With Easter being just a few days ago, I always think of my grandma on Easter. I think of her in part because Easter was just one of many large, boisterous family celebrations we would have at my grandma’s house and also she suffered a stroke on Easter Sunday morning, and that Easter was so totally different than any I’d ever experienced in any of my 14 years of life up to that point. She always had the whole family over, all 5 of her children and their spouses and all of the grandchildren and, once they came along the great grandchildren as well. She would always cook a bone-in ham from Wenneman’s Meat Market and also have roast beef and gravy, huge pots of mashed potatoes and vegetables, and everyone would bring something to go along with the meal. There would be tables in the back bedroom and at least one (sometimes two) in the living room to seat everyone. We said grace as a whole family and dug in to a fantastic meal! There always ...
A few days ago, March 20, 2021, it was National Quilting Day. Quilting is such an important part of my family history. I remember going to my Grandma Mueller’s house on the weekends and she would have a quilt up in the living room. It was always fun to crawl under the quilt suspended in the frame and play or look at the bottom of it and see all of the stitches made through the top, batting and bottom to make beautiful designs along the edges. My grandma would quilt for others in the community too, to help supplement her income. I come from a family of quilters. My Grandmother, Mary, and I’m sure many of her family before her, her mother and sisters, along with her daughters, Eleanor, Veronica, Clara and Loretta were all long time quilters, donating many, many hours to their church quilting groups, along with creating their own beautiful masterpieces with fabric, embroidery floss and needles. I know my Grandma, Aunt Eleanor, an...