Ms. Magnolia June is spending the night and her requested supper is her usual ask which is fish and macaroni and cheese. I have the fish thawing on the back porch and as you can see, Maurice is guarding it carefully.
For breakfast tomorrow, she has requested pancakes, bacon, and perhaps a cheese omelet. We shall see.
She also asked for chocolate chips in the pancakes which every grandchild always requests for their sleepover breakfasts although I have never in my life made a pancake with so much as one chocolate chip in it and never will unless someone's life depends on it. And I told Maggie that.
"Okay," she said.
It reminded me of when the kids were little and would ask me to buy some sort of horrid (delicious) sugary cereal as if there was a chance in hell and I would always say, "Do you think I've lost my MIND?!"
I probably did buy them some fruit loops or something at some point but it certainly was not a regular thing. Oh, I was so cruel. And I still am. Although when Maggie and I went to the store after I picked her up, I did get rainbow sherbet and grape juice for her after dinner purple cow. I mean, I am a grandmother.
And as such, I figured I'd have her help me snap some beans today to help me get ready to can them tomorrow. I had two gallon sized bags in the refrigerator already and picked again this morning at which time I almost passed out from the heat.
My GOD it's hot and the humidity is only 48% and yet somehow, it seemed absolutely unbearable when I was out there. I honestly wondered if I was going to pass out for the first time in my life.
I did not. But I will say I was definitely having a fine old lady case of the vapors.
All of that aside, Maggie did help me snap beans and we got managed to do all the ones I'd picked earlier today.
She did a good job, too! I have this fantasy that I'm going to teach my grandchildren about the joys of growing and preserving food but I'm not sure that's going to happen. Trust me when I say that none of them would have tolerated the picking of them. At least I don't think so. But sitting on the sofa in the AC, watching Shaun the Sheep and snapping them isn't that horrible of an activity. And who knows? Maybe at some point in some of their lives, the growing/gardening/preserving gene will kick in and they will have some visceral memory of watching Mer doing these things and they will feel as if these are things they want to do.
I would be very pleased to know this had happened. Of course I'll be dead by then so I'm not sure why I care but the grandmother-passing-along-of-the-knowledge-to-her-grandchildren urge has definitely kicked in for me and I feel as if I must do these things. August and Levon's other grandmother is a master gardener and preserver, putting me firmly into the dilettante category so perhaps they at least will feel the pull to plant at some point. Their mama grows things too and actually, Lily and Lauren also have some things growing so they do have examples to look to.
Mr. Moon has just gotten home from getting Tom settled into a rehab place. He did not have another stroke but did have a UTI which as many of us know, can cause severe delusional thinking and action and that's what had happened. The hospital was insistent that he needed to go into another facility before being allowed to go home which was absolutely the right thing to do, and Glen figured all of that out and transported him there and had to explain to him why he needed to be there and so on and so forth and now we shall see what happens next. I seriously doubt he's going to be deemed able to take care of himself but he hasn't really been able to take care of himself for a long time and yet, here we are.
Well, Ms. Magnolia has informed me that it is after six o'clock and I am pretty sure she thinks I need to be starting supper and I guess she's right. Off I go to cook fish and macaroni and cheese and cut up some vegetables. She has agreed that she is finally ready to sleep in the guest room by herself instead of in the bed with me so this is a big step. She says she has already done that once before and she may be right.
I don't know. I don't really know much of anything these days.
Except that I do know how to grow, pick, snap, and can beans.
May all be well with you and with all of us as Donald Trump melts down into complete and utter insanity and dementia while those who should be handling this situation seem to have no idea what to do.
Scary times. Horrific times.
Let us seek peace and comfort where and how we may.
Love...Ms. Moon


My grandmother had a deep, deep influence on me, much of which resurfaced later in life. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if your gardening wisdom (and grandmother wisdom in all other ways) pops up in several of the grandkids at some point. Your grands are so fortunate to have you and Mr. Moon near at hand.
ReplyDeleteChris from Boise
I truly hope they will grow up knowing they were loved and cherished by Glen and by me, just as that has always been what I've wished for most in my mothering. That my children know how much they are loved.
DeleteAt some point it is entirely possible that Maggie and the boys will want to grow stuff, they have examples all around them. My younger daughter, "no-one" was always in a book or online and couldn't boil water without burning the pot dry, but is now growing vegetables and fruit trees and has becaome an "experimental" cook where she tries a recipe and then makes adjustments the next time she makes it, or just throws things together until they "look" right or "smell" right.
ReplyDeleteDid Maggie also help with the cooking of the dinner? Peeling, chopping, stirring?
Maggie does like to help. I really should involve her more. My patience level has not increased with age.
DeleteThat's cool about your daughter!
When the children get hungry they become interested in growing their own- "I can grow pizza!" and so they can- especially if the dough is made from potato.The grandchildren are so lucky- I didn't have grandparents- didn't have that extra special bond. Maggie is our girl child- in blogworld, She may learn a great deal from you, her life is richer with you in it.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny. My maternal grandparents were very much a part of my growing up but I don't feel as if we had a special bond. Granny's profound deafness and Granddaddy's extremely puritan philosophy of life did not provide a feeling of comfort at all. But I learned a lot from them, Granddaddy especially, and I swear, every time I take my sweat rag out of my pocket when I'm working outside, and wipe my face with it, I feel as if I am channeling my grandfather.
