Legacies

While I was in Maryland last week, I spent several hours collecting and packing up family keepsakes to send back here to Montana. My father-in-law, who is actually the husband’s stepfather, will move to assisted living eventually and won’t have room for everything.

I already have the quilts made by the husband’s grandmother; his mother sent them to me many years ago. One of the Very Important Items, though—important enough that my MIL had left written directions as to its whereabouts and disposition—was the bunad, or traditional Norwegian dress, that belonged to the husband’s grandmother. Here is Grandma Milly in 1983 wearing it:

The bunad has always been earmarked to go to DD#1. That seems especially appropriate now because DD#1’s fiancé’s family is of Norwegian descent and his sister is actually in Norway now studying for her master’s degree. One of the husband’s uncles helpfully provided the information that this bunad was made (sewn and embroidered) by Milly's cousin in Norway.

One closet in my MIL’s office was filled with sewing and craft supplies. That all got sent here. I now have enough thread and buttons to last me at least 30 years. I also found a huge box full of these:

For the last dozen years or so, my MIL had been knitting “Guidepost sweaters”—simple sweaters to send to children around the world. This was a program started by Guidepost Magazine in 1996. It has since been taken over and administered by World Vision and is now called Knits for Kids. I knew she had been making these sweaters because we had had several discussions about how much she disliked sewing them together (even though there is only one seam underneath each sleeve). I found a dozen finished sweaters and another three or four that need to be sewn; I’ll complete everything and send them on.

And this made me laugh:

When we got married, I received a recipe card box with all of the husband’s family’s recipes in it. The recipe for Mrs. Tidings Curried Chicken Broccoli was three cards long, stapled together, and included the entire history of the evolution of that dish into something that no longer resembles the original. Apparently some family members disliked broccoli, so the broccoli morphed into French-style green beans, the American cheese was changed to cheddar, the bread crumbs became crushed Ritz crackers, etc. The whole thing became something of a family joke. I ran across this—which is the original, unadulterated recipe—in my MIL’s office. I am going to put it with the copy I have.

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I pushed through and got all the tax stuff for the construction company sorted and organized yesterday. (I really want it out of my fabric room.) I keep all the financials in Quickbooks but there are hard copies of invoices and material lists in case we ever need to refer back to a particular job. Now all that’s left is for me to go through and organize our personal records for itemized deductions. The job does seem a bit simpler this year now that we no longer have dependents and those associated expenses.

And the dentist said my tooth still has enough integrity that I can avoid getting a crown for a while. That was welcome news.

The big excitement is that the hydraulic lift is being delivered today! I plan to take lots of pictures. Stay tuned.