Gratitude

The Thanksgiving season has got me thinking about gratitude. I have much to be grateful for and I am grateful for much! I won't make a list of all that I am grateful for here, just one thing. I am GRATEFUL to have PLENTY of FOOD and the money to buy it! This past week I have spent a whole bunch of money on food. My pantry is full, my freezer is almost full and my two refrigerators are mostly full. And yes, I am hosting Thanksgiving dinner, so some of that food will be gone by Friday.

Looking in my freezer and pantry right now reminds me of when I was little and would spend time with my grandparents on my mom's side. They had a huge garden in the summer and Grandma canned and froze everything that could be harvested. As well as keeping their five grown children in fresh produce most of the time. Grandma even bottled raspberries--do you have any idea how many raspberries it takes to make just one batch of seven quarts of raspberries? Bazillions, I think! You never came to their house when the garden was "on" without taking something fresh from the garden home with you when it was time to leave! My favorite was when they would ask if I wanted a "mess of beans." I love green beans but could never figure out why it was called a "mess."

Their freezers (they had two, an upright and a chest freezer) were always full and their fruit room was stuffed to the gills as well. You could never go to their house without Grandma saying, "What can I feed you?" Even if you had just eaten she was sure you had room for just a little something. I always felt so secure there--I wonder how much all that food had to do with that feeling? When we would sit down to a meal at Grandpa and Grandma's they would often count and express gratitude for all the things that we were eating that had come from their garden. It was usually the majority of the food on the table! We also got into that habit at our house in the summertime.

I also remember liking to look at all the bottles and things on the pink shelves in the fruit room at our house too--even though it was a little scary under the stairs where the big bins of oats and whey were. Yes, I said WHEY, as in curds and--don't ask. It was a late 60's early 70's thing that is best forgotten by all--nearly as bad as the soy "hamburger" and soy "ham" from that same time period--UGH! I remember my mom saying how awful it would be to not have food for your children. When I became a mother I understood her feelings about that much better than I had as a child. I have been grateful that I have always had food to feed my family.

Food (good food and plenty of it) has always been important in my family! I come from a family of good cooks. We talked a lot about food. My mom nearly always wrote about meals she ate or cooked as she kept her journals. When I (or anyone else in the family) would go out one of the first questions asked after returning was "what did you have to eat?" It's still something I ask!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving dinners and remember to be grateful for all the bounty we have being blessed to live in this nation!