after Grandmom Esther, I somehow feel closer to Grandmom Esther. I hung a picture of her over baby Esther's crib and it reminds me that she is looking down on her.

Gram's Cookies II

Here's how they turned out! They're not exactly right, according to the family elders, but they're the best we've come up with so far.  I was skeptical of the raisin and date filling, but it's just a sweet center that tastes quite good! Family dinner is the 27th, so we only have two more weeks to figure it out...

Gram's Filled Cookies

Somehow I managed to get a recipe box that contained my grandmother's recipes. It only had a few in it-- she didn't cook much-- but the hand-writte, food-spattered index cards are pretty special.

One recipe was mentioned by my uncle on Christmas day.As you can see, it's Gram's filled cookies. Gram is my mom and uncle's grandmother, my great-grandmother. My uncle claimed these as his favorite cookies and so we're trying to decipher it before the next family supper.

The ingredients are straight-forward, but there's no description of how to assemble the cookie and filling. When Uncle Paul tried it, he ended up with something that looked like a puddle on a cookie. So I added a bit of extra flour to thicken the dough.

They're in the oven... I'll let you know!

Her Name

Esther is named after my Great-Grandmother, Grandmom. This is her and me just after I was born.

Grandmom is baby*-Esther's mom's mom's dad's mom (follow that?). She grew up on a farm not far from here, a farm that was fairly recently sold to become parkland. She had a strong faith, and I hold on to her marked-up Bible and a crucifix that was hers.  I remember visiting her in the nursing home as a kid. She had osteoporosis and other other stuff, but I was too young to know much about that. She was always so sweet, and seemed happy to see us, in spite of the fact that we were three kids under the age of seven (at the oldest). She died at age 91 when I was in second grade, and was the first person I knew to die. It was kind of traumatic.

On a slightly cheesey note, I made up a song when Esther was born. In my defense, not much rhymes with "Esther."


There once was a mommy and God blessed her

By giving her a daughter she named Esther.

She brought such joy to her mom and her dad!

Every time she smiled, it made their hearts so glad.

There one was a baby girl named Esther.

She was a special girl because God blessed her

With beauty and smarts and talents and such,

And a family who loved her very much!

Mommy’s great grandmom was named Esther.

She was a special lady ‘cause God blessed her

With a long life and a strong faith too,

And that’s just what your mom and dad wish for you!

Any other moms out there make up cheese-ball rhymes to sing to their kiddos while rocking/breast-feeding/begging the baby to go to sleep?

xoxo,
Jeannie

*OK, toddler.