Happy Birthday Smiles again

Last week I told you about my friend, Jan’s birthday. Today we celebrated my daughter Mindy’s birthday. As a mother I love any day that is spent with my children, but there is something extra special about birthdays.

A child’s birthday takes you back through the years. You think about many things…. like the day they were born…their childhood stepping stones….the way they grew and matured…. so many special moments along the way

We were glad that we could celebrate with our precious Mindy today. My heart is tender as I think back over her life. She was my second daughter. Before she was born I was a bit worried that I could never love another child as much as I did our first born. But, the minute they put Mindy into my arms I knew I was wrong. I looked into her eyes and knew I loved her with all my heart. That was true then and it is true today.

She has grown to be everything that I hoped she would be. She is a wonderful daughter , wife, mother and person.  She is a talented  musician. She has her Master’s degree in speech therapy. She is hard working and caring. She loves the Lord and tries to live by His teachings and commandments.

Because of their tight schedule today, I took birthday dinner out to their home instead of having them come to our house.

Of course no birthday dinner is complete without a cake.

Claire lit the candles.  We all sang Happy Birthday….

…Mindy blew out the candles with a little help from Austin and then opened the gifts. It was a nice day.

How do you celebrate the life a darling daughter?  Dinner, cake and gifts don’t begin to express the feelings of my heart. Each of my children is a precious jewel…. a treasure to me. On each of their birthdays my heart is full of gratitude for the good people they are and the joy they bring into my life. I am so thankful that this sweet daughter lives close to us and I could be with her to celebrate today. She has blessed my life since the day she was born.

Happy Birthday Dear Mindy….. may you have many more.

Hugs, Mom

Happy Birthday to Jan Smiles

Today was a special day for me. I got to be with my sweet friend Jan to Celebrate her birthday. She recently found out that the breast cancer she had 7 years ago has come back. This time her body is not able to withstand any of the treatments available so she has opted to not have surgery or Chemo treatments and just enjoy the life she has left.

We do not know if she will still be with us for her next birthday. We hope that she will be but knowing that her time is limited made this celebration all the more precious to us.

One of the things on her “bucket list” was to go to high tea once again at Barbara’s Victorian Tea House in Rancho Cucamonga. We have not been there for a long time.

I thought her birthday celebration was the perfect time to take her there.

This was our table today.

It is hard to decide which table is the prettiest…

….. because they are all so beautiful.

The tea, soup, scones with cream and lemon curd, fruit salad , fancy sandwiches and desserts are as tasty as the tables are lovely.

There is every kind of tea imaginable but we stuck to  herbal/decaffeinated teas that were delicious.

Jan was not feeling well today but she curled and fixed her hair, put on makeup and got dressed up for our celebration. She was not able to eat much of the food but she took the little sandwiches and desserts home to enjoy later. She said that she wasn’t going to let feeling sick stop her from going to her birthday tea party.

Barbara, the owner of the tea house is an adorable and caring hostess. She remembered Jan from our previous visits  and presented her with some birthday gifts to take home.

After lunch we took a little time to just walk around and look at all of Barbara’s beautiful things. You really have to see it to believe it. If you live in southern CA consider visiting Barbara’s Victorian Tea House for one of your special occasions. I guarantee you will love it.

I love my sweet friend, Jan. I am so glad that we got to have this birthday tea party together today. I know that it was an effort for her to get dressed up and go with me. She said that she loved it even though she wasn’t feeling well. 

We both treasure our time together….. we will keep the precious memories of this lovely high tea tucked close to our hearts.

Happy Birthday Dear Friend.

Hugs, Grammy

 

 

Remembering 9/11 with Apple Pie

We will never forget the terrible events of 9/11 that took place twelve years ago in NYC or last year in Benghazi . I have been watching replays on T.V. for the past few days. My heart is saddened as I think of the lives that were lost and all the pain caused by these events.  None of us will ever be the same as we were before the attacks.

My heart is tender today…. I’ve been touched as I’ve seen flags flying. I love the United States of America. I’m sad that some countries hate us and want to destroy us.  But, instead of sitting around being sad today, I decided to do something American….

… Bake apple pie…. what is more American than that?

If you read my last post you know that our apples ripened early this year and I canned a lot of them last week. Smelling the applesauce cooking made John hungry for apple pie but after working 2 days canning, I couldn’t look another apple in the face until today.

 

So we got out the peeler again and got busy.

