All of the "California Girls" in the family met today to have tea
in honor of Mom's recent birthday!
Mom, Heather & I drove from LaHabra, and Robin, Gretchen
& Abby came down from Whittier together
We went to McKenna's Tea Cottage in Seal Beach.
A proper cup of tea!
We chose soup or salad, then we had finger sandwiches & scones.
Finally, tiny desserts. Yum!
We each got our own pot of tea from a variety of flavors.
They were delicious!
Birthday card, pictures and a drawing from Anders
We went next door to the Old Town Nursery to look at their heirloom plants.
We all loved this fountain tree!
A lovely day!!
Here's the text of my birthday gift to Mom (most of the formatting was lost here):
Here's the text of my birthday gift to Mom (most of the formatting was lost here):
Things I Appreciate About My Mom
By Gretchen Seelye Stevens 3/9/2013-In honor of her 85th
birthday
She loves the Bible
& believes that people’s lives can be changed by following it
She likes to tell jokes, and sometimes remembers the punch
lines
She tries new recipes often
She still cooks from “scratch.”
She loves her family so much!
She passed the “cry gene” on to Robin & I
She came and lived at our homes for 4-7 days for the birth
of each of the 12 grandkids! Since mine
was an emergency C-section, I went & lived at their house for 1 week, then
she came to our house for another week!
She is a very caring sister to her brother, Elmer
She was a very good sport on our family vacations!
She was willing to camp in a pop-up tent & travel with 3
little girls
She read books aloud to us on our long vacations
She
was willing to drive the car & take pictures of us on several train rides
rather than always riding it herself
She prayed for us often as we were growing up
Kitchen Tips I Learned from Mom
How to make meat loaf, tacos & potato salad
How to make apple crisp (She was my Home Ec. teacher, &
I learned this in her class.)
To soak your dirty dishes with water… It’s saves lots of
scrubbing time later.
If you leave the butter on a dish in the cupboard, then it’s
always soft & easy to spread
How to grate lemon peel
How to bake cakes, muffins, cookies & brownies
While the goodies are baking, clean up all the pots &
pans
The secret to her delicious piecrusts is the hidden cinnamon
in the rim
How to make homemade buttercream frosting-YUM!
How to cook Spanish rice, pork chops & artichokes
A pancake is ready to turn over when you’ve seen 3 little
holes form in the batter
Mix sugar & cinnamon in a large shaker to sprinkle on warm
buttered toast
When adding food coloring to icings, only add 1 drop at a
time
She always tried to be VERY fair! I remember when we 3 girls
would help with cookies, 2 of us got to
lick
one beater each and the other got to lick the bowl & spatula.
How to broil yams in individual
hollowed-out orange-halves -Yum!!
Try to include several colors in each meal to make the food more appealing
More Things My Mom Taught Me
I learned how to hem skirts & pants from Mom
I learned how to sew on a button, put in a zipper & make
a buttonhole
I learned how to
make dresses, pants, jackets & blouses, too
I learned out how to take out my mistakes with a seam-ripper
I learned the 6-step way to properly iron a long-sleeve man’s
shirt
I learned how to properly iron something with pleats or
gathers (there’s a big difference!)
I learned how to do my own laundry
She taught me (the importance of and) how to smash snails in
the garden
She taught me the different types of infant cries (wet
diaper, hungry, mad, or tired)
I learned how to frame someone in a photo
She taught me the “rule of thirds” for picture taking
I learned the “hold your breath” trick from Mom (to hold the
camera still) when taking pictures
People are more important than clean carpets
People are more important than projects
How to cover a textbook using a brown paper grocery bag
How to feed a newborn puppy with a baby-doll milk bottle
How to put my thumb over the hose nozzle to make the water
spray out
When I was nursing my newborns, she would bring me a tall
glass of water & have me drink it down
while nursing to stay hydrated. “Water makes milk,” she would remind me.
How to clean out the refrigerator
How to defrost the old-fashioned kind of freezer
How to dust & vacuum
How to mop & wax a linoleum floor
How to be fair when it’s time for the Easter Egg Hunt
(Each person gets 3 Reese’s cups, 1 hard-boiled egg, 2 egg-shaped cookies, etc.
They even help each other find their quotas)
How to be fair when kids are getting candy from a
piñata. (Each child gets 3 Tootsie pops, 4 Jolly
Rancher candies, 1 small bag of M&M’s, etc. They all end up with the same number & no one gets left out)
How to buy & wrap the gift on the way to a birthday
party
How to clip coupons & comparison shop
How to look on the sales racks first
The AMAZING gift of hospitality
The importance of learning how to talk to adults politely
(including looking them in the eye)
She modeled a godly woman with a meek & quiet spirit who
enjoyed life & loved her husband!
And so much more!
Mom, I love
you SO much! I am so grateful to have been born into our family. You are more
precious than gold! Happy 85th birthday!
Love, Gretchen
