Tale of Two Tapes

Masking tape was her best friend.  It allowed her to fasten a message to nearly any object.  She loved things properly identified.  My mother-in-law, Evelyn, with the help of a black marking pen and masking tape, kept the world in order.

When cleaning and sorting are in the Things I get to do today,  history pops up in unexpected places.  Here in the bottom of a box jam jars not used for over a dozen years, I found Evelyn.  When I pulled one particular jar from the box to wash it, the stiff, adhesive-gone-gritty masking tape fell off on the counter.  Memories flooded back.  My name in her easily identifiable hand had been on one of the jars.  The bread-and-butter pickle label was still affixed to the container, filling in the details of the story.  She wanted to return what was mine.  Masking tape was the vehicle.

Ruth on the left.  Evelyn on the right.

But just last week during a serious cleaning of the chest freezer in the garage, Apple Sauce from 2003 showed up.  This was from my own mother, Ruth, a saver of all bits of edible produce on her property.  Waste not, want not must be inscribed in her at the cellular level.  Her favorite occupation, after weeding, is canning.  Freezing comes in third.  The masking tape on the recycled plastic dairy carton was fresh and gummy, belying its age.  The sauce was, however, ten years old.  We ate it for breakfast the next couple of days, remembering both mothers and their tales.

What Did You Do?

Good will and the will to do good--not just talking about it,
 but actually doing something.

You knew I've been away.  The blog I planned to write on Saturday but didn't said: What did you do to spread joy and love and peace to a mother, maybe even your own, while I was gone?

That was your homework.  As a good teacher I know that asking for you to turn in your assignment is part of the Things I get to do today.

Your turn.  I want to hear from you.

My Mama Didn't Raise No Fool

My mother wasn’t perfect.  She was human.  She didn’t teach me everything I needed to know in life.  In her wisdom, she left a good portion of the learning for me to figure out for myself.  But this she did teach me:  If something needs to be done, you just do it. (Nike did not exist in those ancient days.)  And you never entertain the idea that it can’t be done.  “Can’t” is a very dirty word.

If a project presents itself and a knowing “authority” says it can’t be done, I highly recommend they step aside.  Don’t want to run them over, and I certainly don’t have time to listen to nay-sayers.

Top on my list of Things I get to do today is “shelves for Lynn.”  She’s my sister.  In her kitchen is a cupboard that is two feet deep.  My arm may be long enough to grope the deep recesses of those shelves, but I can’t see what I’ve got a hold of until it reaches the light of day.

Well, the flash does illuminate the back a bit.

Lynn and I went to my favorite store where they have kitchen drawers that run so smoothly my knees get weak and I start to drool when I slide them out and in.  The employee in that part of the store assured me that the drawers would fit only in cabinets manufactured by them.  The measurements from Lynn’s kitchen were not even close.  We retreated.  For a time.

But the idea continued to heat, itch and fester.  The solution was in that store, and I would find it.  I was on a mission.  The Good Book says “Seek and ye shall find.”  And, boy oh howdy, did I.

So this afternoon while gray, cold rain made being indoors a brilliant idea, I set out to retrofit the deep, dark, groper cabinet into light, easy and accessible space.  Needed to drill four small additional holes and hack saw 1 inch off of four column supports to turn “won’t fit” into “fit perfectly.”

  

Shelves installed and begging for food.

Cool thing is that the shelf can be accessed from  both sides.

    

I couldn’t contain myself. Whooooo Yaaaaaa!  YES!  YES!  YES!  I danced my victory around the kitchen.

Hallelujah! and Thank you, Mama!