Author Archive
A Great Granny Named Joy
Posted by: | CommentsFrequently on this site we feature stories about grandmothers, but what about great-grandmother’s? They have stories to tell as well! Today NanaHood is proud to have our first feature story about a truly GREAT grandmother….Joy Shive. And what makes the story even more special is that it is written by her granddaughter, Kelly Jo Harbison.
Joy, daughter Johanna (Kelly Jo's mom) holding their three grandchildren
My Granny is the strongest and bravest woman I know. Granny isn’t your typical grandmother in some ways. She has always worked very hard. My grandparents have a large farm and they raise tobacco, corn, hay, beef and dairy cattle. Granny always did the milking; twice a day, seven days a week. She would walk to the barn (it was only about 2 tenths of a mile from her house) and start in filling the buckets and calling the cows in from the pasture. As a child I loved going to milk with her. I would play in the feed room and she would always let me put one set of milkers on a certain cow. She was very patient with me when I wanted to do these things. On the days that the milk truck would run, I always like to clean the milk tank. Once again she would let me help. A job that would normally take about 10 minutes to do, would take me thirty but she was always very patient.
During the spring and summer months tobacco setting and tobacco cutting would take place. Every other day Granny would stay home and cook for all the men who worked on the farm. She would have at least 3 meats and any kind of vegetable you could imagine. All of the corn, beans and tomatoes would come out of her garden that she had put up the year before just for the workers. I remember that when the corn was ripe she let me help shuck the ears and remove the silks. I am sure that I slowed down the process, but she didn’t mind. When I would get a small pile of shucks and silk I got to throw them over the fence to the pigs.
People have often told me that they loved to work for my grandparents just to get to eat some of Granny’s good cooking! After the meal she would bring out cakes, pies and puddings. She loved all the men who worked on the farm and treated them as if they were her own sons.
Granny worked just like all the men. She would sit on a plant bed and draw plants, ride a tobacco setter and cut tobacco all day long, but would have to stop at 3:30 to go milk the cows. After a long, hot, hard day in the field and milking she would come home to cook a meal, complete with some kind of cake or pie. My grandpa, Joe, was a big man so it took more than a hotdog (one of my specialties) to fill him up!
But my favorite memories with my Granny were when we would sew together. Granny is a very good seamstress. She has made many little sundresses for me and my sister and now she is sewing for my daughter. She has made many quilts and pillows in her life too. She always saved every scrap piece of material that she had left over and those pieces made great Barbie doll outfits. My dolls always had lots of clothes. She would allow me to do some of the sewing either by hand or on her machine. Of course some of my clothes didn’t stay put together as well as hers did! She would sew our Cabbage Patch dolls dresses and they were just as pretty as any you would buy at a store. My sister and I still have all those dresses today.
Halloween at Granny Joy's
When Granny was younger she wore high heels and I loved to wear her shoes! I would put them on and go outside to walk on the sidewalks just to hear them “click”. I am sure that the heels were scratched all up from me falling or sitting down to play in them but she never said a word.
Just the other day my mom was allowing my son to do something that she would have never let my sister or me do and I confronted her about it and she quickly said, “ I never you let wear my Sunday shoes outside on the sidewalks either!” I guess letting your grandchildren get away with things is a Granny/Nana thing!
Granny is now a Great-Granny. She loves her great grandchildren just as she did us. She keeps my little girl for me one day a week now. My son will stay at least one day a week with her in the summer. He loves to go to her house. At Granny’s you can roam freely. That was another favorite memory at her house in the summer. I could ride my bike up and down the road as many times as I wanted. Granny is 83 years young. She doesn’t mind to tell her age, because she doesn’t look or act it one bit!! She still mows her yard, puts up a garden, drives and goes anywhere she wants to go and loves keeping her great grand babies!! I bet she could still “put that baccer on the ground” as Joe, my grandpa would say!!
I love you Granny, you are the best Granny in the world!!! Thank you for being so kind and patient with me as a child.
Granny is also known as Joy Shive of the Cave Ridge community in Edmonton.
Thanks to Kelly Jo for sharing her story! If you know a grandmother or great-grandmother who deserves some recognition, please send us their story (and some photos)
Giving Thanks for Small Moments of Joy
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Often it’s the birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries that get all the attention; what we consider life’s milestones. While I agree that those days are special and should be celebrated with friends and family, there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s the small moments of joy that make the most difference.
Things like stepping outside on the first warm day after a long, cold winter, or watching the evening sun melt into a purple and pink horizon.
Or playing with puppies.
Grant with Romeo, Juliette, and Valentino
This past Sunday we took our twins, our oldest son and granddaughter to a basketball game at the University of Kentucky. They have an exceptionally good team this year and getting tickets wasn’t easy. If you follow college basketball at all you know that UK fans are some of the most dedicated and enthusiastic fans anywhere. Every game is packed with yelling, screaming fans.
