Counting my blessings….

Of all my friends, Mary will be the one who understands this entry the most. She, too, was raised in the country, just a few miles from where I grew up and her life was very similar to mine.

I was sitting at the bar just now, snapping beans with little Princess Pollywog asleep on the kitchen rug. She never strays far from my side. Mags will take herself off to our bed to nap in her little bean bag, but Mollie shadows me, always.

I have a fat hen in the oven roasting, it’s cool inside, I didn’t have to pick the beans, but they are fresh from the farmer’s market. The hen is Amish grown, grain fed, but I didn’t have to kill it, or pluck it’s feathers, and the corn was picked this morning, but I had no part of walking thru the hot cornrows, pulling it off the stalks.

My life is so different than my Mother’s. We would have the same meal as I’m having this evening, but she would do everything herself, from killing and dressing the chicken, to picking the beans and the corn, and then she would cook it all in a hot kitchen with no running water.

The older I get, the more I admire her tenacity and determination to provide me with the best life she could. She was a good woman, a difficult one, but she was hard working and fair and honest. And I admire her for that…

Notice the Wesson oil plastic measuring cup in the photo to the left. I’ve had it forever, since LC and I were first married, almost thirty-seven years ago now, and it’s one of my favorite things….

The color has faded, and the numbers are worn, but it endures, kinda like me…

And now I’m off, to cook the beans in my electric pressure cooker, where I can set it's digital timer and not worry about it exploding on the stove.

Yep, I’m counting my blessings today, I'm a lucky woman to have such an easy life. You should count yours, too....

~ jan