Rose-Colored Glasses (15) - Skirt in the Kitchen

I’ve been extremely “busy” this summer, as everyone tends to get during these months. Of all the summers I’ve had and spent, this one has been the busiest for me… my family duties, work obligations, caring for an elder, gardening and hopeful canning along with fruit picking, a food sale here and there once in a while, the house that remains a challenge, this thing called Skirt in the Kitchen, becoming a grandmother again, my new journey refurbishing vintage refrigerators for collecting, the use, and for re-sale; and the list is ongoing with much “grace and splendor”– Yes, enjoying the moments but I still have to go to my cramped corner to peer through rose-colored glasses so I can rejuvenate more often these days… the hectic order as well as disorder of summer projects, work, schedules, and the struggle to get plenty of sleep at bedtime… never mind a family vacation though one would be much needed. But there’s always or could be a worse scenario of a hectic living so I truly am able to “count my lucky stars” and joyfully try it again the following days. I’ll get to the kitchen as soon as I can… the kitchen, the room that needs most of my attention outside loved ones.

People have asked me why I began Rose-Colored Glasses on Skirt in the Kitchen. I’ve never said until now, never openly mentioned that my maternal grandmother had breast cancer at the time of her death though dying from a massive stroke. She was 85, having had no knowledge of being afflicted with breast cancer in her entire life to the time of her death. She had to have surmised for the discomfort she must have had and felt but she was of a generation of non-complaint, a privacy that was highly guarded; honorable. She had never had a mammogram– not ever. The doctor said that if she had lived, she would have lost at least one of her breasts for the cancer being dominate in her. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise for her that she had gone by way of stroke instead of suffering the agony of breast cancer, then the removal.

My father’s Aunt Hildred, twin to his mother, lost both of her breasts due to cancer… My husband’s cousin, a wife and mother of small children, suffered with cancer, it originating in her breasts– shortly after my grandmother went… So it’s vivid here, pronounced among our loved ones and families, including current cases of loved ones.

My mother’s grandmother on her father’s side, Anna Grace, died of breast cancer, so I am thinking that it’s somewhere embedded further than I’d like. It leaves me concerned… but cancer afflicts so many in different ways, my father recently having had cancer and fighting it for years, then closing his eyes. Cancer in general, makes me aware– more aware than I would have been if loved ones and family had not known of it in themselves, then having lost them to the disease itself.

Rose-Colored Glasses is the reminder to enjoy what we have here of simple things, what we can manage to notice in order to de-stress in our daily lives; gathering the good things, the meaningful moments and the fun times that override the impossible, the dread, that can be the natural occurrence. We’ve got to look for the blessings in our individual days and remain thankful, whatever brings a smile and a sentiment to another person as well as to ourselves. Enjoy and let live… Keep the checkups and get a current mammogram.

For my rose-colored moments today, I celebrate the anniversary day of my oldest child’s birthday, now 23 years of age. It seems not that long ago when he was born. Now he is a father, a parent to enjoy each and every birthday of his own son’s life. It’s an adventure, a joy, becoming and being a parent. It’s not an easy route but it’s every bit worth the struggles, heartaches and happiness it brings. I think we become better people being active and involved parents, certainly more fulfilled. It was meant to be, so I gave birth so that another generation could bring forth, and that helps in making my life complete. The added things and successes I have had, will, and yet to bring forth, they are just that: added little things to what has been the ultimate calling for me to live as a woman and a person. Nothing else really matters outside of family, no wealth, convenience and prize. Those things are lovely to behold but this is my greatest gift that I’ve been given: Motherhood and now grandparenthood. These are the things that last beyond a lifetime of being, for they are not material gain or pleasures that fade away. These are of the eternal, my children and their children and my family before me.

For the material (little things) of the enjoyment of my day: a vintage cake carrier… Can you imagine the picnics where this has been?! It’s in immaculate condition, and it’s gorgeous to look at. Maybe a red dress will go perfect with it. I have not yet baked a cake for this pretty thing but I intend to before the season is up and it gets into Fall. But today, hopefully, I will get around to baking some Golden Butter Popcorn Cupcakes.

Another thing that makes me smile is any and everything in my garden growing. I have a Fall garden of green tomatoes. I am wanting to slice, dip, and fry these babies– or are they referred to as– “daddies”– ?! I don’t care, I just haven’t cooked any fried green tomatoes, at all, this season– so unlike me! By now, I normally have fried them three different times and expected my elementary kids to love them… Maybe they will get a green thumb like me, and a green tongue, to enjoy the green that grows, not just to look at for enjoyment.

I overdid it on the mint this year having so many kinds of mint flavors that I simply chose to allow some of it to go to bloom– not being able to use the flowered mint because of the fuzzy blooms changing the sweet to the bitter taste of what is meant to be used nicely in culinary purposes as well as in good summer-brewed tea. This marks the first year I’ve let the mint grow some flowers, lol… They’re probably feeling like they’ve had their freedom for once, don’t you think? I’ve let the lion out of its closet, and the mint is rejoicing and being glad they are mine.

I’ve been the unkept girl to even allow my basil to have their way and bloom pretty. They, too, feel the freedom to live and look gorgeous in this nice Fall weather we are having instead of scorching temps. This basil thanks me, because it will not perish in pesto. I hear the Hallelujah chorus, now.

The Concord grapes have a ways to ride before they are chosen for grape pie, salads and jellies. They will be picked fresh from hand to mouth, I am sure, when they decide when to fully ripen. They have a beauty all to their own and they know it. I plan to plant two new Concord grape plants each year to join the congregation.

For cuddling purposes of my day, who can leave out the newest litter? These are half Bengal and they like to squeal when picked up to be petted. Their father is solid black with dark green eyes, cute as cute and nasty-rotten as he can be, lol, but he’s ‘V8’ for the motor that he makes when he purrs. He’s originally my oldest one’s cat, and he named him. V8 likes to sit in lap with his two front paws on the keyboard of a laptop as though he’s the one who types this blog. He is the national sugar-daddy and he’s our sweetheart. The kittens meow relentlessly in baby tones of the furriest kind. They are adorable, and they will be spoiled rotten– like V8.

There’s a reason why babies are so cute– You just can’t get mad at them. They can sound all the squawking noises they want to make and we still want to hold them…

Then their mommy decides it’s time for a nap.

Yeah, that’s right– She’s trying to fit the whole head of her kitten in her mouth to carry her beloved to her quarters. Tigger might look ferocious but she’s actually a teddy bear– except when she’s not devouring a bird or two… The only thing, though, she carries the first one then expects us to pick up the second one for her; otherwise, she leaves the second one squawking somewhere outside her den. So far, she has not chosen a favorite; let’s hope she doesn’t, lol…