Children are Children

For several years now I have been tutoring reading through a faith based organization in Lincoln called City Impact https://cityimpact.org. Up until this year I have always tutored first grade. I loved it. I didn't think I could love it more. I was wrong. This year I was assigned to tutor English Language Learners. I had no idea what to expect and if I'm honest I was anxious, at first. I had no idea how I was supposed to communicate with students who didn't speak my language.

I tutor inside the classroom which is different from the way it was with first grade. I was used sitting at a small table in the hallway with my student.Now I rotate through students approximately every 10 minutes for about 2 hours twice a week. I realize that that doesn't sound like a lot of time but we have a great curriculum and we accomplish a lot.

I work with students from Liberia, Jordan, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Guatemala and perhaps other countries that I don't know about yet. All of these kids are learning to speak and read English along with learning all of their other school subjects. These are amazing children! They are willing, quick learners.

Their teacher is compassionate and dedicated.  All of the ELL teachers host a Thanksgiving feast every year so the students can experience American culture.  I was invited to help them make pumpkin pie. What fun we had! None of them has ever had pumpkin pie before. The spices were mostly new to them also. Though some did recognize the scent of cinnamon. I supervised while they took turns mixing up the pumpkin custard. Their teacher took it home bake. They got to taste the pie at the feast.

Even though these children speak so many different languages they still manage to communicate with each other. It is so fun to watch them interact. What I have learned that children are children. They love to play, to learn, to help, receive high fives, and give hugs. They understand smiles and kindness. They are amazing. Many of them came from dangerous situations in their home countries but in the classroom they are children, no different from my own grandchildren.

Easy Rolls

     Growing up I remember my mom being a good cook. I still make some of her dishes. She was not a baker, however. She was big fan of the mix.  And so that is how I initially learned how to bake. As a young wife I remember eating Thanksgiving dinner with my husband's family. My mother-in-law, Mama Ann, was a baker. She seemed to make everything from scratch. Gradually I collected many of her recipes. One of the first recipes of hers that I mastered was Easy Rolls. As I am wont to do my first effort in making these easy rolls was a failure. I did't thoroughly read the instructions first and I killed my yeast by putting it into the hot milk. Now a days I can whip these up very easily but for some unknown reason I usually only make them at Thanksgiving. They are a family favorite.

              My copy of the recipe is about as old as the number of years I've been married.

Autumn

Growing up in south Texas I never really experienced fall. It always seemed to me that there were just two seasons; hot and less hot. I realize that is an exaggeration but it was how I perceived it. When we moved to the midwest over 25 years ago one of the things I looked forward was autumn.  It has not disappointed me. Twenty years ago we planted a maple tree in our front yard. I look forward to its color very year. 

Sleepovers With Ira

Mark and I love when Ira sleeps over. He is so much fun. It does take a lot of energy, however. He has tendency to wake up super early when he sleeps over. We always make a special breakfast which must include Papa's baked apples. Sometimes it is homemade pancakes or waffles or even special oatmeal.

Natalie and Scott spent their anniversary weekend in Omaha to celebrate 7 years of wedded bliss. After they dropped off Ira we asked him if he wanted to go to the museum or the zoo. Initially he said museum. As we were getting ready to leave he said he wanted to feed giraffes. I explained the giraffes were at the zoo so we changed our destination. Up until this day Ira had been afraid to ride the train and the pony and was a little leery of feeding animals, too. So when he announced he wanted to ride the train I bought the train tickets right away along with lettuce for the giraffes. First we saw the red panda and then we headed to feed the giraffes. He was so excited. Since he was so excited about the train we went to do that next. He was such a big boy. He sat on Papa's lap and took it all in. I was holding his hat and accidentally dropped it while we were riding. Afterwards Papa stayed back to wait for the zoo employee to walk the track and retrieve it. While Papa was doing that Ira and I headed into the main part of the zoo. Right away he said he wanted to feed the goats. While we were feeding the goats he announced that he wanted to ride a pony. So after Papa caught up with us we got a pony ride ticket. He rode Samson the smallest pony. Papa held his hand the whole way. He conquered his fears that day and we had so much fun in the process.

                     We made homemade pizza for supper and Ira helped!

Channeling My Inner Lucille

Back in February of 1974 I started working at the National Bank of Commerce in San Antonio, Texas. I worked there for 5 years until Katie was born. One of my co-workers was Lucille. She had been widowed at a young age and never remarried. She was in her late 50s when I first met her. I learn so much from her. She not only taught me how to bake and cook by sharing her recipes with me but she also taught me about hospitality by inviting me into her home. You could go to her home for lunch on Thursday and sit down to a feast fit for royalty. Once, for my birthday, she made me a coconut cake from scratch with fresh coconut. I can still taste it it was was so delicious. She was an early riser and would often bake a cake in the wee hours of the morning, bring it to the bank via the bus (she never owned a car) and serve it to us still warm from the oven. Her cake of choice was usually coffee cake. I remember one time when she made it she had chopped up maraschino cherries and scattered them across the top. It made her giggle when she showed me that the cake was extra special that morning. This week I made her special coffee cake although I didn't have any cherries to make it extra special. Tasting that cake brought back happy memories. Food does that to me. Lucille died 3 years ago. She was 97.

