Aren't grandmas great?

Just a little brag and praising God moment...

**Last week, my mom sent home unfrosted sugar cookies and a tub of frosting for the kids to frost and decorate all on their own.  What a treat this was!!

**Neil's mom has taken in two groups of grandkids to her house recently to decorate cookies - the little boys first and the girls second.  (The big boys will get their turn soon!)

**My mom has also been a baking machine and baking cookies and coffee cakes and treating us 4 girls and all the grandkids with these homemade goodies for the last couple months.  She says she'll keep baking and filling up containers as long as we return them back to her.  I think we can handle that trade!

++Thank you, God, for the wonderful grandparents my children have!!  What a blessing they are!!++

A Berry Fine Day

Last week, my mother-in-law took our two oldest girls out blueberry picking.  After being gone for a few hours, they come home with bellies full of berries and a yummy lunch from Culvers with their Grandma and cousins and 6 pounds of berries to share.  It was a WIN for us all, I'd say.  Our girls love this annual tradition of berry picking!

++Thank you God for time spent with Grandmas and cousins and for all the yummy fresh  blueberries!!++

Celebrating A Special Birthday

March 4th

"March Forth!  
It's a command, you see!"  

These are words my Grandma Morris would share often regarding her birthday.  What a cool day to have your birthday - the date forming a "command".  I can almost see and hear her say that now, with her sweet smile and smiling eyes.  How I love and miss those times.  But, I am thankful for our memories and so blessed to be able to carry them on.  She would drop off yummy treats and baked goods every year on our birthdays and make sure to call and sing "Happy Birthday" too.  These small acts given were HUGE acts of love received.  Ones that I hope to carry on and bless us others with as well.  We've definitely taken over the singing of the "Happy Birthday" song and are known to even play the piano while we sing it.  She was my only grandparent who was musically inclined (piano and mandolin), and I know it brought so much JOY that my own children were in music/piano lessons.

One of her signature treats were Rice Krispie Treats - cut into squared, wrapped in wax paper (like a little present) and topped with a sticker.  It was so special to get them every year!  We looked forward to them on our birthdays and holidays.  She would never forget.  And who remembered them this year?  Not I, I must say.  My awesome husband!!!  He was the one who remembered and said we need to make them.  So it became a family project!  We used the standard Rice Krispie treat recipe and made up three batches and them shared them at a family get-together that same night.

I never had a write up on my Grandma Morris as she passed away in December of 2010, which was before I started blogging.  So this is my first sharing about her.  What a blessing she was to me!!  Here are some pictures I could find of her....

(A family birthday we had at our house - whose birthday - dunno!  But you can tell these kids have changed a TON since then!  Love the smiles from Grandma in the background.  She sure loved all the kids!!)

 (Grandma and Grandpa Morris with baby Melody)

(Grandma Morris, my mom, Grandma Hamerlinck)

 (Grandma and Grandpa Morris with Ariel, 7 months old)

 (Grandma and Grandpa always made it in to visit our new babies in the hospital, but little Max was born on a nasty snowstorm so we had NO visitors in the hospital for him.  They did make it over when he was a couple weeks old though - in this picture!)

(My dad with his parents - again another family birthday party at our house - for our August birthday kids, Fone and Melody) 

(Fone's 7th birthday party) 

(Grandma and Grandpa with Max, who was just a little over a year old here)

++Thank you, God, for the life and love of my Grandma Morris.  I pray she is already in her Heavenly Home, smiling down upon us.  May her love and intercession be with us daily!++

A Fun/Yucky/Yummy Tradition ~~ Potato Bologna in 5 Easy Steps

I remember as a kid eating this food and the family getting together every year to make it with the Hamerlinck side of the family.  What a big production it was!!  And a production/tradition that we started this year with my parents and sisters and our immediate families.  It was a fun day, for sure!!!  And, we all have our freezers stocked with one of our favorite meals from growing up.

#1 - Peel all the potatoes and onions.

#2:  Wash out the casings (pig intestines!!!) under cold water and untangle them.

#3:  Grind the onions and potatoes.

#4:  Mix the onions and potatoes with the pork.  It's a pretty easy recipe....

10 pounds of pork

10 pounds of potatoes

3 big handfuls of onions

salt and pepper to taste

#5:  Stuff the casings (pig intestines!!) with the potato sausage mixture.  (this is the FUN part!  The kids all loved taking their turn!)

