Orthner Outtakes: Family

Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Thankful for 12/23/15

Stop and smell the roses or...save the Earthworms!

Because when you clear your schedule of all obligations you can take the time stop and save the Earthworms from the treacherous sidewalks on a rainy day!

This year Christmas falls on a Friday. My girls have been out of school since last Friday. That is a whole week of non scheduled nothingness. For this gift of time, I am thankful. I enjoyed December 23, 2015 more than any other year. Gifts are wrapped, the house is clean and the laundry is folded and put away. That left me with nothing but time to spend with my kids.

That leaves us with time to try our hand at homemade Iced Sugar Christmas Cookie for the first time.

That leaves us time to sit and listen to Reese read a chapter book while the cookies are in the oven (not pictured).

That leaves us time to get out the watercolors and learn new techniques for painting Christmas trees. Painting below by BOO.

That leaves us time to sit around together and enjoy screen time.

And, yes, that leaves us time to walk in the sprinkling rain to Chick-Fil-A to hear a neighbor sing, but stop and save the Earthworms!

I soaked in these sweet faces on December 23, 2015 and for that I am a happier, more fulfilled person.

I am guilty of over scheduling myself. But yesterday reminded me that more isn't always better. So I hope to empty my schedule a little so that I can save Earthworms again soon.

PS- all that may even energize you to allow them to be free of rules the following morning (even if it creates quite the load of laundry).

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Granny's Gifts

gift

ɡift/

noun

noun: gift; plural noun: gifts

1.
a thing given willingly to someone without payment; a present.

"a Christmas gift"

synonyms: present, handout, donation, offering, bestowal, bonus, award,endowment; More
- an act of giving something as a present.
  
  "his mother's gift of a pen"
- informal
  
  a very easy task or unmissable opportunity.
  
  "that touchdown was an absolute gift"
2.

a natural ability or talent.

"he has a gift for comedy"

synonyms: talent, flair, aptitude, facility, knack, bent, ability, expertise, capacity,capability, faculty; More

verb

verb: gift; 3rd person present: gifts; past tense: gifted; past participle: gifted; gerund or present participle: gifting

1.
give (something) as a gift, especially formally or as a donation or bequest.

"the company gifted 2,999 shares to a charity"
- present (someone) with a gift or gifts.
  
  "the director gifted her with a heart-shaped brooch"
  
  synonyms: present, give, bestow, confer, donate, endow, award, accord, grant;More
- endow someone with (something).
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After my Granny passed, those in her house were hesitant to open cabinets, look through photo albums and look in her storage in the basement and all the bedrooms. My Granny did not like you to touch her 'stuff'. She was so important to all of the family that gathered that we didn't want to ruffle her feathers even if she had passed earlier in the week, even if it had been months since she was in her house, we wanted to respect this respectable matriarch.

But we did open those cabinets, as most of us were from out of state. Not much was taken though. Mainly pictures, and lots of memories. Granny had a knack, or gift some would argue, of saving and upcycling. She was a child of the Great Depression after all. Some may also argue whether this gift was passed on to her descendants. But I don't want to make her out to be a grumpy hoarder because that she was not. Granny was a pistol but in a loving way. One of her ways she showed love was through her gift of cooking, another was her gift of sewing. I remember receiving the gift of a handmade clown doll and knowing even as a child they were special and made with love. Granny's gift of sewing was passed down to her youngest daughter, who in turn passed it down to her youngest daughter, me.

Therefore, Granny's greatest gift she ever gave me was her passing down the gift of sewing.

So in that basement closet, there were wooden spools of threads gone brittle, computer paper boxes full of lace, shoeboxes full of zippers new and old, suitcases full of naked Barbies waiting to have a outfit made for them, a cardboard box full of felt of all colors, etc. I said to my mom and Uncle John, "I need to buy felt to make a banner for my Girl Scout Troop, do you mind if I take this box instead?" Of course they agreed, and then my Uncle piled in some other sewing supplies. So therefore Granny gifted me with a box of felt. We know that Granny doesn't like us to go through her stuff, so this gift of felt is being used in a way Granny would see fit. I will honor my Granny the best way I know how.

My Girl Scout Troop marching in our local Veteran's Day parade with that banner made from Granny's felt. The girls carried that banner proud, as for they traced and cut out the flowers themselves from Granny's felt.

But this banner didn't use up that box of felt, so when a previous neighbor wanted ornaments for an angel tree for her son that passed earlier this year, I dug out some felt. The ornament was to represent my greatest memory of her son. I choose to represent his smile. It felt poignant to use felt from my Granny that passed at 96 this year to represent a little boy who passed at 8 this year as well. Both deaths were hard to swallow and both lives (and deaths) impacted me deeply. I made his mom a smiley face ornament for her white angel tree.

But of course my box of felt is still quite full.

One of my closest friends son is turning two. This friend of mine loves to reuse and not waste, it is one of her gifts much like my Granny. She doesn't want her son gifted with noisy electronic toys that flash and beep. Usually her kids' gifts are for charities not their family. But this family is super special and I want to show this to them with a meaningful gift. This family loves to travel, as they are about to spend a month in Germany and then shortly after move to Japan. So I thought this newly two year old should be gifted with a toy for all those airplanes rides. I can then see my friend gifting this toy to a child in Ethiopia. I used Granny's gift of felt and Granny's gift of sewing to create this gift.

Can't wait to see what else that box of felt has to offer. Thanks Granny, I hope I am doing right by you and making you proud.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Like Mother Like Son

My in-laws visited us this year for Thanksgiving. I asked my MIL if she ever saw the photo of her and her son from last Thanksgiving. It was a great photo and she needed to see it.

I searched on my phone and brought up this photo... and immediately started laughing.

I told my MIL that I caught her. She was wearing the EXACT same shirt. We laughed together, and she commented on how she had very few 'fall colored' long sleeved shirts. But after looking at the photo again, we got an even bigger laugh.

This is the photo from THIS Thanksgiving...

And no, I promise this was not staged.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Crazy Cousins Congregate

Guess who drove up to Maryland to visit!!!!

Let's just say the crazy cousins congregated in California (the city in Maryland that is) and cheerful chaos commenced. Here is what this crazy chaos included....