August 10, 2008
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…another granddaughter has come to visit us!
Emma, 8 years old and full of unquenchable spirit, fun and intelligence, is staying the week. Emma’s little sister, Lucy, who visited us for two weeks in July, will be going to preschool at the school where Sarah teaches, both starting tomorrow. Emma’s classes don’t begin until next Monday. So we get to enjoy her for her last few days of summer.
If I can’t find Emma, I know where to look…down the hill and over to the horse pasture. She is completely enamored with these beauties, and she has especially bonded with Peppy. In fact, Emma feels as if Peppy is her very own.
She can ride him all around the place, with no fear or trepidation….but it would help if we had a child’s saddle, the stirrups of which would fit her! No matter….she says she can ride bare-horse (her term) just as well as with a saddle.
And if I don’t find her brushing the horses’ manes with my favorite comb or feeding them sugar cubes to make them smile, she’ll more than likely be somewhere with Chip. (“Give me some sugar cubes, too, please!”) He’s a year older than Emma and has endless patience and love for all the children who come his way. Chip seems to sense that little ones are special, and he treats them just that way.
When the sun goes down, then I know to look behind the cover of a book for Emma, for it’s a sure thing she has her nose deep in one. Right now, she is reading Little House on the Prairie, a copy that belonged to her own mama when she was eight years old.
Sarah’s childish script is right on the front page, letting all the world know the owner of this special set of books. I wonder if Emma might enjoy a visit to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum and Home at nearby Mansfield this week? It is where Laura lived when she began her writing career, and after a childhood and early marriage of moving from place to place, this is where she lived out the rest of her life. Yes, I believe we might take a little trip up the road to see Laura’s beloved farmhouse. It never fails to inspire me, for you can almost feel her spirit there.
Occasionally, Emma can be found in front of the television, for she is very caught up the Olympic excitement of this particular time. Tonight she enjoyed the sychronized diving competition, but this is how Emma prefers to go into the pool!
We talked today of Chicago’s hope of hosting the Summer Olympics in 2016, and Emma thinks that might be a fine time to attend. I told her that her great-great-grandparents drove from Missouri to California, way back in 1932, to attend the festivities when Los Angeles was the host city. (I love this picture of them from that trip, Grandad in his plaid knickers and argyle socks, Grandmother in her hat)
Grandmother and Grandad Ebrite fell in love with California on that trip and vowed to return. In 1948, they moved to Pasadena, where teachers’ salaries could actually support a couple, and spent the rest of their lives there in the warm sunshine. What a fun place it was for a grandchild to visit!
I want to make our home and ranch a fun place for grandchildren to visit, too, just as my grandparents did for me. So, we’re thinking of ways to fill up this week. Of course, there will be chores to do and meals to prepare, but we’re going to make memories too. There are pictures to paint, a creek to swim in, great-grandmas to visit, fresh peaches to eat….
Hope you, too, have a really good, memory-making week!
Comments (13)
can you adopt me? How sweet of you to make memories with your grandchildren. awesome. take plenty of pictures when you go see Laura’s homestead. I loved her books and even more the tv series. have a great week spreading the love!
Hey, noticed your peaches carton says Gordon’s Orchard! Don’t tell me you were within miles of me and we didn’t know it! My 8 yr. old coulda met your 8 yr. old! We aren’t but about 10-12 miles from Gordon’s and good friends with them. Maybe this is an old carton or one someone gave you but if you come this way for peaches you can’t be all that far.
@TheSunnyC - We spent last night in Clinton (needed a little break from the farm!) and this morning our daughter from KC met us there where we picked up Emma. We got up early this a.m. and went to the praise service at the Christian Church, which was just across the street from our motel. It was nice! We then met them at Country Kitchen for a late breakfast and then headed home. I ALWAYS stop at Gordon’s, if they have anything fresh….a very favorite orchard of mine! We’ve eaten at least a dozen peaches since getting home around 2:30 this afternoon. I will use the remainder to make a batch of peach jam tomorrow. And when I take Emma back to meet her mom Friday afternoon, I’ll probably get more! I thought of you as we came through Osceola….I still want to do some genealogy research there. May leave early Friday and try to see what I can dig up at the St. Clair County Courthouse. Have a good week!
Laura IngAlls Wilder’s home and museum……GOOD CHOICE. Been there…………..TWICE!!!
Interesting to note that my grandfather was born at Rocky Comfort in McDonald County. Seems like many of us have some roots in that area.
I have been to the site of Little House at De Smet, South Dakota, and amazingly, the cottonwood trees that Pa planted still grow there. Trees reach out to me in a way historic buildings do not, it was an experience to be remembered!
Very cool that you’ve a photo of grandparents going to see the Olympics.
Janet, you are exactly the kind of grandparent I always wished I had when I was Emma’s age and reading the Little House books for the first of many times. Creeks, horses, peaches, dogs–even chores…I craved it all! Lucky Emma and her lucky siblings and cousins.
And with a week-old baby in the house, this is definitely a memory-making week around here, every minute of it precious.
I loved spending time with both my grammas. My paternal gramma still lived on the farm and I helped gather eggs, do the laundry on the old wringer washer & hung it out (invaluable lesson for later in life when I had to use a wringer myself). My maternal gramma taught me to love flowers and just being a good gramma, listening and being available.
I live mid-way between MO and SD and one of these years I am going to visit the LIW homes!
BTW is that YOUR pool Emma is jumping into? Slightly envious over that. **winking**
It would be so fun to meet for lunch on Friday if the time is right. There is a little place right on the hwy. across from the truck stop in Lowry City that serves homemade chicken and noodles on Friday, if you get there in time. It is called the Ox Yoke and has to be accessed from the south bound side of the hwy. If there is a chance of this happening let me know on here and we can message phone info. etc. Will you be alone or will your husband be with you?
What fun! I’m like Laine…I wish I could be your granddaughter and come spend a week with you, riding horses, eating peaches, and reading Laura Ingalls Wilder! I know you both will have so many happy memories of this week together. Having a grandmother like you is such a gift to that lucky girl. Y’all have fun!
@RicksFarmwife - Nope, that would be my sister-in-law’s pool. We’re more into our wonderful nearby creeks and rivers and lakes…but the kids do enjoy the pool. Emma lives in KC and they belong to a local Y, and she has learned to swim there.
Emma is a complete charmer! I, too, loved reading and rereading Laura Ingalls Wilder as a girl. I’m jealous of the peaches; it’s so hard for me to buy truly ripe ones here. I have a great peach pie filling recipe for the freezer that is so handy. You make the fillings, freeze them in foil-lined pie plates, fold the foil around the frozen fillings, double-wrap with plastic wrap, and stack in the freezer. Pop one frozen into a freshly made crust, bake, and voila…fresh-tasting peach pie.
I had no idea Laura Ingalls lived anywhere in Arkansas, much less somewhere as close as Mansfield! How do you find the homestead? I’d love to go see it with my daughter and grandkids!