This picture gives you some idea of how packed Rupp Arena was
At first Abby (my granddaughter) was awed by the noise and the crowd, but she quickly got over it and got down to business.
I know I saw nachos somewhere, where are they?
Yum, now this is worth coming to a game for!
It was so much fun watching Abby watch the ballgame, but she isn’t your typical UK fan.
Night, night
Only a child could sleep through thousands of screaming fans and a band playing the fight song so loud it made my head pound.
Yes, we should celebrate the big moments, but don’t overlook the small ones because when they are woven together they become a blanket of memories that you can wrap around you and draw warmth from during the coldest days of winter.
Nana’s Lap
Posted by: | CommentsSome of my very best memories are of sitting in Grandma Layne’s lap and listening to her read children’s books. Last week I did a book review and it was so popular that I have decided to create a category for reviews called Nana’s Lap. This week’s book is the delightful adventure of a dog named Doggy Bag (also the title of the book) by Sean L. Moore.
Beautifully illustrated with colorful pictures, Doggy Bag differs from all the canines I own in that he doesn’t want to get dirty so he stays off the ground. He prefers climbing trees and sitting on fences to participating in “normal” dog activities like digging holes (oh how I wish my dogs felt the same way!) Doggy Bag runs away from home to the city where he meets some alley cats and his soon to be new best friend, Zeke, who eventually convinces him that there is more to being a dog than living up in a tree!
Children will love Doggy Bag and his silly antics, I did and I can’t wait to read it to Abby!
Now a book for nanas….
I mentioned last week I was reading Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah, well I finished it. I immediately emailed my friends and told them it was a “must read.” It’s the best “girl friend book” I’ve read in a long, long time. Women who were teenagers during the 70’s will identify with the hair styles, music, and current events, that help set the stage for the two main characters, Tully and Kate.
WARNING: This book should come with a warning label. I was reading it while waiting in a doctor’s office and I’m sure everyone in there thought I had just been told I had two weeks to live. At first my eyes started leaking, then they were pouring, when I felt my shoulders start to shake I took the book, went to the women’s bathroom, locked myself in and finished the book. When I came out there were three women standing there staring at me, obviously angry that I had occupied the bathroom for 30 minutes (sorry!) Then they saw my red splotched face, realized I’d been boo-hooing and left me alone.
One of the best reads I have experienced in a long time and worth making a special trip to the book store to purchase!
This I know
Posted by: | CommentsYesterday I was looking through my pictures to choose one for Wordless Wednesday, and I ran across the following photo.
My granddaughter is opinionated, can you tell?
Most of us do have our own thoughts and opinions about things. I know I do.
One of my favorite things on NPR is a personal essay they read occasionally written by folks who listen in and take the time to tell them about things they believe in. It’s called, “This I know.”
So here are a few of the things in life that I am certain of.
1. No matter how long someone we love lives, when they are gone they leave a hole in our hearts that never completely heals.
2. Children do not come with instruction manuals and parents will make mistakes. You do the best you can do, pray a lot, and then leave it up to God to do the rest.
3. Winter is always too long and summers are always too short.
4. I don’t mind aging nearly as much as I mind the maintenance that comes with it.
5. Any food that is really good for you never tastes as good as foods that are really bad for you.
6. There’s nothing better to lift a woman’s spirits than a night (or weekend) out with the girls.
7. Bliss is a stack of good books, a warm sunny day, a chair next to the surf, my toes in the sand and the ocean before me.
8. There is no night as long as the one you spend at the hospital holding the hand of friend or loved one.
9. God is good.
10. Children are one of the greatest blessings of this life because through them everything old is made new again.
What about you? What do you know for sure is true?
The Gift of Spring
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I know spring is coming. It can’t be far away, after all this is March. Surely the groundhog’s shadow is only good for a few more days (weeks?)
This winter has been the snowiest on record for this area since 1978. (I looked out the window while I was typing this and it’s snowing…again!) That was the year that students went to school one day after Christmas then missed the rest of January due to snow. My boys haven’t missed that much, but they have missed enough that it’s going to be late in the year before they get out for summer vacation.
I know I am not the only one yearning for spring. I hear it in the voices of my Facebook friends, especially those who have been cooped up in the house with little children all winter. Believe me, I remember what that is like. It seems like the weather will never be warm enough to let them outside to play. It feels like there always be snow on the ground. That someone will always have the sniffles, a fever, or an upset stomach.
And then one day the snow melts. The sun shines. The daffodils bloom. You notice the tiny leaves have begun to appear on the willow tree. The grass turns green and begins to need mowing. Winter is finally over and another spring has begun.
Everything is colorful and seems to be growing right before your very eyes.
Even kids.
I grow kids...not flowers!
Especially kids!
