5 generations

The blessing of celebrating my grandmother's 101st birthday yesterday, and taking 5 generation photos with her today is a gift that we cherish with overwhelming gratitude.

Seeing her 14th great great grandchild gave her immense joy and a short reprieve from some of the challenges that plague her at this stage of her life.

She even remembered to check out his ears, as she has always done with every single baby introduced to her through the years, and Grandmom gave her seal of approval to Luka's set.

Love and prayers for 100 years

We have been waiting for this day for 100 years. Well, I have not personally been waiting for 100 years but I know someone who has. And that's exciting.

Happy birthday to my grandmother, Bertha Moyer, who is 100 years young today. 

Today we celebrate the one who has wished love and prayers to her 6 children, 18 grandchildren, 40 great grandchildren, and 11 great great grandchildren for our whole lives. 

We celebrate the one who taught us that adversity can make us stronger and that God is the sustainer of our days, no matter what comes.

We celebrate the one who has filled our homes with handmade quilts, toys, doilies, and many other treasured items. 

We celebrate the one who taught us to love ice cream and that it's okay to hoard it and eat it alone in the bathroom so you don't have to share.

We celebrate the one who has shared my parents' home since I was in high school - and still lives there today. 

We celebrate the one who still enjoys crossword puzzles, reading, and handcrafts (as her arthritic hands allow). 

We celebrate the one who loves family gatherings and loves to laugh.

We celebrate the one who taught us that it's no use having idle hands when there are more crafts to be made.

We celebrate the one who has supported us in our endeavors, momentous moments, and deepest griefs.

We celebrate the one who has less gray hair than folks half her age.

We celebrate another year God has blessed us with you.

Have a great day! Love and prayers, Your family 

All of the children

My children never got to meet my paternal grandfather as he died before any of them were born. However, many of them are here because of him. Yes, he married us, and blessed all who would come through our doors as husband and wife. But more than that he left a legacy of a life lived to bless others. A family with almost a dozen great-grandchildren who are adopted speaks for itself.

My cousins and I have learned that adoption is not easy. There are no guarantees. Trauma is long-lasting and all-encompassing. It pushes away and divides and leaves a trail of chaos behind. But it is also the best picture I know of grace and redemption and an unconditional love that patiently and expectantly waits for the prodigal to decide that a seat at the table is truly better than the scraps of pigs.

How do I know this is my grandfather's legacy? Because he loved unconditionally. He wasn't flashy about it. He didn't draw attention to himself. He chose to love those that were different from him, racially, culturally, and spiritually. He taught with his own life as model.

And, he also taught. It was my dream to have my grandfather as a teacher at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School. Unfortunately, he retired the year before I entered ninth grade. I never had that pleasure. This disappointed me greatly but when I hear stories like I heard today, I realize that claiming him as my grandfather means that I received the best education from his life just as others received from him in the classroom.

For many years, my dad had a train set in his attic. Victor enjoyed playing with that train set but something happened when my parents moved a few years ago and the engine no longer worked. A recent conversation with a contractor who came into their home, who they also knew, led them to a source for a new engine. The young man suggested that they contact his grandfather who probably had an engine they could buy. They made the arrangements and went to see what he had to offer.

My dad was pleased to find that this man did have an engine for sale, just the right scale and perfect for his set. My dad asked how much? He was told $1. My parents were shocked. Then the man added a trolley, and another car - without raising the price. My parents tried to argue. It was all worth so much more than that. Then the man's wife said, "Tell them why you don't want to accept any more money than that."

The man went on to explain that when he and his wife were younger, they had a foster daughter. The situation was tough. She wasn't the typical student to attend the private school where my grandfather taught. They didn't know if they should send her even though they had sent their other children there. In the end, they did decide to enroll her. They explained that it was my grandfather who went out of his way to care. He saw the value in her. The story may have had its own twists and turns, but this man and his wife never forgot the teacher who welcomed every student. They weren't just making a transaction to sell a couple of train cars; they were thanking the family of one who meant so much to theirs.

That's the legacy my grandfather left. That's the reason my family is here. That's the legacy I hope to leave to my children. 

"Let the little children come to me," Jesus said. All of the children. Not just the ones who make good choices. Not just the ones who acknowledge me. Not just the ones who can pay me back. 

All of the children. 

Chopped: Virtual Family Night Edition

In our house, every Friday night is Family Night. Most times it's just dinner with whatever family members are in the area. We've had Game Nights. We've also had other fun, planned activities. We've been talking about a Family Night version of Chopped for a long time but just couldn't figure out the logistics of the teams working in my too-small kitchen, sharing the lack of counter space, only one oven, etc.

But then Governor Wolf solved our problem for us. He told everyone that they had to stay home. Hmmmm, well, now that we have separated families from themselves, maybe we can do a virtual Chopped? Better yet, why don't we expand it even further?

So we ended up with 6 teams in 5 locations (the King family split into two) and 3 states. We were 3 generations gathered for the first ever Chopped: Virtual Family Night Edition.

