love

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Wishing What Was Offered Then, Compared To What Is Taught Today

Looking back on what we had in education was far different from what kids are offered today. Then, we had Wood Crafting classes, Bible classes, Metal Shop, Home Economics & Family Living, Typing Classes, Book Keeping Classes, and many more skills to help prepare for adult life, outside of high school and family home.

In 7th grade, I took a Metal Shop Class, and remember being so intimidated by being one of two girls in the class and having so much large machinery surrounding our desk. By the time the semester was over and I made several items such as a dust pan, I was quite confident in my ability to use large machinery and being the only girl of the two girls in a boys class.

As I became older, I took many other classes, and the one I found very useful for daily life was Home Economics and Family Living. Which, this is what I would like to see coming back into the classroom (along-side other classes) and being taught to the young people. The class teaches young girls and boys some of the basics of running and taking care of a home. Something that is lacking in today’s society. I took this class all through part of Jr. High and High School and learned so much as well as being grounded in what I had already learned in previous years.

Home Economics and Family Living taught students how to cook, how to do laundry, the proper way to make a bed, how to sew a variety of items, how to raise a family, budget a check book, how to run a home. It was fun a very creative in different ways. When we had a child by using an egg for a week, we had to be careful as the egg was very fragile, and it was a good part of our grade. We also learned the importance of communicating in different types of relationships. We shared a lot of laughter, a lot of eating from what we baked and cooked, and a lot of sewing and sewing projects. It was a good way to prepare for real life with the help of a good foundation of home life.

Today, a lot of budgets and funding have been cut, which has caused a lot of these classes to be removed from the extra curriculum. It has become harder to become a teacher, even though steps are being made to make it easier to get certified. Technology has taken over the importance of how to run a home and take care of a family. Cell phones have become a clear distraction on the job and in the home.
Many young people have a different mind-set in what they want out of life if it can be achieved.

Many young people don’t know how to cook a meal from scratch. Life has been made simple by buying prepared meals as the isles of the grocery stores are full of prepared meals and meals that just have to be warmed up in a microwave, or simply just stop at a fast-food restaurant to grab a meal. Not that this bad, but there is no balance in many households, today. There is nothing like smelling fresh bread baking in the oven as it fills the rooms of the home, or helping to roll out noodles for soup on a cold day. Home Economics and Family Living would be great for those schools that don’t have the classes anymore, if they ever did. It offers a good healthy balance to life with a little spice in it.

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Youth Is Not Free

We grow up believing we have all the time in the world, however it is only an illusion once we have reach our Golden Years. Our time should be chosen wisely as we listen to those of old in wisdom. Time slips away too quickly and as we try to hurry and get to those milestones, we lose sight on what is important in our youth.

Spend more time away from the devices, and more time with friends and family. Find a buddy (s) that has the same interest outdoors, sports, hobbies, and work. While, my kids and I were growing up, we didn’t have the devices as young people do today. Instead, we went hunting, fishing, hiking, dragged main street on the weekends, went skating, and spent most of our time outdoors; when not in the classroom or working. We learned how to utilize our time through different ways and were fun.

Friendships were (and still are) valuable, and were not made online through social media. Social media was not around in those days, and there was close-up and personal introductions through other friends, on the job, sometimes in the stores, and in the classrooms. Weekends were the highlight of the week as friends hung out in a business parking lot, load a car up in the front, back seat, and trunk to see a movie at the drive-in theater, or hung out at the skating rink and the skate-a-thons.

Continually build a relationship with your parents and grandparents. We may not have them around the rest of our or their life, and no one knows what can happen in the future. They have been given to us and us to them as a gift and are so precious. Each can glean from one to another, and grow in the process of life. One day, when we look back over our life and what we hold dear will be gone, and all we will have is memories of the past in our older years. So, enjoy and build as much as you can. Relationships are an asset.

The youthful years can, and usually does determine the forecast of the ‘Golden Years’. Life does not come easily, and there is a price to each and every choice we make.

