Photos full of memories (2)

With my outdoor and active life still “on hold” I am finding all sorts of different things to do. The other day I was paging through some photo albums and found some older photos in them that were fun to see.

I grew up with cats and so did my dad. One of the photos I found was of my dad in one of his cars. What I didn’t notice until later was there is a cat in the car with him. I believe the photo is from the 50′s, the car is much older than that, but I have no idea what kind of car it is or the year.

This photo is one of my all-time favorites. I was almost 5 years old in the photo.

I’m having fun looking through the old photos. I’m also glad that I can take a digital photo of them to share with family and preserve them for generations to come.

You can see a few other old photos that I posted back in November here.

Are you preserving some of your old photos? How are you doing it?

Sincerely, Emily

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Looking forward

No New Year’s resolutions around here. I really liked Xan’s post the other day and I enjoyed reading Annie Rie’s post Six at Sixty. I have accomplished many things over the past year and will continue to make my lists and continue to check items off those endless lists. I much prefer my to-do lists to resolutions.

Am I going to start a New Year’s list? Heck no, my other lists are still way too long! There are times I feel like I have been sitting around and I wonder if I have accomplished anything, but when I start to think about the things I have done and the things I have accomplished I lighten up a bit. Not all things are huge and noticeable.

I am happy to have the opportunity to explore new things, plant more vegetables, walk next door to visit the neighbors, and be involved in some local community things. I am grateful for my husband and my family, and the time we have had together and the memories that go along with living our lives. I look forward to more exploring, more veggies in the back yard, more visits with the neighbors. I look forward to more memories and time spent with family (and friends.)

Tomorrow is a new day. I look forward to many new days in this New Year. I hope you do to.

Sincerely, Emily

 

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Photos full of memories

In October I went up to Minnesota and Wisconsin to visit my mom and family. The plan was to help my parents put their gardens to bed for the winter, but instead I managed to overdo it before I even left home, rendering my back useless to the garden work plan.

Emily (the young monkey!) – Hollywood, FL

My mom and I always seem to have enough to do whether it is at their home in Minnesota or over at the lake in Wisconsin. I was able to help do a few garden projects and we did manage to transplant a few rhubarb plants over at the cabin. I had a chance to spent a fun night with my second cousin and I also spent some time with my brother and my two nieces. Go Go Go. Never a moment of rest! But that is why I go; to help out and have some fun along the way (if time permits.)

My brother at the lake

Over the past 7 years, my mom and I have been going through boxes and shelves, sorting and deciding what to do with all the “stuff.” Every time we came up any sort of photo or slide, we labelled the box and put it with the rest of the photos on one shelf. We knew that would be a big project, but wanted to stay focused on other “things” first.

Because I was unable to do much of anything, we spent time going through photos and slides. The first box I grabbed was a lot of fun. It was a mix of many years and full of photos I haven’t looked at in a long long time. As I went through the box I took some quick photos of a few to put them on the computer. It has been so much fun to email them to my brother or friends that are in those photos. We are all getting some good mileage out of them.

My Gramps had a Trading Post and gas station in Wisconsin. It was fun to come across some photos from that time. He also sold alumicraft boats and motors, LP gas, concrete statues and birdbaths. I can still remember the bog cow trough filled with water where he would set up the boat motors so he could run them, work on them and also show customers. He also traded a lot when people wanted a bit of gas for their car. His trading post of packed full of treasures. He hung a lot of them from the ceiling because the floors and every nook and cranny already had something in it. The front window was filled with fishing lures – again hung. I vividly remember a ventriloquist doll that hung from the ceiling.

Out front, sitting between the gas pumps was a totem pole. When we sold the station and house we took the totem pole down and moved it to our cabin where it still stands. My mom and I restored it twice since then and it is time to work on it again… next summer.