DeleteMaggie is indeed the girl.
What a wonderful grandmother you continue to be for those precious children. They will remember everything.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'm really a wonderful grandmother. There are grandparents who take their kids on cruises and major trips! Hell, I don't even take them to Target! But they know I love them. And their Boppy too.
DeleteAnonymous is me!
ReplyDeleteHello, you. ❤️
DeleteI think kids are happier taking instruction from a grandparent than a parent. We are old enough to be wise ... parents are just old.
ReplyDeleteI think they also sort of know that being rude to a grandparent is right up there with the other major sins.
DeleteI wake up every morning praying "Please God, let him be dead." I'm sure that I have never done that about anyone else in my life. As for the chocolate chips, my dear, I simply do not understand you. Dark chocolate chips and pecans go so well in pancakes and especially waffles. I make mine that way all the time. Then I eat them with Fudge Tracks ice cream, chocolate and caramel syrup and whipped cream. Topped with cinnamon sugar and more pecans. A few pieces of bacon on the side makes it a full meal.
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you on the waking up wish. I think many, many of us do the same thing. This is one of the reasons I don't believe in "energy" doing a damn thing when it's a wish sent through the ether. If it did, the man would be so dead.
DeleteNow. As to how you make and eat your pancakes and waffles- I would die! Are you being serious? If so, more power to you, lady!
LOL. I danced with the devil and I'm still not dead. What's a little sugar going to do, give me cancer? If I really thought that dessert meal would do someone in, I might consider inviting the president to brunch.
DeleteYour grandchildren are so lucky to have you. Well, except for no Froot Loops.
ReplyDeleteYeah. Poor things. And none of that delicious squishy white bread, either. My own kids would head straight for the drawer in my mother's kitchen where she kept the white bread and they would eat as much of it as they could get away with.
DeleteI don't blame them.
chocolate chips in pancakes? That's very usual here, maybe it's a northern thing. I never knew my grandparents, gone long before I was born, and my son didn't either, same reason. So I read with mild envy and without much comprehension of the relationship. My own influence has to filter through the hundreds of people I've taught in workshops, I guess, since our family ends with my son. It's all good, the weaving of life!
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of people put chocolate chips in their pancakes and waffles but I AM NOT ONE OF THEM!
DeleteI don't know why I have such a bug up my butt about that but I do.
You absolutely do dispense wisdom and instruction all the time. I learn from you weekly. So there!
I followed a recipe for banana bread with chocolate chips...much too much oil for my taste (or butter perhaps.) But the chips were kind of nice, melted into the dough. I'll keep on adding blueberries to my pancakes! You sure do give your grands just wonderful things to eat, as well as getting them involved in whatever you're doing. Hopefully they'll remember some of your gardening wisdom.
ReplyDeleteMy once-upon-a-time next door neighbor used to make pumpkin bread with chocolate chips and I just did not like that.
DeleteI love to add all the fruit and some nuts and oat bran to my pancakes so today's pancakes, which I did add blueberries to after I cooked Maggie's plain ones, seemed exceedingly white and boring.
I think it's so funny how my grandkids always ask for the same things each time they spend the night. All of them have their favorite meal and that is what they want.
How quickly the grands are growing up! Your sleepovers always sound like great fun!
ReplyDeleteI will be honest- the sleepovers exhaust me even if I don't really do anything. I am old, honey. I am old.
DeleteWhen my kids were living at home sugar cereal was not allowed in my house. When Sarah was finally old enough to spend the night with a friend they had some sort of very sweet cereal for breakfast and she promptly threw up after eating it. When the grandkids would come for their week the first thing we did was go to the grocery store for food for the week. They would pick something out, I would read the ingredients, hand it back and say, not food. The only ones it really stuck with were the twins.
ReplyDeleteAs for the demented orange grievance baby no one around him knows what to do because he picked only those that worshiped at his feet and fuck any actual intelligence or ability.
Hank and May used to have a very, very close friend and they all practically grew up together. This little girl was raised vegetarian and her mother 'was very strict about all things sugar and so forth. So of course every time she came to our house she'd head straight to the drawer in the refrigerator where I kept lunch meat and stuff like that and she would eat as much as she could. And anything with sugar in it. God, she loved it. She would say, "Ummmm... sugar."
DeleteShe never threw up as far as I can remember.
I don't think the guys around Trump wanted him out of office as he is their puppet, doing their evil will. So they aren't going to do a damn thing to get rid of him.
Sharing experiences with grandchildren is precious time. They will remember these times for the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteTo this day, I have fond memories of my grandmother. Gardening, sharing fantastic homemade meals and deserts, and walking the Northern Maine shoreline and woodlands with binoculars to identify and observe birds were things we did together. The bond and memories will be with me forever.
Maggie is lucky to have you. The one-on-one time is great.
Oh, I LOVE stories like that. Thank you for sharing. I truly, truly hope my grandkids look back and remember me with half that much fondness.
DeleteI was lucky to have 2 grandmothers and one step-grandfather growing up. Both grandmothers were gardeners in their own way - one taught me that the best thing about mornings was sleeping through
ReplyDelete