And, VIOLA, there ya have it ~ THE best potato bologna you have ever tasted!!!!!!!!!!  

Then you can freeze it or cook it....   

To cook, place in water and boil for 30 minutes.  

Cut open the casings and butter/salt/pepper to your liking.  

Serve with apples and rye bread.  

++Thank you, God, for this fun tradition and for carrying it on with my immediate family!!++

A reminder to my future self... (guest post)

"Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their parents."   

~Proverbs 17: 6

Today's post is brought to you by an anonymous mystery guest poster!!  

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This is a great reminder for us all to learn from your experiences and to always want the best for our own children someday. 

**Moms who are in the trenches right now** - read and take note for your own kids/grandkids someday.

**Current grandparents** - read and take note on how you can best help your own son/daughter right NOW.

(also tying this in with 7 Quick Takes, since this includes 7 tips for my future-grandparent-self)

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Right now my husband and I are in the trenches of raising a young family. We have all the busyness that goes along with that. Some of the kids are of school age. Some of the kids are too young for school. Some kids do soccer. Some do baseball. Some do swim lessons. Some dance. You get the idea.....we are a busy family. Running here, running there, trying to have suppers together as a family, trying to keep our Domestic Church thriving.

So, I'm writing a note to YOU, my dearest future self. I'm helping you from here, the distant past, to help yourself. How thoughtful of me, huh?!

Remember when you were raising a young family? When life didn't revolve around just moving YOURSELF around. Remember when you had to buckle many precious lives into the car BESIDES yourself?
So please hear this advice just for you my dear grandparent self .....

1. Come over. It's harder to move a large family of many members compared to moving 1 person. AND don't always wait for that formal invitation. It may not come. You have to just ask, hey, can I come over?

2. Kind of like number 1. Come over and pick a child up and spend some time with them. It's tough to get everyone in the car to drop a child off at your house. Moving you, 1 person, is easy peasy. Just come over and pick up a kid. Spend time with them. This time doesn't have to be extravagant. Just be! Create memories! How else are you going to get to know these wonderful grandkids of yours if you aren't willing to spend time with them!

3. A trusted babysitter is priceless. Offer to babysit for date nights and even for vacations. Remember how much it costs to pay a babysitter to watch many many children? AND grab a movie AND dinner? Yeah, date night doesn't happen very often for us when my husband and I desperately need a night away.

4. When a new baby is born and you want to cuddle that new precious soul, ALWAYS come bearing food and gifts. You may not always be welcome.....BUT when offering gifts of food or toys, it's hard to turn you away.

5. Oh, this also goes along with number 4. Call or text before you come over. It's just a small common courtesy. It's nice to be presentable and have my teeth brushed. It's not hard. It just says, I respect your time too. 

6. Remember when all the kids were home and you tried to do your best and be fair? You didn't take one child that you favored to Disney world while you left the rest home. Right? So, this goes along with grandkids too. BE FAIR! What you do for one, make sure you do for another. You may have favorites. But soon enough THEY will know and sense that. These grandkids of yours are smart. If you take one shopping, by golly, make sure you take another shopping (or hiking, or swimming, or out for ice cream) the next time. 

7. And last but not least my dear future grandparent self.....ASK how you could be better. Ask these precious children of yours, who are now parents, what YOU can do to be a better grandparent. What do THEY want you to do? They and their children and their children's children will be the ones visiting you in the nursing home.....or not. 

It's up to you.....

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Feel free to head on over to see some more "7 Quick Takes" by clicking the image below....

A life well lived

(My last living grandparent passed away just over a week ago.  My sisters and I all wrote up this eulogy that was given at her funeral and my oldest sister read it)

Where will you be in a 100 years? 

We hope and pray that we will all be in heaven with Jesus and Mary, Grandma and Grandpa and all our other loved ones who have gone before us.   

Growing up, our parents instilled in us girls a beautiful sense of life and death.  For those who don't know, our parents lost their first two children... 

Matthew died when he was 5 days old of a heart defect.   

Then, their second son, Tony came down with non-hodgkin's lymphoma and lost his battle of cancer when he was 2-1/2 years old. 

Our parents kept their memories alive by sharing with us girls how they are still very much present to us by watching over us from heaven.  We would remember their birthdays, their feast days (which is the day they entered heaven).  Cemetery visits happened often and we always had a new pinwheel or flowers or something to place there.  

