March 14, 2010

So, there is this family that I went to high school with that lost their mother to cancer a few years ago. I was not good friends with the kids that were close to my age in high school, but we were pretty good acquaintances. One of the girls in this family graduated a year behind me. She has a blog that I found out from being her friend on Facebook. Their family has decided to do a "Grandma Sharon" weekend. It just happens that her birthday and anniversary of her death are very close in date. The famiy all gathers together to teach their children about their grandma and to keep her memory alive. I find inspiration in this.

The first time they had their weekend, I was pretty impressed. It began a lot of thinking for me. And after their second weekend, I decided that I wanted to do something similiar on a little lower scale to begin teaching Kate about my mother.

Well, today is what would be my mother's 63rd birthday. Josh and I celebrated by calling today Grandma Kate day. Now, we didn't plan much for the day since I informed him of my idea laying in bed last night, but we did sketch out some ideas. It also made me realize that I really don't know my mother that well before she got sick, which makes me sad. I also realized that I need to learn how to crochet and quilt : )

So there is what we planned for today to help remember things about my mother:

1. We went to church. Now this is something we would have done anyway, but we know that church was important to my mother thus why it is important to us.
   
2. We cleaned up the yard. My mother was a big gardener. It really isn't garden season yet, but we did spend some time outside cleaning up the yard making it look nice. I will remember my mother a lot more this summer when we spend a Saturday picking weeds.
   
3. I made burgers on the grill for lunch. Most of the meals I remember from my childhood involve ground beef. Mostly burgers and meatloaf.
4. We went to the library. A lot of my memories of my mother before she got sick were at the Alton library where she was the librarian before she become a Spanish teacher.
   
5. We attempted to stop by an antique shop, but each one we stopped at was closed for the day. Perhpas this week on Spring Break Kate and I will take in good antique shopping experience looking for some green depression ware or a gem of buy!
   
6. I baked her amazing dill bread and my Aunt Annie's banana bread.
   
7. We made her famous enchiladas verdes for dinner : )
   
8. In the evening we all sat around the dinner table and had a tea party. We used Kate's tea set, but we used one of mom's tea pots.
9. Last but not least, Josh and I watched West Side Story after Kate went to bed.

I'm looking forward to next year because perhaps Kate will understand a little better what it was all about. I kept trying to explain things to her today, but I'm not sure how far I got. It was a really special day.

Look what I got at the library!

Mom's famous enchiladas verdes

tea party time

: )

Mmmmm...dill bread...