This is a picture taken in 1962. Me, Daddy, Grandma (his mom),  and Mama. I thought this would be a good post for Father's Day and belated Mother's Day. This was taken in California and was the last time I saw my grandma.

 

Because I was so young when both sets of grandparents passed away, I take the job of grandparent very seriously. I promoted good relationships with my boys and their grandparents because there is no one who can really fill that gap.

 

My grands, all 5 of them, mean the world to me. I think of each one of them all the time and pray for them to have a wonderful life. I hope I have played my part in helping them know that they are loved and valued.

Sewing Lesson for Maci

 

Yesterday 7 year old Maci walked past the sewing room/office/craft room on the way to our bedroom. She asked if it would be possible for me to teach her how to sew with the sewing machine. I told her we would try to get to it.

Today, I finally thought of something that could be finished rather quickly and also give her a lot of sewing machine time. I had some strips already prepared for a string quilt and realized that allowing her to piece those strips together and then quilt them would give her a lot of practice.

My machine has a turtle speed and a rabbit speed. (there are pictures) If I set it to turtle, she can only go turtle. With rabbit she may go as fast as she wants. By the time she finished, she set it to a little more than halfway to rabbit. Her seams became more and more uniform. We stuffed it with the filling from an old pillow. She is really proud of her project and I am impressed at her willingness to follow directions. She also learned ironing and pressing skills. Now, on to the next project!

My Favorite Childhood Toy

This is me in 1960 or 1961 with my favorite toy ever! The picture was taken on our back porch on the day it was given to me. The dark color of the tricycle was emerald green and the other parts were white. My little blouse was deep red and the pants were tan.

Our house was only about three years old there. It was a new housing development in our little town. I didn't know until I was in Junior High School that it was located on "the wrong side of the tracks". Even when that piece of information was deposited Inside my mind, I didn't care. I loved my little house. There weren't many kiddos my age on my block, but I played my heart out on that little trike. I sort of resented the day I out grew it and had to go to a bicycle.

Our sidewalks were cut out for driveways so it made learning to ride on the sidewalk dangerous. My mom's solution to that was to learn how to ride the bike in the thick grass of the very large back yard. She and Dad bought me a bike that would be big enough to see me through High School and adulthood. Now, I wasn't but a few years older than I was in this picture and I have always had very short-legged. (Not a good thing when learning how to ride a really big bike.)

I was determined to learn to ride and I finally did it. My next favorite bike was the bicycle built for two that I bought at a garage sale. We still have it. I will take a picture of it soon. Terry put new seats on it and re-painted it. This picture makes me smile!