Through the hard times of losing their first two children, both Grandma and Grandpa were both very involved and helped Mom and Dad stay strong.  They were Mom and Dad's backbone for strength when the world around them was crumbling.  When Matthew was brought to the hospital and things weren't looking good, Grandpa Bill stepped in and performed his baptism.  And, when Tony got sick, Grandma raised my oldest sister at 9 months old for three months as Mom and Dad had to be with Tony out in IA City.   

So as you can see, Grandma and Grandpa were both very involved in our lives from the beginning, and the closeness only continued. 

Here are some of our memories about them... 

*a denim name pillow for our beds when we were kids

*frozen bananas 

*my sister, Carie, walking to Grandma's in a little red wagon with her little twins.  

*walking in the parade with them since they were King and Queen during their first year at Hillcrest

*riding our bikes to their house and spending time with them in the summer when we were kids 

*Getting Fig Newton's, ginger snap, and iced oatmeal cookies for snacks.  

*Grandma's dishtowels and scrubbies 

*Playing cards for hours and hours and learning how to from them (and an amazing side note - they had 52 great-grandkids at the time of Grandma's death - a deck of cards!!)

*all her special baked goods and candies - especially peanut brittle, banana bread (no nuts for Laura and myself), and pumpkin bars 

*taking Amanda, my youngest sister, to the hospital to have her appendix taken out 

*Root beer float celebration on 12/12/12 

*missing their presence in the winter when they would travel to AZ

*Selling sweet corn and freezing sweet corn 

*watching MTV (because we never had cable) 

*painting her fingernails while visiting at the nursing home (and Rose getting her piggies painted for the first time at one of the picnics at the nursing home)

*Trick or treating up and down the nice warm halls of Hillcrest Nursing home 

*Grandma's beautiful hand stitched quilts and pillows that now grace our beds 

*all of KFC parties/picnics in the red picnic shelter at Hillcrest 

*BINGO! 

*Holding her hand and spending time with her during her last days 

*Her telling my sister "I saw heaven, it was beautiful, and there were lots of castles". 

Grandma and Grandpa led a beautiful example for all of us in making faith and family #1 in their lives.  Grandpa was part of the committee who went out and started funding to build this very church.   They taught their kids how it was important to take that one day each week and set it aside to attend Mass together.  They cleaned the church as a family and also spent time in Eucharistic Adoration especially during the season of Lent.   Every single holiday, there was a celebration up at Grandma and Grandpa's with all the cousins....  Easter egg hunt at Easter, stockings with apples, oranges, undies and socks at Christmastime, and bobbing for apples and Goblin Stew at Halloween.  As part of a close-knit family, their doors were always open for anyone to visit.  And, you can bet, that if you did step your feet in their doors, Grandma would make sure you left with a full tummy.   

When we all were married and started our own families, it was only natural to continue the value of family that Grandma and Grandpa instilled in us.  Grandma and Grandpa were one of the first ones to visit our new babies in the hospital when they were born.  We all know that 9 years ago, Grandma and Grandpa moved to their new home - the nursing home.  There was never a doubt in our mind that the involvement with them in our lives would most definitely continue.  Shortly after they arrived to the nursing home, Amanda and Brent were married.  Due to weather and Grandma's recent back surgery, they were unable to attend the wedding.  So what do you do?  You bring the celebration to them....  between the wedding and reception, there was an essential stop at the nursing home to visit and celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa.  No longer were they able to visit us in the hospital when God sent babies our way, but you can bet each of us girls couldn’t' wait to bring them to the nursing home to show them off to Grandma and Grandpa.  My little Yoda this past Halloween, just a few weeks old, actually made his "first grandma visit" not to my mom or Neil's mom, but to Grandma.  So, the grandma sticker on his baby calendar belongs to Grandma Bernice.   

How blessed we were to be so close to Grandma and Grandpa growing up, and we are so thankful that our own children knew their great-grandparents well through our frequent visits to the nursing home.  We will miss our BINGO games, Easter Egg hunts, picnics, the best trick-or-treating around, but mostly we will miss her smile and love that she had for us all.  We will think of you with every first Robin in spring and we will see you again someday with all the castles!!!  

"Our home is - heaven.  On earth we're like travelers staying in a hotel.  When you're away, you're always thinking of going home."

-St. John Vianney