On a drizzly Friday Tom and I took my Grandma on a little adventure.  We invited her to take a drive with us down her memory lane.  We asked her to take us to all of the places she has lived.  I knew this wouldn't be an incredibly hard task since she's only lived in two states and not more than a hundred mile radius round trip.  I have wanted to do this for a few years now since my granny is 87 years old and I wanted to get it straight in my mind the timetable of her different growing up homes, her "first married" home etc.....Grandma was tickled pink to go with us. Tom drove while grandma sat in the passengers seat, I sat in the back with my paper and pen and wrote as fast as I could. We started closest to where we live, the couple who live in the old farm house now were more that willing to let us take a picture of their home and even invited us in, grandma said "no."  When I asked why she didn't want to go in she said she didn't want to bother them.  Anyways, our journey was very long so I will pick a couple of our highlights.  In the picture above, grandma tells the story that my grandad had bought a house before they were married and sold it for $250.00 and turned around and bought this one for $900.00.  This is the home they brought my mom home from the hospital to.  Oddly enough, this home is on S. St. James st. and my grandfather is buried in the cemetary on N. St. James st.  Kind of ironic. 

Anyways, we went from home to home with story after story.  Some of the stories I had never heard before.  When I asked her why I had never heard this story she said, "Well, while we are driving down this road, I can just remember these stories."  We took grandma to visit her great nephew, Ronnie and his wife, Ann.  Ann had been tinkering (she called it) with some old photos and asked grandma to identify some of the people.  While we were looking through her photo album we noticed that grandma's older sister Holdie and her husband Buss were married in a town far away.  When I asked why they went so far away to get married Ronnie said, "Well, grandma was a school teacher and grandpa was her student!  She was 5 years older than he was but they liked each other.  She quit teaching at the age of 23 and grandpa quit school at the age of 18.  They were married that Feburary and had my dad in April!  This day and age she would have spent 20 years in the poky!"  Scandalous!  I said with my jaw draping open!  Then we got to laughing!  Grandma was only 6 years old when her sister married so she never knew this story until now!  Surprise!

At the end of the day grandma was pooped and so were Tom and I but we were so happy to have shared this wonderful day together.  I would SO encourage you all to take the time to do some of the things you've been wanting to do with your loved ones.  You will never regret it, promise!

On another note, I wanted to let you all know a few things we have been doing the last several weeks. First, we have been juicing fresh veggies and fruit in the mornings and sometimes at night.  The men of our family have been doing some studying on nutrition.  Did you know that in the early 1900's the average american ate 10lbs of sugar a year and today the average american eats 123lbs of sugar a year?  Sugar is in everything it seems!  So, we are on an all out campaign to cut down on our sugar significantly, and we are all feeling so much better!  Tom's elbow has been really paining him this past year, he has tried every kind of ointment, mineral, massage, nothing worked.  He has been faithful to cut his sugar and several times now has exclaimed about how GREAT his elbow feels.  "LOOK! He says, I can move it without pain!" 

Another thing we did was harvest our potatoes(pic).  That is a fun job if you have help!  My boys did most of the harvesting, they dug them up and laid them beside the rows, then Josiah chucked them to Jamin, one by one, and Jamin put them in the back of the truck.  My boys, well, and Bethany too, have always worked side by side with us but they've always had a knack for making work into some kind of fun.  I love that about them!

The other piece of news is that Tom bought a new tractor!  It's 40+ years old but he doesn't care, it runs and is in good condition.  We have been wanting a tractor for a long time, truly we have made it to GREEN ACRES!

I've shared enough for this week.  I am so glad you are all joining us on our adventures!  Until next time.......

Blessings on discovering your rich, homespun heritage!

janele :)