Mom and I had a chance to set up the old slide viewing rack and go through several boxes of slides. What fun that was. Sailing slides, travel, lake slides, slides from when my brother and I were babies and growing up. Slides of trips my grandparents took to Cuba and Puerto Rico and Mexico too. Lots and lots of slides. I brought many of them back to Texas with me in hopes of getting them converted to a digital image on a little converter that I have. It just takes time, but I hope to work on them little by little so we can all enjoy them for years to come.

Do you look through old photos every now and then?

Sincerely, Emily

P.S. As we gear up for the holiday season, the contributors at NDIN are hosting a series of giveaways. Be sure to check out Miranda’s post yesterday to see what she is offering and be sure read all the posts over the next few weeks to see what else we have in store for our faithful readers.

You can see what else I am up to over at Sincerely, Emily. The topics are varied, as I jump around from gardening to sewing to making bread or lotion and many things in between.

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Sunday photos: Family

Family comes in all shapes and sizes, as do the activities we do with our family members. Whether it be a day of shopping or months of baby shower planning, time spent with family is priceless.

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“My daughter.” Was there ever a more beautiful phrase? I spent the day with mine yesterday: Giant junk store, $3 BLT, driving down country roads in the blinding rain. What’s not to like. –Xan

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“My Sisters.” What an unusual and glorious phrase for an only child. I am an only child, but have 2 half sisters, 2 nephew, 2 neices, 4 step-sisters and 2 sisters in law. It’s a chorus line, and there’s a new little nephew on the way. I’m having such fun helping my “little sister” with the baby, from shower invitations to baby hats and a felted mobile. I’m also lucky to have one of my half sisters and (favorite) niece in town for a few days this Summer. - Miranda

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My family lives far, far away… but, I did spend some time with them a few weeks ago up in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Even though there is never enough time to do everything I want, we did have a good time. I posted some addition photos over at Sincerely, Emily a few days ago.

How do you like to spend your family time?

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Handmade by Little Hands

We talked a lot about celebrating handmade/homemade holidays during December and many of us showed gifts we made for others. Today I’d like to share some handmade gifts I received from my nieces & nephews (ages 3-10).


Each of the oldest nieces & nephew decorated a terracotta pot for me. Most likely my sister found these pots at a garage sale and kids painted them for me. They will certainly look fabulous this summer on my back porch filled with a few succulents.  I might seal them with some sealer to make sure the paint doesn’t come off or wear away.


They also made me a batch of paint swirl ornaments. My sister said even the three year old picked out which colors of paint she wanted in the ornaments my sister helped her make.

One of my nieces is very crafty and creative (a lot like I was as a girl). She made me this scarf from fuzzy yarn at one of her homeschool co-op classes, it was a gift made just by her for me (modeled by Dexter). It’s nice to see that we’re passing on the love of spending time rather than money on gifts for the holidays. No doubt they had a blast making these gifts!

Did you receive any homemade/handmade gifts this year from friends & family?

I can also be found at Chiot’s Run where I blog daily about gardening, cooking, local eating, maple sugaring, and all kinds of stuff. You can also find me at Your Day Magazine, and you can follow me on Twitter and on Facebook.

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Matriarch

What makes a matriarch?

Is a matriarch the oldest female in the family, or the wisest, or simply the one who usurps the role? We often conflate age and wisdom in our society, possibly because no one ever feels quite “wise,” but it seems safe to assume that age confers wisdom. I think my own mother would have resisted the role of matriarch; it would not have appealed to her sense of the ephemeral. My sister in law’s mother made a classic old-world matriarch, but probably just because she was Old World right down to the accent, the home-cooked Hungarian meals, and the house dress persona. We all try to shoehorn my mother-in-law  into the role, but she also resists it. This leaves me or my sister in law. Or really it just leaves her, because I think she covets the role. Which is maybe what makes a matriarch.

