Sniffles...

I feel like I have to do something productive today... I've had the worst cold for the last few days.  Each day I wake up expecting to feel better, but just end up feeling worse.  Yesterday I hit the couch at 4:00, Dan put on the the 3 original Star Wars movies and I dozed in and out of consciousness, until about 7 this morning.  I've done a grocery shopping trip, tidied up some christmas presents, after Dan packed up our tree and decorations, and I think that's about all I'll accomplish today.  I just feel absolutely rotten and so incredibly exhausted.  Being sick really sucks because I can't stand being unproductive! And laying around all day is just so painfully difficult for me...

Anyway, over the holidays, my uncle pulled out a box of treasures from my Grandmother who passed away two years ago, January. I grabbed a few things that had gone unwanted, like one of her high school year books.  She is pictured above, Lorine Miller (though her first name was really spelled Loreen).  I like this picture, she looks so serious; I can just imagine how responsibly she would have handled her job in the Senior Literary Society... I am so much like her.

I also found a scrapbook of cards, newspaper clippings, and writings, a charm bracelet, a pendant filled with little gold pieces her and my Grandpa Jack had panned in the Yukon, a small gold watch with an inscription from my Grandpa, and a little metal thimble. I am so grateful to have these things; I miss my Grandma so much, I really wish I could share with her all the little details about my business.  She would be so proud and interested in the things I do, and I know she would be able to impart on me wise advice, as she was always an entrepreneurial spirit and successful business woman, especially for her time.  I am happy to have these little mementos, it makes me feel like I have a part of her near me all of the time.  Though I have to admit, at times it makes me a little sad...

I've spent a lot of time thinking about Gram lately.  I dusted off her recipe box to make cookies and coconut strawberries before Christmas.  Her writing was always so scrawling and hard to read, much like mine.  The cards were missing ingredients, and it made me laugh because that is totally something I would do.  After mixing all of my cookie ingredients, carefully spooning out the dough onto my old baking pan and popping it in the oven, I sat at my kitchen table and surveyed the mess.  All of my kitchen cupboard doors were left open, the counter top covered in coconut and stray chocolate chips, I felt my face streaked with flour, and thought, "I am just like my Gram..."