When you visit Grandma, you’re sure to have a good time.
Grandpa sat with the liveliest group, moving now and then to a different room.
He liked the grandkids quite a bit.
Author: Angela
I write so my family will always have letters from home.
Girls’ Weekend Year 2
Photo by Sarah Hainsworth via fancy remote
We celebrated a second annual Girls Weekend with the Sanchez women this month at Spring Lake. Activities included shopping at outlet stores, going out to eat, eating snacks, eating delicious soups and enchiladas that my mom prepared beforehand, yoga and essential oils with Becky, facials, a Victorian era chick flick, and a special morning choral reading of my mom’s book about her parents. I couldn’t be there the whole time, but we captured this moment with all of us together, promising we’d edit out the lower half of everyone’s ensemble. (wink!)
I have a few things to say about this photograph.
- My little sister Susan is NOT that much taller than I am.
- Paige is, however, that much taller than I am.
- I did not get the memo about purple and blue. Even if I had, I don’t think I could have found something those colors in my closet.
- This is a very happy picture. I smile when I see it.
- These ladies are great company.
Home Tour
The other day Timothy decided to take some pictures of our house to send to his friend in Arizona. I have been working on writing all of the time. Looking at the photos was a wake-up call for me. This house needed to be whipped back into shape. Here are a few before and after shots.
Kitchen BEFORE:
Daniel’s sleeping bag from the scout camp out is draped over the kitchen chair. I don’t know why. The island is doubling as a pinewood derby workshop because the garage workshop is too cold to work in. This was the picture he was ready to send to his friend. Oh help us.
Kitchen AFTER:
This is a house tour for Timothy, so he’s posing in a few of these shots. Sparky, confused, wandered into many of our shots. The finished pinewood derby car sits proudly on the kitchen island.
Craft room BEFORE:
Let me just say that this room is beneath the stairs and it will never be pristine because craft rooms are work spaces. This week, though, my craft room was a dumping ground for every project. There are costumes, monster hats, family history photos, slides, notes, and general clutter from the kids keeping me company. The 100 year old photograph of my great-grandmother sits on the table so I could photograph it and so she could be in my thoughts as I write about her. Yes, oh yes, he was going to send this photo to his friend.
Craft room AFTER:
It’s not magazine quality, but who wants to live in a magazine?
Mark’s bedroom BEFORE:
Mark’s bedroom after
Basement reading room BEFORE:
The impossible puzzle that we have been working on since December sits prominently in the middle of the room. Just one day later Daniel manned up and finished it for us. We are ready for a new puzzle!
Basement reading room AFTER:
The puzzle is gone and Timothy shows us where he sits when he reads each day. Here are a few other views of the big basement rooms.
Aren’t you so glad you get to see a picture of our huge sofa today? It’s better than doing dishes or attending to other things, surely!
I won’t show you all of our messes, but here are a few more shots of the house so you can see where I have decorated and where I have not.
I believe in having computers in family areas. When my kids Skype with their friends, there’s always a mother looking over their shoulder, even if it looks like she’s just making dinner. I don’t believe computers make for good decorating, but it’s worth it. Can we ever be too vigilant about computer use in our families? Richard hates it when I ask rhetorical questions. I hate it when I come home to find that the kids are online when I’m not around.
April is my home repairs and decorating month. Caulk, paint, decor, plants… they’re on their way!!!
Some of you will be pleased to know that comments are currently being accepted. I’ll probably stop soon, so take your opportunity while you can.
Great-grandmothers
It’s been quite a special time for me, learning about my great-grandmothers. I only have memories of one of these women, and she didn’t look like her photo when I knew her. The effort is deeply satisfying. I’m so involved in the project that I have given up cleaning the house or reading, and sometimes I forget to eat. My book is growing, and to use a phrase that I hear from my middle school son, “It’s epic!”
Meeting
Tonight I spent some time in a room with a woman who has a very long list of accomplishments, degrees, and two professions. We don’t know each other well. We were just thrown together into a musical group and I’ve spent the past few weeks learning about her.
I asked her about her education. She has multiple degrees. But then she looked at me and explained, “It’s because I don’t have any children.” She explained that she was educated because she didn’t want to sit home alone and she wanted to progress.
I said, “Well, I have children, and I spend my time trying to progress, too.”
