Mom's wisdom

"Here's the thing about life. You've got to find those fun things to have about life. This is not necessarily fun.
But you've got to find something fun." - Mom, on June 22, 2012.

Friday, November 29

Giving Thanks

This was the first year in my life no one was up before 7am basting the turkey and no one peeled potatoes.  No one bought a bag of Pepperidge Farms stuffing mix.  Not to let everything go, I took a few hours in the kitchen with Catherine and Mary Claire making pies and sides.  Fun memories at a slower pace.

We decided this year that our time was better spent with Mom rather than scheduling oven timer slots, and heating up a gourmet take-out  meal was going to be okay.  Our goal was to have dinner all heated up by halftime of the Cowboys game, and everyone agreed the turkey breast was as good as any whole bird we'd ever cooked.  It was an emotional choice to buy rather than make, but once done it was as if a load had been lifted and we were given the gift of time.

Time is the most important thing. Mom has had time with her family this week to watch the Wizard of Oz, the Grinch, and the Garth Brooks special with her little ones...and it's wonderful to see how she responds to the music we all know so well.  Music brings movement to mom's room, whether it's soothing and brings forth a gentle hand wave, or a foot tapping beat of Don McLean's American Pie.  Mom hums to all songs, and the music takes us all to easier days for just a few minutes.

Everyone in our family knows American Pie. An unexpected blessing today was when Dad pulled up the song on his phone, and we all sang to it during a commercial break for Garth. It was a wonderful few minutes.

We're thankful to have these minutes. They are rarer these days, but they're still there.




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