"No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, and the wisdom of cookbook writers". -Laurie Colwin

 

My Mother-in-law has decided it is time to move into an assisted living facility and when we were visiting her yesterday she was asking if we wanted anything. When I asked her if she was taking her cookbooks with her she said no and told me I could take any that I wanted. I was super excited to see she had the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook! To me it ranks right up there with the Betty Crockers cookbook as a must have to answer all your cooking questions and traditional recipes. 

You can see that Avis has used it over the years and I love that! I can see which recipes have been her favorite and love seeing notes she has added to the book. 

I love all the completely outdated/vintage pictures in each chapter.   

Notice that they only have the man cooking when it is outdoors...the feminist in me wants to roll my eyes at this but also it just makes me chuckle. After all, we all know that Rick now does pretty much all the cooking in our house. We have no "traditional" rolls in our house :) 

  

I remember the days when I was in 4-H learning how to set a table the right way. A useful skill now days ...hahaha 

I am going to treasure this cookbook even with its outdated ideas and sections because it also has so many good things in it. And mostly I am going to treasure it because I know that my Mother-in-law has used it and loved it over the years and now I get to do the same thing.  

Learning from the past is a good thing....

Sharon 

"The aging process is not gradual or gentle. It rushes up, pushes you over, and runs off laughing. No one should grow old who isn't ready to appear ridiculous." -John Mortimer

 

This is my Dad, he is 87 years old and on Saturday February 25th we almost lost him.  My Dad had not been feeling good for a couple of weeks and as a stubborn man he refused to go to the doctor.  On Saturday February 25th my Mom insisted that he had to go and she took him to urgent care. After seeing how out of breath he was from walking into the clinic they wheeled him right into the emergency room. Dad had fluid on his lungs and heart and his hemoglobin was very low. He also was having a heart attack while in the hospital. They put my Dad in an ambulance and took him to Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. That was the beginning of his ten day stay. He ended up having two angioplasty's done and had five stents put in his arteries. His arteries were 70%, 80%, 80%, 80% and 90% blocked. He is lucky to be alive! My Dad had also recently be diagnosed with mild dementia and being in the hospital did not help his memory. He had a lot of confusion as to what was happening to him and why he was there. We were finally able to bring him home on Monday March 6. He was very happy to be home again. He is recovering from the surgery and is going to be starting cardio rehab soon. He still has trouble with his short term memory as to be expected with his dementia but the confusion is better and he is back to himself. He is smiling and joking around again. I am so glad to have my Dad back...

This is my Mom, she is 83 years old. In October of 2022 we learned that she had rectal cancer. When we first found out the doctors said it had spread to her lymph nodes and possibly her liver. They did not believe they could do surgery to remove it because it was too far advanced. After several test, MRI's and scans it was discovered that the cancer had not moved into her liver and surgery was back on the table. She meet with several different doctors and a treatment plan  was mapped out. She started and completed 25 radiation and chemotherapy treatments to shrink and stop the spread of the cancer. Mom was able to drive herself to all of the treatments but the first one that I went with her for support. She handled them very will, not getting really sick from them but very tired and had a little digestion troubles.  After the treatments were done she had to wait six long weeks before finding out if it had worked. Last week my sister took my mom to Abbott and had another MRI and another scope done. They found that a cancer mass was still there. She had to wait three more days and then on Tuesday I took her back up to Abbott to meet with the surgeon. When the surgeon walked in she had the best news. The cancer had shrunk enough that they could do surgery to remove it. It was such a relief to hear. It was such a beautiful sunny day that day, it was like mother nature was shining down on us telling us everything was going to be okay. The surgery is scheduled for April 10th. If all goes well she will back home after 5 days and will be on her way to recovery and cancer free. 

It has been such stressful time for all of us but especially for my Mom and Dad. But in all of this we have all stayed positive and we have all come together to help. My sisters, our significant others, the grandkids and great-grandkids have all come together to help in anyway they could. We are a family....

As I wrap up my blog I wanted to tell you something that my Dad told my husband while he was staying with him while I had my Mom up at Abbott. As I had said earlier Dad's short term memory is not so good anymore but he can remember a lot from his past. He was talking to Rick about my Mom and told him one of the sweetest things about her and his love for her. 

My Dad said: " You know I meet Charlotte when we were in Country School together, and when I saw her I knew right away she was the person I was going to marry. I fell in love with her then and I still love her." 

Tell your family you love them today because tomorrow is not promised to any of us....

Sharon