The matriarch is the unanswerable Mother, the person with the final say. This is the appeal– that someone can say, “Stop”. Someone can say, “Don’t”. That someone actually has the final answer and the right to an expectation of obedience, or at least compliance. It is this expectation that confers the power of the Matriarch, and by extension the wisdom. It’s a feedback loop that reinforces the power– if I give you power over me, I need to justify that with a belief in your wisdom, which gives you power over me.

But it’s not the only role available to old ladies. The witch-woman, the Crone, the Crazy Old Lady, also has her place alongside the Matriarch, in fact without her the Matriarch is too powerful. Like the King needs his Fool, the Matriarch needs her wise woman who basically doesn’t put up with her bull. The matriarch sustains the status quo and provides continuity, while the witch woman provides the potion that turns your world upside down. The matriarch offers stability and the witch-woman passion.

The concept of the matriarch, the Powerful Old Lady, is very appealing. I am too young for this role, and at any rate, I’m headed straight towards Crazy Old Lady. I also don’t have enough of a satellite system, so to speak– no young ‘uns, and not much of an extended family. (Which brings up the other question of how large your tribe needs to be before it even requires a matriarch.)

The world needs both– the Matriarch to provide the base, and the Crone to blow it up. Tradition and Innovation, Wisdom and Passion, Power and Magic.

Is there a Matriarch or a Crone in your tribe?

My mother would have been 90 this month Thursday. She died more than 30 years ago, so we’ll never know if she would have been the matriarch, or the witch woman, or if she would have been simply mom. Are you Matriarch, or Crone?

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Photos: Our Fellas

This week we gals are celebrating our guys and all they do for us. Since Father’s Day is this coming Sunday we’re devoting the entire week to the men in our lives – even if they’re not “proper” dads. I think we’d all agree that dads come in different shapes and sizes, with different experiences, teaching methods, and sometimes even different species as “offspring”. What matters is their support and love of their family.

Thanks, fellas, for all you do for us!

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Here at Unearthing this Life, I’m very fortunate to have a guy that enjoys helping me with projects and shares many of the same interests as I have. Even when we don’t share the same interest, he’s a great sport and plays along when needed. In fact, this spring he spent a majority of his weekends helping me build poultry tractors, taking me for motorcycle rides, and helping to reign in the birds. Love my guy – dad to one daughter, 17 birds, and two cats.

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Starting with his kids, Wei is all about the little live things. While he’ll help in the garden when prodded
and given very explicit directions, I finally discovered the magic formula and started giving him all the tasks surrounding critters–fish, bugs, worms, children, rabbits, squirrels. Of course, now he wants bees and chickens. I’m not planning on letting him know that Chicago allows you to keep pet goats. Here he is at his favorite garden task (sitting in it).

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Here at Chiot’s Run, Mr Chiots is always willing to go along with the crazy things I come up with, from installing hoop houses on my raised beds, drilling taps in the maple trees, brushing up on his fish netting skills, to digging the hole for our new garden pond. Mr Chiots can often be found helping me in the gardens at Chiot’s Run. I have written an Ode to Mr Chiots on my blog and won’t reiterate it all there.

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Being married to an artist does tend to mean that when the weather is fair I will go entire days, seeing no more than glimpses of my husband. This is alright though, because when I need help, regardless of how heavy, gross, tedious, difficult or complicated the task is, Jeremy is always willing to drop what he’s doing (even when he has deadlines!) to come out into the gardens with  me.

Together we have dug fence posts, built coops, tilled beds, eradicated brambles, chopped wood, said hard goodbyes to pets and livestock and even welcomed new life… The list goes on forever, and whenever it’s something important, my man is by my side – ready for action!

(Err… usually, that is. Sometimes he’s a little peeved when he’s helping out and I pick up the camera instead of the shovel.)

Of course he has his goofy side as well; Jeremy has the worst fashion sense while farming, and has been known to utter the occasional Tuskan Raider cry while wielding various hand tools.  We’re both known for being a little bit eccentric, but how many artists/farmers do you know that aren’t?

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Won’t you spend the week and celebrate your fellas with us?

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