This post might be kind of long, so bear with me. A month ago, Trevin gave a family night lesson on Being a Pioneer where he explained that we didn't have to be a pioneer that crossed the plains to be a pioneer. There are many ways that all of us can be pioneers in different things.
Then, a couple of weeks ago, when it was my turn for the lesson, I gave a lesson on geneology and how important it is for us to keep our personal journals so that our stories aren't lost. I also related some stories of some of my ancestors to my kids so that maybe they might remember them. On my dad's side of the family I talked about my Great Grandma Bebensee who was a librarian in Nebraska and how she always made us "Spudnuts" when we went to visit her. She also had a cool sprinkler to run through and she called us "Tootie". We called her Grandma BB because Bebensee was too hard to say. I told them about my Grandpa's brother Willis who was a pilot during WWII and was shot down. My Aunt Terri wrote a book about him which was a great resource for my lesson. I also told them about my Great Grandpa Evers and how I used to get embarassed to talk to him because he didn't hear very well and I had to shout at him and how he lived to be 105 years old.
On my mom's side I told my kids about my great grandmother Richardson who crocheted me a baby dress and also crocheted my mom a baby dress. We both have pictures in these dresses and I still have my dress. My mom still has her dress also. I told them about my Great great grandmother Princess Ivy Estelle Brooks who I always thought was a real princess when I was little, but when I saw a picture of her when I was older, she actually looked like one of the Beverly Hillbillies. Princess was just her name, not her title.
It was fun to relate a few stories that I remembered to them. I made a book for my junior year in high school for an English project that had my memories (or stories I hear my parents or grandparents tell) about many of my relatives. In addition to the story, it had a picture (photocopied) and a recipe (typed with a typewriter and lots of whiteout). As I looked through this book, I decided I wanted to re-do it with the modern age of digital scrapbooking. So, since I told my kids that when it was my turn for treats for Family Night (which was this last Monday) that I would make Grandma BB's Spudnuts, I decided to start with re-doing her. When I get everyone done, then I'm going to get them all bound in a book for each of my kids and myself so we can all have copies of the stories, pictures and recipes. The picture of her are from when she was a small child with her father, when she was a young woman, and a picture of how I remember her.
Now to the Feeding the Masses part of my entry. We made the doughnuts and I forgot that the recipe made so many, so when we were done mixing, cutting them out, cooking, and sugaring, we had more doughnuts than I knew we could or should eat. So, we took plates of doughnuts to 5 families in our neighborhood so they could enjoy them for their family night treats also. It was fun and my kids and husband loved them!
