. Jam and Homemade Bread

Today I would like to share a tender story from a new friend I have gained this last month.  She told me that when she was a little girl her mother spent hours canning fruit and making jam.  They always had homemade bread and her mom smocked beautiful dresses for both her and her older sister.

When she was in seventh grade, her father lost his job, her mother had to go back to work to support the family, and her sister (seven years older) went away to college.  During the next few years, her mother didn’t have time to do those “things” anymore, meaning canning fruit, making jam and teaching Sarah how to bake homemade bread.

And so even today, Sarah, who is a mother herself, has never done any one of these things and does not yet have the skills to do them.  So today I ask you a question:  what skills do you want to pass on to your daughters and sons?  And if they are important to you, how can you organize your life to get them passed along?  I guess I’m thinking about holiday season coming up.  Instead of spending quite so much money on things they will simply own, could we give them a certificate “good for” teaching them a skill and then actually doing it with them?  You see, from Sarah’s point of view, she would have loved to have had an hour with her mother learning how to make homemade jam or homemade bread.  Or maybe even just shared an hour with her the learning the techniques of canning fruit.

What do you wish to pass on to the next generation and how can you order your life to spend an hour this week or an upcoming family night or a Sunday afternoon in the next few weeks to prepare to pass those on legacies?  I know it is important to me that I received certain skills for my own parents.  I know it is even more important for me to pass those skills on to the next generation.

So think about it, and in the mix-up, the mash, and the mess of the months of November, December, and January, ask yourself some important questions, ponder on how to proceed, and then share.  We must share this legacy of homemaking skills (whatever they are and however you perceive they will best help your posterity) from generation to generation.