Some Days Turn...

Some days turn out completely different than you expected. Sometimes in big ways, sometimes in hard ways. But sometimes in small, and simple good ways, days turn. My oldest son threw up last night and we weren't sure if it was allergy related or a flu bug, so I kept him home for the day to see what would be. I gave up going to the women's group breakfast at church that I had really been looking forward to and instead my three little boys and I just stayed in.

I moved from chore to chore, my three little joys running in and out of my path through the house. Opening my music chest I found my prized stash of vintage Christmas sheet music, with my favorite, my Grandma's "Silver Bells" copy on top. Ah, a sweet moment. I continued to search for the most important things to be done. Still unpacked and undecorated, there are presently never ending jobs to be done in my home. Finding the one to complete in any given window of time has been, as of yet, undoable. It finally occurred to me that I still had a turkey bone in the fridge from my mom's Thanksgiving and a box of yet unpacked cookbooks.

Pulling out my cookbooks, I found my vintage flower frog collection and started to fill my kitchen hutch with some much needed pretty. I was going to look in one of my modern cookbooks for a broth recipe but felt a pull towards one of my vintage books. I flipped through a copy of The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, 1944. Another sweet moment. Reading an old cookbook is like reading a story, and finding this one transportaed me. Soon my home was filled with the scent of warm, healing turkey soup and I decided to take a tea break. While leafing through the cookbook I happened upon the title page where years earlier I had given myself a gift, writing, "Grandma Juanita's". Sweet, sweet moment.

When I returned to my work, I pulled my wedding quilt out of the dryer and wrapped myself in it, walking it up to my bedroom. I then realized that that was the third time my Grandma Johnson had visited me today. Just when I needed my new house to start feeling like a home, she managed, ten years after we lost her, to give me a housewarming. There's nothing like a Grandma's embrace and today I am still feeling the lingering blessing of hers.