Up with the chickens, I am! I don't have chickens. But I know they get up early.
My grandma on my mom's side, Grandma Annie, raised four children, mostly on her own on a little farm in the town of West, Texas. This is the city that was devastated by the fertilizer plant explosions a few years ago. Before then , most people had not even heard of this little Czechoslovakian community. My mother's family was Czech. Grandma Annie's parents came to the United States in the early 1900's.
Whenever I feel like my life is difficult, I remember my grandma. I imagine what her life was like. Raising four kids in the depression. Her husband died when my mother, the third of four children was just a baby. Thankfully, Grandma Annie's sister Bessie lived with them. Great Aunt Bessie lived her entire life, single, helping raise the kids. And they both got up with the chickens. When I stayed with them, as a teenager, I remember hearing them stir at 4:3 a.m. Shortly after that, th entire little house would be filled with the heavenly aroma of fresh baked, yeasty bread.
That generation is long gone. I wish I could have spent more time on that farm in Texas. We moved up to the Pacific northwest when I was very young. My father's family did not welcome us. I think I spent my entire childhood longing to be back in West, with a family that got up with the chickens, made homemade bread, and "kolaches" (a Czech pastry), and loved each other. How would my life be now, if I had been cherished instead of chastised?
Ah, but I am who I am! And I need to shake off these feelings and greet the day.
I am needing to make it to Mass this morning. Then a school musical rehearsal. I thought it was a two hour practice, but I got an email yesterday from my friend Jeanne who writes and directs (and hires me!) that informed me it was only one hour. I was thrilled, actually. This will give me enough time to get a gym workout in before my afternoon piano students!
But what I wouldn't give for a thick slab of my grandma's homemade bread coated in real butter right now!
Somehow I think that the gluten in that bread wouldn't hurt my tummy at all!
Happy Friday!
My grandma on my mom's side, Grandma Annie, raised four children, mostly on her own on a little farm in the town of West, Texas. This is the city that was devastated by the fertilizer plant explosions a few years ago. Before then , most people had not even heard of this little Czechoslovakian community. My mother's family was Czech. Grandma Annie's parents came to the United States in the early 1900's.
Whenever I feel like my life is difficult, I remember my grandma. I imagine what her life was like. Raising four kids in the depression. Her husband died when my mother, the third of four children was just a baby. Thankfully, Grandma Annie's sister Bessie lived with them. Great Aunt Bessie lived her entire life, single, helping raise the kids. And they both got up with the chickens. When I stayed with them, as a teenager, I remember hearing them stir at 4:3 a.m. Shortly after that, th entire little house would be filled with the heavenly aroma of fresh baked, yeasty bread.
That generation is long gone. I wish I could have spent more time on that farm in Texas. We moved up to the Pacific northwest when I was very young. My father's family did not welcome us. I think I spent my entire childhood longing to be back in West, with a family that got up with the chickens, made homemade bread, and "kolaches" (a Czech pastry), and loved each other. How would my life be now, if I had been cherished instead of chastised?
Ah, but I am who I am! And I need to shake off these feelings and greet the day.
I am needing to make it to Mass this morning. Then a school musical rehearsal. I thought it was a two hour practice, but I got an email yesterday from my friend Jeanne who writes and directs (and hires me!) that informed me it was only one hour. I was thrilled, actually. This will give me enough time to get a gym workout in before my afternoon piano students!
But what I wouldn't give for a thick slab of my grandma's homemade bread coated in real butter right now!
Somehow I think that the gluten in that bread wouldn't hurt my tummy at all!
Happy Friday!
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