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The Gift Of Life

The greatest gift that an individual can receive is the ‘Gift of Life’. There is no other earthly gift that can surpass this one. Without it, we would not be able to receive any other gift. And that is where I can say, “I am grateful for my mother.” There are no words to express the love of our mothers… My mother. The sacrifices that have been made to insure that I had the best upbringing that was possibly given all the way to her last breath. In her last moments she didn’t want to be bother, she was busy praying for those she was leaving behind. She didn’t want to leave us and she fought all the way, but finally the last words that stood out was, “God has this!” She knew she was leaving the rehab facility to not go to her physical home, but she was going to the greatest home of all. And then, as she was dying she was still being my mother and watching out for me and making sure I knew she loved me. A mother’s love cannot compare to anything else.

Life is a gift. And in life we have chooses to make, we have responsibilities, and serious decisions to make. That doesn’t mean we won’t make bad chooses, mistakes, or really fall short in what we do or say, but even in that we do have the choose to try to make things right. We can bring joy and love to another or sadness and heartbreak, we have a choose. We are given the freedom to choose, and it is up to us to make the right one.

Life is complex, but within it it is still our gift from our (my mother) mothers and ultimately from God. It provides us with plenty of twist and turns through it. It offers the chance to grow and become something better than before. It allows us to have disagreements large or small, and behind it the opportunity to work out those differences. My mother and I didn’t always agree on each others chooses, but we respected each other and knew in the end that God had control. Love always overcame our differences. And love can still overcome anything difficult that we may face, today.

I miss my mother very much! I lived and grew in her womb for seven months. When it was time, I enter this life on the outside to grow, flourish, and learn life’s lessons. That happened only because she was willing through love to share in that gift of life. She was and still is my best friend. We did most everything together as we were getting older. We had ongoing daily dialog beginning very early morning before the sun was up, and our night closed with a phone call to say good night and I love you.
On the way to work one morning, I realized that one day I will take her hand and leave this life to go to a greater life. I think about the song, ‘Oh What A Day That Will Be’.

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The Way We Were

Have you ever just stopped and looked around or listen to the old stories of people that share what used to be? As I get younger, I often think about the young newspaper boy getting up early in the morning to make his newspaper route, building a community of neighbors watching out for each other and getting to know one another, being able to go to bed with the windows of the home open as you sleep, and the doors to your car and home unlocked. These were times of beauty, when you didn’t have to worry about uninvited guest walking through your door, young boys trying to earn a little spending money with a newspaper stand or bike, and people simply helping each other on there street. There was no fear or shame, just good ole conversation with a few laughs.

When I was a child and young adult, my family would gather together in one home for a meal. We would sit on the front porch swing that hung from the ceiling of the porch with our cousins or roll down the little hill of the front yard. My grandmother or aunt would drop the laundry down the laundry shoot from upstairs or in the kitchen and land in the basement where the laundry was done. We all would sit around the table to have our meals, talk about the day, and sometimes one of us kids would get into trouble. We were never allowed to talk back to our elders… There was a large paddle with our names on it!
No matter where we all met up, it was always at one house, and the same activities would take place. One of my uncles loved to get us kids in the kitchen and teach us how to cook different foods, or we all would sit in the backyard taking our turn to turn the handle on the manual ice cream maker… Oh, these were the days!! A lot of laughter shared!

My father was very much of an outdoors man, and it was bred into my brother and I as we were growing up. We didn’t take trips that only lasted a weekend or a holiday that lasted a week or two. We were gone at least a month at a time, traveling coast-to-coast, border-to-border and sometimes visiting Mexico and Canada.
We camped in Death Valley a month at a time and learned how to survive in the heat to getting stuck up in the mountains in four to five foot of snow, and burning blankets to make smoke signals to get help. We always travel in a small station wagon with 3 adults, seven children, and two dogs. It was a blast!!

When I sit on the front porch early morning or take a long drive these days, I am reminded of the joys that were share when I was growing up. Yes, there are material items and situations that makes us feel nostalgic, but more than anything it is more of what we did as a family. When my kids and grand-kids all gather today, I am reminded of the past, but more so in what is ahead for the future. Family is so important… Stories of the past can enrich the mind of the younger generations. And I call that a blessing.

Daily writing prompt
What makes you feel nostalgic?
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