Kitchen memories/ Swedish Death cleaning/ picking up where I left off...

 

How many people have this exact set of mixing bowl?  The smallest one is blue, then red, then green and the large bowl is yellow.

This set was a wedding gift to my parents in 1945.  I wonder who gave it to them?  There's nobody left to ask.

My mom gave them to me when Nick and I got married in 1972.  Each bowl seems to have it's designated function and use,  By default- no one assigned them 

 

More later I have to run 

 

 

 

I started to write this post yesterday and I cannot remember why, but for some reason I was not able to finish it.  And so I am back to try again.

 I was writing about the mixing bowls .  I was feeling very poetic about the memories they evoke, but that's a thought that has passed.

Anyway, back to the memories.  The smallest of the mixing bowls, the blue one, is the perfect size to mix up a can of tuna and mayonnaise for a couple of sandwiches.   I think we have also used it for dip- like dipping veggies or chips.

I served my husband [Nick] stuffed green peppers in the red bowl shortly after we got married .  Not exotic in my family.  My mom was a really good cook and we have all sorts of things for dinner.   Nick's family, not so much.  His mom was a decent cook, but she absolutely hated  cooking!

The stuffed green peppers looked so festive an smelled so good.   Nick took one look and said "what's that?"  Needless to say he did not eat them.   The red bowl is good for other things but that's what I think of.

The green bowl is just right for making cake frosting.

The yellow bowl is perfect for making a cake in.  Or needing bread.  Or making Thanksgiving stuffing.  Or meatloaf.

This set of bowls traveled the world with my family and then with Nick and I and our own family.   

And now I am starting to wonder what will the future of the mixing bowls be.   Will any of the kids want them?   Will they care about the history and stories?   Will they get sold at the Goodwill?  Does it matter?

I probably will never know 

  

ZOOM!!!

 my surprise Mother's Day flowers from Nick

 

 Zooming is such a modern day miracle!  Yes, I know that makes me sound like an old lady, but at 72, I guess I am entitled.

Courtney -oldest child and only daughter- set up a mother's day/ birthday zoom with all five of my kids, my husband and my sister .

 I don't see the kids very often.  They are all adults and their lives are busy.  The are scattered around the US, so none of them or is is able to get together in person very often.

When we had a houseful (did we really do that??) we saw the kids ALL the time.  Eating together, watching TV together, attending back to school nights and teacher conferences.  We went to concerts and sports driving everyone here and there. 

I enjoy my selective memory that allows me to fantasize about  how wonderful it all was.  Well, truth be told, it was not always fun.  It was exhausting and often frustrating.  Sometimes it was the kids, sometimes it was something or another concerning their schools, teachers, nasty neighborhood kids.  Messes.  Homework.  Laundry.

Do I regret having kids?  No.  There are time that I wish things were different- like contacting me and writing all the time.  But, wait, that would mean that they were clones of me and that's not who or what I want. And of course I wish that I had been more patient and kind all the time and I was not.

I love my kids.  Of course I do.  But the depth of my love and the intensity of how I feel about them is beyond words.  And each one of them is so unique and different than the others.  But they are all ours.  Nick's and mine.  They are Sherwoods for better or worse!

Happy Mother's Day

 

  

 

And now this!

 My cousins, Geri and Cheryl, sisters and friends sent me a fun birthday gift!

 I just turned 72 and Geri turns 72 in a few weeks, so we are especially close.

 

 

 

  

 Here we are, sitting on our grandfather's knees when we were around a year old.  Our moms are sisters!  Aunt Geri, Geri Lynn, Grandpa Rivers, me and my mom, Ruth
 

 

 

Baby pictures and now

 

 I posted a photo of myself in my "birthday suit" as a baby in a life preserver.  We were traveling to Greece for my dad's assignment at the US Embassy.   It was labeled that we were on a holiday to Greece, but in fact we lived there for two years.

Of course as you can see in that picture, I was a baby so don't remember a whole lot about Greece.   I was three years old when we returned to the States.

 Now I am going to post a passport picture that was taken for that trip.  In 1955, children were on their mother's passport, so Carol, Dale and baby me were all in the photo with our mother.

 There have been many iterations of all of us since 1955!

 

Here's a picture of me now, at age 72!

 

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Happy Birthday to me!

 

 

And now I am 72.  What next?

 

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Austin turns 39 on May 3rd

 

Thirty nine years ago at this time I was in labor with Austin.

 

 

Sewing Machines

 Journaling by hand while watching TV

 

 

 

Jessica sewing on my mom's- her great grandmother's sewing machine!

My mother's Featherweight