monday's mulling: grand-aunt leta

Easter dinner was quiet and casual. It was just the four of us -  my son and daughter-in-law, Todd and me. To set the table, I opened the cupboard for the everyday dishes. Practical and familiar. But then something in me paused. "No," I thought. "Easter deserves a little bit of pretty." So I brought down the set my mom gave me, the one edged with delicate violets. The same violets now peeking through the yard, bright and cheerful beside the dandelions.

One thing led to another and white paper napkins felt too "blah." I opened the buffet drawer, the one filled with hand-embroidered cloth napkins, each one stitched with care by hands I never knew. As I sifted through them, I reached the very bottom and found something tucked away: an embroidered dish towel, a bit of brittle paper still taped to it.

"Made by Leta for your hope chest."

Leta Ophelia was my grandfather’s sister, born in 1902. She stitched this piece for her brother’s fiancée as a bridal shower gift, something pretty to begin their married life. My grandparents were married on June 17, 1925.

This quiet, careful work has traveled a full century to reach my hands - one hundred years held together by thread, memory, and love.

Out of curiosity I googled "What is my relation to my mom's aunt?" I thought the answer would be great-aunt, which most people assume. But it's not, my grandpa's sister is my grand-aunt. Ancestry.com gives this explanation: "A grand-aunt is the name that should be given to the sister of a person’s grandparent, indicating that they are the first generation of an aunt or uncle beyond your parent’s siblings. So, just like with grandparents, saying grand-aunt indicates the familial relation is two generations away." Isn't life grand?

happy easter and it's national dandelion day, too

Happy Easter to all! Wishing you blessings of love, joy, and hope.

National Dandelion Day celebrates a flower that many overlook. It's often labeled as a weed but the dandelion brings color, food, and healing to the world. The flower’s strong roots dig deep into the earth and its bright yellow blooms appear early in the year. After winter’s cold and gray, these bright yellow flowers dot the greening yards with sunshine. This day reminds people that beauty and purpose can grow where least expected.

 “I am born as the sun,

But then turn into the moon,

As my blonde hairs turn

Grayish-white and fall to

The ground,

Only to be buried again,

Then to be born again,

Into a thousand suns

And a thousand moons."

HYMN OF THE DIVINE DANDELION by Suzy Kassem

“...I love dandelions. They make me feel like sunshine itself, and you will always see some creature resting on an open bloom, if you have a little patience to wait. This vital source for all emerging pollinators is a blast of uplifting yellow to brighten even the greyest of days. It stands tall and proud, unlike all the others opening and swaying in the breeze. The odd one out.”

~ Dara McAnulty, Diary of a Young Naturalist

sunflower stamps

On March 14, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled its new Sunflowers Forever stamp, a tribute to the flower’s beauty, symbolism, and ecological importance. As someone who adores sunflowers and delights in dressing up my correspondence with cheerful, eye-catching stamps, I couldn’t resist. During a visit to the post office last week, I picked up two sheets of this fresh release to add to my ever-growing stamp collection. 

And arriving April 18: the Happy Birthday Forever Stamp. Safe to say I’ll be making another pilgrimage to the post office. It’s such a cheerful, first-glance greeting - perfect for celebrating the recipient before they even open the envelope. 

 

the friday feed: sugar and spice?

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice 

and everything nice, 

That’s what little girls are made of.

April is National Poetry Month. 

I grew up hearing this poem. Little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice and little boys were made of frogs and snails and puppy dog tails. I wasn't much of a play-with-dolls girl. I wanted to be outside climbing trees, playing in mud, riding my bike, playing tag until I was sweaty, not inside playing with dolls. To this day I'm still that kid who loves to ride her bike and get dirt underneath her fingernails and all that other stuff.

april fool's joke

My youngest child loves April Fool's Day. He's pulled some pretty good pranks over the years. 

One year, it was around dinner time and he called up and said he and his wife were cooking a turkey for dinner. It was still frozen, they were soaking it in not water to thaw it, and he wanted to know how long they should cook it in the microwave. I fell for that one hook, line, and sinker. 

"Andrew, you can't thaw a turkey in hot water. It's not safe. Bacteria will grow and you'll get sick. How big is your turkey?"

"12 pounds."

"One, you don't microwave turkeys and two, it won't fit. Why are you cooking a turkey in April anyways?" Then it hit me right before the hilarious laughing ensued. He got me good...

✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴

This came in the family text yesterday morning. The Cleveland/Chicago jabs run strong between the Ohio boys and the Chicago boys...this is the most recent. 

 "And you Chicagoans think you're something special because you have the Pope."

~ Andrew from Cleveland

wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

GOOOOO, DAYTON FLYERS! 

March Madness came to University of Dayton Arena where our own Dayton Flyers played the Illinois State University Redbirds. Our good friends have been UD basketball ticket holders as long as we have and we we met in the parking lot for a little pregame tailgate party. While tailgating, members of the Red Scare (the student cheering section) walked past, we yelled "Go Flyers!" and got a group photo. They are a fun bunch of young adults.

Illinois State won the game and advanced to the Final Four of the NIT Tournament. Both of our sons-in-law attended ISU and were texting us throughout the game, giving us the dig that the Flyers were going to crash and burn. Well, they did and now I'm cheering for ISU to win the tournament.

A springtime walk around the pond at Lincoln Park. The turtles sunned themselves on their usual spot on their little plank. As I walked past, their little heads popped up, they moved around a bit, ready to jump in the water if they felt threatened. 

On our way home from Cleveland last week, we stopped in Columbus for a bite to eat. When we stopped to get some gas, Todd realized he left his credit card at the restaurant. By that time, the restaurant had closed for the night. Friday we drove back to Columbus and stopped by Goodale Park to see some cherry blossoms. I've been to Washington DC once during the cherry blossom season...what a sight! Ohio University has a big display of cherry blossoms along the Hocking River and I was thinking of making a trip to Athens this week to see them. The forecast for the next few days has a lot of rain it so it's a wait and see.

Another beautiful sunny day took me to Hills & Dales MetroPark. The Pawpaw shelter is the beginning of the trail. Pawpaws are a fruit native to Ohio and they are delicious. They're a tropical-flavored, custard-like fruit with a short growing season.

Hills & Dales has a statue dedicated to John H. Patterson, the founder of National Cash Register Company (NCR). Patterson owned the land that became Hills & Dales MetroPark. In the early 1900s, he purchased hundreds of acres south of Dayton to create a park for public recreation and employee health. Patterson hired the Olmstead Brothers who designed Central Park and the Washington DC Mall, to design Hills & Dales.

Pretty sight - the soon-to-be-full moon shining in the afternoon sky.

Gotta take photos of the daffodils while they're still around!

 

let's get back to basics

My siblings and I were taught the Golden Rule before we knew it by that name. Whenever we used to do mischievous things to one another, Mom would pull the guilty party aside and ask, “Would you like it if he/she did those things to you? No? Then don’t do them to him/her.” That logic to be very persuasive, even as children, and in retrospect it’s impressive how effective Mom was at modifying our behavior with such a simple concept. 

As adults, the Golden Rule remains just as simple and powerful. Throughout history it has acted as the backbone of the moral systems of just about all civilizations.

The amazing similarities of the quotes below show how different religions sum up their moral systems through nearly identical expressions of the common Golden Rule: that you should treat others the way you wish to be treated, spreading kindness and refraining from actions that would harm others.

We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life. 

~ Edwin Markham