Apple pie is easy to make. I used 7 apples for each pie. I added 3/4 cup sugar, 2 Tbl. of flour, 2 tsp. of cinnamon, dash of nutmeg and a dash of salt.

I wanted to do a crumb crust so I mixed a cup of flour with 1/2 sugar, 1 tsp. of cinnamon and 3/4 cube of butter until crumbly

My neighbor, Katie, wanted to learn how to make pie so I got to pretend I was back at school teaching cooking again.

I wish all of my students had been as good as Katie at following directions and working hard. She is a fast learner!

We each made one crumb crust and one regular crust pie. We baked them at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.

They look good…..And they taste better!

I ask earlier what was more American than apple pie????

The answer is--- Apple pie and ice cream.

And my friends… that was my patriotic contribution on this day of 9/11 remembering. It might not seem like much of a way to be patriotic but it left a sweet taste in my mouth.

Hugs, Lura

Back to school smiles and thoughts

I am an expert on “Back to School”.

As a student for 20 years I went back to school 20 times. ( No I was not held back …. I had 12 years in public school, 5 years in college and 2 3/4 years  in graduate school.)

As a mom I also had 4 children that I sent off to school each year for a total of  30 times, including their college years.

As a teacher, I started new school year classes 22 times in high school, 3 times at college and 10 times at the University level.  I have had more than my share of “Back to School” (This number does not count the new classes I started the second semester of high school. It would be mind boggling to add those in.)

Now that I’m retired from teaching and raising children, I only see “back to school” through my grands.

My DIL, Marla,  posted this pic on Facebook of her 3 going off to school last week while the youngest cried all the way home because he missed them. I know how he feels. I remember how sad I was when his daddy, my youngest child, went off to school and left me alone at home.

My Lynell posted this one today of her youngest 2 heading off to school. She said she can’t believe she only has 2 of her 5 children left in public school.  She commented that time moves too fast….. I ditto that. I love this picture of Lonica and Johnny.

I often feature Loni on my blog as a beautiful dancer…..

…and Johnny as a champion gymnast…

…But in this picture they are just being cute kids. I like that.

Even Erin’s little ones….Cal and Ellie….. are all set to start preschool.

My CA grands started back to school today too. Even though they live the closest to me I don’t have pictures of them to show you. (My Mindy doesn’t do Facebook and I did not get up at 6:00 a.m. and drive 20 miles to get some…. bad Grammy!) But, I am sure they all looked darling as they headed off.

In some ways I miss “back to school” now that I am retired.  I use to enjoy getting my room ready with pot plants, pictures,  new bulletin boards etc. I enjoyed getting all my papers run off and feeling “ready to start”. I think one really nice thing about being a teacher is getting to start over every year or semester.

I liked teaching. I always had great plans to improve on the previous semester and try new things. It didn’t always work out but I always tried.

However, there were some things I dreaded about “back to school” and I do not miss them.

I did not like having to set my alarm for early in the morning and then the feeling of always being rushed through the day being ruled by “the bell”. It seemed no matter how carefully I planned, my lessons and the clock were always at odds with each other.

I do not miss the endless hours of writing lesson plans, grading papers and doing administrative work and reports. I do not exaggerate when I say that my work day usually went from 6:15 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. or later during the school year. That was especially true during the years that I taught both high school and college classes.

I do not miss the constant disciplining and fight to maintain classroom order. No one told me when I was in college getting my teaching credentials that I would have to spend more time disciplining that teaching.

Without class room order no learning can take place. Some high school students make a career out of interrupting the teacher and causing disturbances. The administration does not help the teacher out much so I had to handle 95% of those characters myself. It was exhausting.

I do not miss that part of “back to school”. In fact, I would still be teaching today if maintaining order hadn’t gotten to be such a hard job. After 22 years, I was literally worn out both physically and emotionally from all of their shenanigans. (I started teaching full time when I was 41, after my kids were older, and retired at 63.)

So…. here we are at another “back to school”. As a 69 year old, I am glad that I don’t have to work any more but I do have mixed emotions. I had purpose and drive when I was teaching that I don’t have any more.

Teaching made me feel like my life mattered. I did not get much respect from my high school students but I felt like I was teaching them important things that would better their lives.  My college students did respect me. They made me feel smart, valued and important. I kind of miss that… but not enough to go back to teaching..lol.

These are my thoughts on” Back to School”. What are yours?