Each of us chuckled nervously. I think it’s because we were crossing a boundary set by the women who fight over the labels of “mother” and “professional.” The mood lightened as she mentioned that she believed all women are dealing with the same challenges. I agreed. She still felt sad that she didn’t have children, and I feel a little lost because I gave up my regular job during the day, but our minds met and there was mutual support in that meeting. Children and income are inadequate measurements of success, anyway. We could be friends, despite the fact that we won’t have children at the same time and I’m not on a payroll like she is. I believe she will have her sweet children someday. I also believe that we’ll continue to progress, each of us with different challenges and opportunities.
Ultimately what God intends for each of us transcends both economics and homemaking as we know it. Because of this, it wearies me to read the words of women who belittle others for choosing homemaking instead of a career. On the other side, it breaks my heart to see women feeling deflated because someone has misjudged their decision to work or the reasons they do not have children. I am perplexed by the arguments of women who tell the world that it’s possible to have it all at the same time without tremendous sacrifice. All of this belittling, self pity, and self promotion is a great smokescreen to keep women from encouraging one another.
I’m in the mood to cheer for efforts to reach beyond worldly measures of success. I’m in the mood to say, “I am trying to become something more than you can imagine.” I’m in the mood to turn off the voices that say, “A profession is the greatest end,” and conversely, “The only place a woman can be of value is in the home.” The real answer isn’t someplace between these statements. It’s completely above them, ennobling and liberating because it doesn’t focus on labels. It focuses on who we are inside, not our titles or even our accomplishments. Someday all of these things will be gone. So many of our successes will seem like pieces of jewelry we can no longer wear. What will we look like without this jewelry? That is what we should be focusing on.
A Wonderful Story
I’m at 9,300 words in my grandmother’s history. This week I have written about forbidden marriages, ocean voyages, WWII valor, sacrifice, family traditions, family recipes, and a lullaby. I’ve gazed at baby pictures of people I only knew after they had wrinkles. I have laughed, I have cried. I have seen how my great-grandfather looked in Paris and smiled at his beret. My source materials include letters written in the 1990’s to me, copious notes from Grandma’s stories, photographs that Paige took of photo albums and objects, my great-grandmother’s collection of newspaper clippings and photos, slides that I have painstakingly scanned over the years, and previous histories and careful genealogy work by my dad and aunt. I have had a Finnish letter translated. I have hoarded and identified every photo I can get my hands on. We have done some of my family’s temple work. Whenever I revisit family history, it fills my life.
My mom just finished her parents’ history and shared it with us on Sunday. It is a treasure and I came to love my grandparents even more through the reading of it.
The more I learn, the more I see that Norman Rockwell was painting OUR STORY! That little redhead on the top could be my Mark.
My projects are his projects
I am so glad that Richard assumes the role of technician and editor so I can write and create. He makes my ideas become something more than dreams. I’m so grateful that he knows computer languages, English grammar, and is so unselfish about time.
When I was studying Greek philosophy a year or two ago, Richard came home with a book called A Pheonominally Phrank History of Philosophy (Without the Poncy Bits) so he could have conversations with me. This was an incredibly endearing gesture.
This week he knew that I had some photos to edit, so he sat down to preview some programs to help me do it. He worked on this picture of my dad which was covered in black dust spots. Thank you!
My March Project
The winter months have been devoted to cozy projects. My extra minutes in January were spent making our 2012 family album. February’s minutes went to violin practice. This month, my project is to make a third draft of my Grandma Ruth’s history that I began writing in 2008 after spending a week “interviewing” her. I’ve collected many pictures and I’m currently scanning slides so this little history is full of images.
Klondike Derby
Images by Matthew Pettey
Daniel has some great Boy Scout leaders. I’m always happy to see photos of what Daniel does when he goes camping. These photos were taken in January at the Klondike Derby. The weather, which had been so bitter cold, decided to warm up to the 30’s for this camp, for which the mothers were very thankful. Evidently, Daniel wasn’t very cold. I don’t see him wearing a coat in any of these pictures.
I don’t have a good scout vocabulary for trying to comment on these photos, but I hear that Daniel did a good job lashing these poles together.
This was a day of competition among Scouts. Daniel’s patrol won first place overall.
They started a fire, which I think is one of the biggest draws to scouting.
No coat, no gloves. He’s a Scandinavian for sure.
Good leaders. Good boys. Good times. Daniel is so tall!
Indulge me.
Here are a few images from the Broadway review. We were the opening number in the show and this picture shows me waiting for Tevye to make his entrance.
Images by JoLynn Sorensen, Dale Butler, and Chris Monson