Nana asks, “What Are You Saving Your Good Dishes For?”

My grandmother lived through the Great Depression and because of her experiences she “saved” everything. She took wrapping paper off Christmas presents, folded it and stored it. Then used it the next year to wrap her presents with. She also kept lots of things we gave her and “saved” them, because they were too good to wear. She had several house coats and night gowns that she kept in her dresser case she ever had to go to the hospital and she might need something nice to wear.

I was reminded of ‘saving’ things not long ago when my cousin Martha came to visit.  She saw some of my crystal glassware in the cabinet. “I ought to give you my stemware,” she said. “I never use it and we have the same pattern.”

I don’t use mine very often either, only at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The glasses are fragile and don’t hold enough liquid to suit my house full of men. My husband got tired of the small glasses we had and went to Walmart and purchased huge fruit jars.

I suppose Martha Stewart would be appalled but Bill’s fruit jars are okay by me. I grew up drinking out of  glasses that had the Flintstones pictures on them (or jelly jars), but for some reason when I drink iced tea (with a twist of lemon please) I prefer stemware.

I had been pouring my tea in some stemmed glasses I got at Arbys several Christmas’s ago, but when Martha commented about the crystal glasses it made me think of Grandma Layne and all the things she saved and never got the pleasure of using. So I went to the china cabinet, got out a crystal glass and poured it full of iced tea and I’ve been drinking from them ever since.

So what if I break one? The world won’t end. I have survived broken dishes before.

Yesterday is a memory. Tomorrow is a dream. The good Lord has blessed us with today and that is really all we have!  So thank you God for jelly jars, Flintstone glasses and crystal ones too.  My cup (or glass) literally runneth over. You have blessed me with gifts beyond measure and I am so very grateful and filled with praise for you!

Now here is my challenge to you, dear reader. What are you saving and more importantly, what are you saving it for?

Drink your iced tea in crystal glasses and go dance in the moonlight in your new nightgown and housecoat.

Carpe Diem!