First order of business was to select the items and have them mailed to each participating family. This ended up proving to be more difficult than first imagined. Since everyone has a different grocery store and lives in a different part of the country where different food hoarding practices are being carried out and since some participants might be avoiding the grocery stores more than others, we went the Amazon route. But then the first list had to be abandoned because items were either not available or were perishable, or too expensive because they needed to be bought in bulk, or were going to arrive too late for our scheduled activity. But after about 10 revisions, a final plan was made and orders were placed. Only one person knew the ingredient list and others were instructed to keep their boxes secret until the specified time. Some are better rule followers than others but whatever...

A few days before the event each time chose a name and we voted for our favorites. Each team had to reference food in their name, and it had to be at least three words long.

We posted a list of kitchen and pantry items that could be used, to try to be as fair as possible.

Two Greenhorn Peas in a Pod - Because they've never done this before 

(but neither had anyone else)

PopPop and MomMom

The Spice Girls - "Wait til you see my spice rack."

Jesse and Megan

Kentucky Fried COVID (KFC) - Because they live in KY, of course

Andrew and Sarah

A Salt with a Deadly Weapon

Chad, Jodi, Annika, Nadya, and Jodi's Parents

The Men Green QuaranTEAM that Will Squash Your Food Dream

John, Mariana, Molly, Shoun (in absentia), and Victor

Guaranteed Your Kids Will Love Liver - An inside Bauman family joke

Cindy, Isaac, Eden, HopeAnne, and Victor

Victor jumped shipped according to which assigned task seemed the most enjoyable

We all started to gather on Zoom last night at 5:15 with a Chopped scheduled start time of 5:30. When the time arrived, participants were given the instructions and could open their ingredients.

Here are your four items which must be in your final main course: Coconut Milk Powder, BBQ Sauce, Curlz Toddler Snacks with Sweet Potato and Cinnamon, Muffin Mix

Simultaneously, you are to create a dessert (or desserts) with these four ingredients: Orange Marmalade, Strawberry Pudding, Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, and Reese's (of course)

And....go.

It got pretty messy at the King house.

We checked in with each other halfway through and then had the final judging at 7:30PM.

Categories for judging were...

Table Talk - Each team got 1 minute to tell us what they made and why their delicacies should win
The Cruise Line Touch - Presentation is everything!
Go the Distance - How far from the original four items do you go?
Look-Alike - Costuming
Social Distancing - Since our plan lacked one main ingredient - taste testing all of the foods, we had to go with which foods do you think would taste the best if you could actually taste them?

Next Virtual Family Night? Recreating famous paintings with items found around the house. Stay tuned...

Sibling Day

Sibling Day has come and gone (who even decided there should be a Sibling Day? Facebook?) but family friends just dropped this gem in my lap. I couldn't resist. Because really, Chad, could that look be any more you?

I'm guessing "the look" was because you were

stuck with all these girls once again?

And before you make fun of my shirt, you need to know that it was my favorite shirt. I didn't get brand new clothes very often, especially not those that advertised something (Ocean City, NJ in this case) so it was highly valued. And those were the days when purple was still my favorite color. Until I figured out how awful it looked on me. But purple short shorts, Cindy? Really?

And then there's that hair... Dorothy Hamill should have kept it because it certainly wasn't made for me.

97

Today is my grandmother's 97th birthday. At least we think it is. There is some confusion over the exact date. Her birth certificate has one date, she celebrated another for 90+ years, or something like that. But there's no contesting the year or her age. Although she has been known to switch the numerals when it's convenient. That would make her "just" 79 this year.

Victor loves to visit with her. Alone. Everyone else was kicked out the last time he visited. He had all kinds of questions. We probably don't want to know what they were.
One of the things I have enjoyed is seeing her projects, using the items made with her hands, and talking about what she is making or has recently made. It's more difficult for her to work with her hands these days but she is still passing along the crafting tradition.

Somewhere in the 90s, my mom decided we would have a 3 generations quilt. The school where I taught held an auction every year to raise funds for the school. She suggested that we make a quilt for the auction. And why not choose a school-related theme for our quilt?

So we divided up the project among the three of us (I'm pretty sure I had the smallest portion but that's okay). Turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself. I don't remember who bought it or for how much or if we even know where it might be displayed, if it is even still displayed, but I am thankful we had the opportunity to work together on this project.

Happy 97th birthday, Grandmom!

Christmases #3 and #4

The next two Christmas celebrations kept us on the road a good bit from the 26th - today. Some Kings are still on the road while some of us are already home. Our first trip was to Zionsville, IN (Cindy's brother and family) and the second to Wapokeneta, OH (John's siblings).

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Beautiful family photos will be forever memories of our time in Zionsville. And a special photographer who let a special little boy explore her camera (and lens).

Nadya and Victor enjoyed cousin time. Potter the dog, and Victor, not so much.

Hot Potato and lots of games with the cousins...

Enjoying gifts...

The return of Octocat (MomMom's drawing from a few Christmases ago) and a new Octocat pillow tradition (with HopeAnne being the very first Octocat Pillow Winner).

A crocheting partner...

"Drinking games": Have you ever tasted Grass Jelly, Pennywort, Soursop, Lychee with Aloe Vera, or Basil Seed? We have. The results of a trip to the International Grocery Store.

For our final Christmas, we had some cousin fun, singing (of course), Grandma taught us how to bake a pie, and I took a memorable tumble (but nothing that a little super glue, a few days of soreness, and a lot of black and blue can't heal).