Home Improvements, More Downsizing Memories

Posted on April 11, 2022 by moonbridgebooks

I’m pretty much done painting everything I see in the house, but I’m not going to rest yet. We had an unpleasant shock when finally trying to replace the old, kid-stained carpet upstairs—asbestos flooring underneath. Why put flooring up there that looks like it belongs in the kitchen? Guess the same people who thought pink tiles on bathroom walls and floors was stylin’. Yes, I had the tiny pink bathroom floor tiles, at least, replaced with larger tiles of a soothing color, and what a relief to behold. This is what happens when you have a 1940s home.

We had to remove everything off the second floor so the “demolition crew” could do their thing. Then we had laminate flooring and all new baseboards put in. And then the monster cleanup of fine sawdust even on the ceilings. And then the painting began. The new baseboards needed semi-gloss and while I was at it, I painted doors and door and window frames. I also painted walls, a ceiling, and even old furniture. Sure looks fresh and clean around here! You’d think I’d be done with projects, but no.

While moving everything back upstairs from the packed basement, I tried to downsize some more. Threw out a lot, have a garbage bag full for the thrift store. I could not believe how many old photos we had—three boxes and a shoebox! These are besides the ones in my photo albums. So my next project is going through all those and taking clear photos of the ones I want to save in computer files. Amazing how years later many photos are not important anymore, especially when you can just search online to see scenery of places you’ve visited. I’m just saving my favorites and more meaningful ones, particularly the best photos of my family (it’s so fun to remember how adorable my kids were when little!). And I’m going to either label the photos or make an explanatory Word doc to go with certain sets, like the year we lived in the UK.

So this is what I’ve been doing the past three months. I suppose we are near being ready to sell the house in this hot market and move to a smaller place with less yard. A ranch house with walk-in shower, important for people like us starting to feel old and decrepit. Except now that we’ve fixed up the place and it’s looking tidy, I want to stick around and enjoy it!

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What Makes a Good Food Memoir (besides recipes)

Posted on November 29, 2021 by moonbridgebooks

Holiday meals tend to be full of traditional family dishes, and they have their stories. Where did they come from, how long have they been in the family, have they evolved, and most important, what memories do they bring up? Who is the source of your memories about these foods and do you want to capture the recipes and stories into a book for the family?

Recipe books are popular but so are food memoirs which bring life and history to recipes. Years ago I interviewed my mother-in-law, raised in the West Tennessee countryside and known for her wonderful southern cooking, to write a little memoir to go along with some of our favorite recipes of hers. The memoir tells her stories of growing up poor in a farming family and working hard in the fields even as a small child. Stories that hold history and rural southern culture lead to recipes. While I and my girls may not ever use most of her recipes (lest we gain too much weight!), we do use some and treasure them all as they remind us of her and the wonderful meals she has blessed us with.

This post was prompted by a “Book Riot” post of the same title “What Makes a Good Food Memoir,” by Jaime Herndon, November 26, 2021. She says, “Food memoirs aren’t just about the food itself or just about how much one likes a certain food. They dig in to the emotional aspect of food, cooking, and eating.” And so if you save the family recipes, why not add commentary about who made the dish special and the memories the food conjures. What are the stories around it. Instead of having just a recipe, make it into a savory story for the generations.

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Tell the Family Stories at Thanksgiving

Posted on November 21, 2021 by moonbridgebooks

November is Family Stories Month for a reason! We’ve been looking forward to this week of traditional family gathering. Even while we may not yet have “normal” gatherings, we can still count our blessings and share our love (and hopefully not sickness). This is the time to ask for stories of when our parents and grandparents were young. That was a different world then, sometimes even a different culture whether that be a different country, a different region, or even a different environment such as city or countryside. What are your youthful stories? Do your siblings agree on the details of your childhood stories? Everyone has their own perspective, their own remembering, but don’t fight about it as it’s YOUR OWN memories that have shaped you.

November is also National Novel Writing Month – NANOWRIMO – but I like to call it NA-ME-WRI-MO for National Memoir Writing Month. While you are sharing stories together, jot down notes or even record the sharing by video or audio. Don’t lose your lived family history!

Happy Thanksgiving! May you realize the many blessings you have, large and small. Counting our blessings reminds us to be grateful. And a grateful heart is a joyful heart.

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