Still thinking of her...

Last weekend Mike and I made a crazy trip to Newport with the kids.  We booked a hotel at the last minute so I could attend a session of the Writer's on the Edge Series in Newport.  Lauren Kessler was the featured author and I was excited to hear her speak.  Afterwards, I asked her how she made time to write when her kids were little.  She said, in so many words, if they are napping you have to push everything aside and take that time to write.  I guess that's what I'm doing right now.  Audrey is sleeping.  Will and Ella are playing together peacefully, at least for the moment and I, I am thinking about my grandmother, again.

 I started working on a project a few weeks ago that I'm still trying to finish.  A little bit at a time, right?  It's a bunting for the fall.  One side fall colors, the other side halloween.  Anyway, I finished cutting out the halloween pieces and today I worked on the fall colors, all from grandma Novie's stash.  So of course I'm thinking about her.  How she would pray when she sewed, probably so she could keep from cursing.  I should pray more, ahem.  Then I took a break, walked into the kitchen to take a sip from my neglected coffee mug, it's contents now lukewarm. As I picked up the butter knife and lifted the tea towel to cut a hunk of zucchini bread for myself, I thought of her some more...  Drinking her coffee, taking a slice of homemade bread, still in the loaf pan in which it was baked.  It wasn't fancy, but it was comforting and homey.  How many times did I walk into her kitchen and cut off a hunk of sweet bread for myself, or some other kind of baked treat?  I could feel even more at home with her than anywhere else in the world.  I sure miss that warm hug goodbye, the sweet scent of a grandma who loves you, my refuge.

There's a rough draft, folks.  Now as I read through this again I have to smile because God gave us that woman to light up our dark world for a time.  She was certainly a bright light in my life and I know many others.  Now go bake up some zucchini bread so you can cut off a hunk at a time until you've discovered you've eaten the whole thing by yourself!  :)