Remembering Grandma

Once we got home from our trip to California for Grandma Barney's funeral I began to unpack the things I brought home from her house. I was a little surprised at the item which suddenly meant the most to me.   These. 

Beat up old tin measuring cups. I love the way they feel so light in my hands and the sound they make when they hit the counter, but most of all I love how they remind me of all the times I made cookies with Grandma. Such happy memories spending time with her at her home. I love these little cups and if I had brought nothing else home but these, I would be happy.

I also got to bring this home. The night stand from Grandma's guest room. I can't remember a time it wasn't in that room. I decided to refinish it for Maddison's room. Oh, that first brush stroke of white primer was so hard to apply because I didn't want it to no longer feel like Grandma's table. But as I worked on it I could see places where it had been repaired over the years and I imagined Grandpa fixing it up with scraps of wood and old tools. I decided that Grandpa and Grandma would be happy someone wanted to fix it up and give it a second life. Actually they would probably be amazed that it even had any life left in it at all.

So, here it is. Ta-da! And when I'm reading Maddison stories in bed, I'll look at the table, and it does still feel like a little piece of Grandma's house in our home.

I did decide to leave a little reminder of what it use to be. A little repair work from scraps I didn't recognize. Perhaps Janet knows where this wood came from. 

This photo was taken during our our trip in June. Maddison still talks about Grandma Barney all the time. She will say, "Can you call Grandma Barney and tell her I miss her?" and she is always drawing pictures for her and she can tell you exactly which books from her huge stack came from Grandma's house. I'm so glad we got to visit this summer. What sweet memories. 

Today Maddison was pretending to talk to me on the phone:

M: Hi, Mom.

Me: Hi, Maddie. What are you doing?

M: Oh, I'm at Grandma Barney's.

Me: How fun! Can you tell her I miss her?

M: Well, she is with Heavenly Father and Jesus so she isn't here. But she left a key in a frog for us so....Sage and I are going to go find it.

Me: Okay. Have fun.

M: Bye.

And just because, I wanted to share these cute photos.