Sniffles

It must be that time of year again.

I am on my third day with a sore throat. It seemd to only bother me in the morning and in the evening.....which is about right now. This morning welcomed an addition....the sniffles. I'll have to remember to take my tissues with me when I head out for school today. =(

Being sick reminds me of two things:

1. Growing up, my grandma always made soup for me when I was sick. I loved her soup. She just had the knack for making it taste so perfect everytime. She even let you choose the type of soup you wanted from her great repertoire. My favorite was potato soup and then eventually it was chicken with the funky noodles, but that was after the incident. Click here for more about that story. Now that I have to make my own soup without any of her recipes, I really miss her being here. Although they say chicken soup feeds the soul, I think it was my grandma that actually did.

2. Len, Len, Len.... Please Lord help Len. She is a friend of mine who is about my age. She was sent away to Catholic boarding school when she was young and possibly suffered some repercussions that will always stay with her. One of those repercussions was not spending time with her mom to learn the skills of domestication. I always wondered why she seemed to run a chaotic home. I helped her clean and organize, but she could never keep it up. Even dinner at her house was a fend for yourself event.

I remember when she told me about the boarding school experience. At the time I did not relate it to the troubles she was having in her home until the one day she asked me to help her with her chicken noodle soup.

Len called me over to help her. She was having trouble making chicken noodle soup. I was not surprised when I looked in her pot. She had one whole chicken breast in a pot of boiling water with nothing else. She wanted to know when to add the ramen noodles and if that was when it turned into the soup. After making a return trip home to gather supplies, I went back and taught Len had to make the soup. It was then that it dawbed on me about what Catholic boarding school had done. She missed out on time with her mom and family. It is those times growing up that you learn the skills of domestication like making chicken noodle soup. Len missed all of that. Now, I have tasted her mother's food so I know she can cook, but for Len it is a struggle. Thinking about Len makes me appreciate all the time I spent with my grandma. I have realized that Len can follow a decent recipe, so maybe this year, I'll give her a cookbook for Christmas.

Christmas...OMG! How many shopping days left?

Stay sweet 'n smile.....................Mz.