Home is … Sharing Family Heirlooms!
Welcome to Home is … Day here at RE! This week we’re sharing about … family heirlooms!
I’ll start with my story, and then you can link up and share yours, okay?
When my Aunt Barbara brought me this wonderful book, I almost didn’t want to touch it. For one, it seemed so old and fragile (literally falling apart), and secondly, the thought went through my mind how different Great Grandma Frohreich’s life was than mine.
Even though I have many friends around me, I’m wrapped up in sharing my life through social networking, meeting friends across the country (which I love!), whereas Great Grandma stuck close to home and really knew her neighbors.
I can text my husband or kids across the states at any time, whereas Great Grandma’s family mostly lived within a 2 mile radius.
I can run up to the Farmer’s Market and buy any vegetables or fruit, whereas Great Grandma spent months planting, growing, and harvesting their crops.
I can buy any canned veggies or fruit, whereas Great Grandma spent days and weeks canning and “putting up” the harvest.
I can zap a meal (microwave) in a few minutes or have instant hot water (Insta Hot), whereas Great Grandma spent hours slaving over a stove.
Costco sells beautiful bouquets of flowers, whereas Great Grandma grew her own.
These are just a few ideas of how the generations have changed, and in a way, reading through this wonderful book (full of many German words!) I’ve discovered that it was my Great Grandma’s idea log.
Not only are there recipes.
But she talks about flowers.
The book is in a way a dream book, an idea book.
Here are a few fun recipes. I love the titles.
Hurry-Up Cake
True Sponge Cake
Fluffy Dumplings
Potato Pan Rolls
Silver and Gold Casserole
Vitamin Plus Salad
Grandmother’s Cabbage
Feather Rolls
Oh, and there are the German recipes, the ones that I hope my friend Ulla will decipher for me over dinner!
A few articles, like … Leftovers used in Novel Ways
Here’s a page from 1937.
Dear Woman’s Page Editor … As the holidays are near and so many of us are packing boxes for our boys and girls in the service camps far away from home, we are at times at a loss what to fix to send them…
And a whole page on Dahlias! And how to care for Roses.
I wish I would have known my Great Grandma. I was 6 when she died. My last memory is attending her funeral and walking by her casket.
When my cousins came for lunch a while back, I showed them Great Grandma’s book.
So lovely in many ways.
What’s an heirloom that you hold dear to your heart?
Not it’s your turn … link up and share your Mother’s Day memories with us today!
About Home is …
Each Wednesday you can link up here at RE, to a different theme that I will share in advance … which may be something like a beautiful set table, fresh flowers in the kitchen, dishes in your hutch, a meal on the stove, a family heirloom, a yard sale find and how you put it to use, pictures on the walls, music being played in the background … a feeling, a smell, a touch.
What’s exciting about this day is that I will provide you (on my sidebar) the theme each week which will hopefully inspire you!
Let’s share our links and have some fun! Please link directly to Reluctant Entertainer by post (exact URL) …no home pages please! And please, link back to RE! And don’t forget to visit one another’s blogs!
Thank You for participating!
I loved looking through your great-grandmother’s book. So interesting. You should try some of those recipes!
I will try to come back later and post an heirloom link.
God bless and have a great day!
Elizabeth
.-= Elizabeth´s last blog ..The Best of Friends =-.
What an amazing party. Thank you so much for hosting. I came over from Serenity Now for Amanda’s blog. I wasn’t planning on going through a box of Kleenex this morning, but everyone’s sentimental stories got to me.
Your book is so amazing. What a great way to get to know your great-grandmother even after her passing. It makes me want to write a book. thanks for sharing.
What a treasure! I bet some of those recipes will turn out to be better than ones you could find in a newer cookbook. It’s fun to see what things would be chosen for a book like that. Let us know if you try some of the recipes.
That is amazing and such a treasure to have!!
Sandy, so glad you were given this book. So appropriate aunt Barbara passed it on to you.
I am very curious…what is a Vitamin Plus Salad? Must be loaded with nutrition?
What a wonderful piece of your great grandma’s life-I love it, and the story that goes along with it!
.-= Gina´s last blog ..Home Is Sharing a Family Heirloom =-.
Sandy, I love the “i rite” notebook cover!!!!! What a priceless treasure and a chance to get to know your great grandmother!
.-= Tara G.´s last blog ..Home is…A Family Heirloom =-.
What a special treasure! Such insight as to what your Great-Grandmother was like!! The thing I think I love most about family heirlooms is not the object itself, but the story it tells of what our family was like! Thanks for sharing this with us!!
Blessings,
Stacey
.-= Stacey @ The Blessed Nest´s last blog ..Something Old, Something New… =-.
that is so neat Sandy! How fun to sit and look through an idea book like that.
What a beautiful memory of your heritage! I have my mother’s and my grandmother’s recipe cards – you’ve given me the idea to copy and scrapbook them for my SIL to enjoy as well!
.-= Adelle @ ready…GO!…get set´s last blog ..Home Is…an old rocking chair =-.
I love heirlooms and wish we did a better job of keeping them around in my family, BUT, I did score recently. My grandmother gave me a chair from HER grandfather’s dining room set. She got it from an uncle at her wedding and he had it recovered for her. So, now I own my Great Great Grandfather’s chair and I won’t lay a finger on it…I just cherish it and everything it has seen over the years!
.-= the BLAH BLAH BLAHger´s last blog ..TOOL TALK: CRAFTSMAN NEXTEC AUTO HAMMER =-.
Wow, love that book. Thank you for sharing. The German in the book is “Alt-Deutsch” or old German writing. If you need help, give a holler.
I don’t have books like that, but I have both my grandmother’s and my mother’s cookbooks. My treasures.
Sandy, thank you for the inspiring topics and for hosting!
It sounds like your family’s love for recipes, homemaking and for all things beautiful have been passed down so graciously.
What a treasured heirloom Sandy. Such a personal piece of her life.
Linked up. :-)
Had my post up and then came to link up and read yours. I was taken by how similar our treasured heirlooms are.
Thanks for hosting!
.-= Donnetta´s last blog ..Holding my Legacy =-.
Hi, Sandy! This is my first time participating in your party. :) I am really excited. I have preschool drop-off this morning, but I plan to do some visiting today. Thanks so much for hosting.
Your book is a real treasure! I would love to have some of my grandmother’s scrapbooks, but my aunt is not inclined to share. I love how your great-grandmother clipped so many neat articles…many applicable to today, even though you both have/had very different lives. :)
Sandy. . . I have a book a lot like yours! I’d forgotten about it. . . my grandmother made it when she was a girl. It’s an old catalog; she just pasted pictures and things right on top of the pages of the book. You’ve inspired me to look for it; I know it’s around here somewhere!
Thanks for hosting this fun party every week! :)
.-= Richella´s last blog ..Nineteen candles =-.
That is an AMAZING family heirloom, Sandy! What a cool glimpse into the past. :)
.-= Jessica @ This Blessed Life´s last blog ..Parmesan Broccoli – Just Say No to Velveeta! =-.
That is sooo cool my friend. I would have loved to have had something like that passed down.
My grandparents had MANY grandchildren so all I managed to receive was an antique magazine rack/stand from them but I do treasure it dearly.
HUGS!
.-= Kim @ Homesteader’s Heart´s last blog ..I’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’! =-.
Oh how I wish I had a book like this. That is a treasure to keep forever. I would have love to live in the old days. :)
.-= Lauri´s last blog ..WONDERFUL LIFE OF LOVE =-.