Fall Party

This year I decided to have an autumn girls' day. I gathered all my supplies and set out to make some memories. Pinterest is my friend. I go there to gather ideas. I found a cute tutorial on how to make pumpkins using toilet paper and flannel plaid. We made thankfulness jars and drank pumpkin spice lattes. I found a recipe on Pinterest to make them in the crockpot. I made egg salad sandwiches and a few other things. It was nice afternoon that I hope will fondly be remembered. I should have taken photos at the time but I'm just getting used to the idea of blogging and it didn't occur to me.

https://www.itsalwaysautumn.com/how-to-make-cute-plaid-pumpkins-using-toilet-paper-rolls.html

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/55169164172837732/?nic=1a

On a personal note, I realize that there is nothing earth shattering in these blog posts. My purpose is to record memories for my family. My hope is that as I go I will become a better writer and hopefully my entries will be more interesting. I don't want my lack of imagination or writing talent to keep me from documenting our lives for posterity.

Gardening

Since Mark retired we have been discovering what our new normal is. One of the things we do is garden. Mark does most of the hard outside work. He built it, he plants and weeds it, and he harvests it. I cook the bounty. This year we harvested mint, oregano, thyme, chives, lemon balm, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeños, kale, rainbow chard, green beans and okra. 

Ira loves helping Papa in the garden. He will go outside and harvest veggies all by himself when we aren't looking. I didn't get photo of the garden in its prime. That space was totally filled. Out tomatoes have done well. We canned spaghetti  sauce and salsa. We bought a small freezer this summer. I have made and frozen minestrone soup, kale soup, lasagna roll up with chard, chicken gumbo, okra gumbo, shrimp gumbo, and chili. All of these have at least one element from our garden. Our freezer is full. I am looking forward to enjoying these meals in the dead of winter.

Quilting

Recently, as I was working on a baby quilt I began to reminisce. I thought back to when I first began to quilt. The very first quilt I sewed wasn't actually quilted. I tied it. I made it out of scrap squares. At the time I was pretty tickled with it but looking back it was nothing special. When Katie and Grace were still little I decided to try real quilting. The first quilt I made was a tumbling block pattern. I  traced the pieces using a cardboard template I made. I cut the pieces out with scissors. I stitched the quilt together by hand and also hand quilted it. I gave it to Grace. It was on her bed when she was little. I was pleased with that quilt and it was what piqued my interest in quilting.

About 30 years ago I made a quilt for my bed using a somewhat complicated design. Again I cut the pieces out using cardboard templates and scissors and stitched it together entirely by hand. It could have been beautiful but I have never really loved it. I bought the fabric at Ben Franklin, a five and dime store. I bought pieces that had flaws so I could get it cheaper. Back in the 80s dusty rose and light blue were popular and I was going for sort of a country look. I didn't pull it off very well. I still have that quilt stored away. Since then I made a few things here and there but nothing very impressive. I went to work for LPS and for the most part set aside my sewing.

Jump forward to the present. I retired from school and decided to pick up sewing again. Only now, I felt as though I was very out of touch with all the new methods. Several years ago I made a rag quilt for Gail when she was going through chemo. During that time my mom's machine stopped working and since they no longer make its parts I had to replace it. Now I have a new fangled machine which I am still learning how to use. I have graduated and am using a rotary cutter which was a scary transition for me. I've also found some wonderful places on line where I can buy fabric. I am greatly challenged when it comes to choosing fabrics that go together. Now I can shop on line and know that if I stay within a certain collection my colors will all match. 

I realize this may not be the most interesting post. My main purpose in writing this blog is document my thoughts and memories for my girls.

Life Gets in the Way

Life gets in the way; that's an understatement if there ever was one. The last couple years have been a blur. It has been a season of darkness and sadness. I have floundered and at times I have wanted to give up.  There are days when I drive myself crazy trying to understand why life has unfolded the way it has. And there are days when my mind is consumed with trying to figure out all the answers. The hardest lesson I have learned is that I cannot change or fix any of it. 


I wrote that paragraph several years ago. Wow! Since then Mark and I have both retired and are learning a new way of life. It's not without its ups and downs but I can honestly say I think we have come out of the season of darkness. As for me, I'm diving into things I used to love but had put aside. I'm sewing again. Recently I finished a couple of rag quilts, a quilt for Ira, a baby quilt for his "new baby cousin", and tried my hand at teaching Audrey how to sew. Between the two of us we made a pair of pajama pants and two skirts, one for her and one for her best friend; they wore them on picture day.

Mark and I have also been gardening. Mark does the lion's share of the work. I have some flowers I tend.Our garden has been pretty prolific.  This photo was taken early in the summer. Since then we harvested green beans, kale, rainbow chard, mint, thyme, oregano, lemon balm, okra, bell pepper, jalapeños, and tomatoes.

That's a snapshot into our lives. Perhaps now that I have begun again I will keep up with this blog as a way to document our family life. Until next time.