{"id":32708,"date":"2024-03-04T21:54:11","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T02:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=32708"},"modified":"2024-03-05T08:09:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T13:09:05","slug":"monday-morning-moment-grandmas-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=32708","title":{"rendered":"Monday Morning Moment – Grandma’s House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few nights ago, we had a houseful of company. I was nervous about it. Not because of the children coming; for sure, they would love being here. It was the parents. These folks are some of the loveliest people we know, but our houses were very different. These were all young people who somehow knew intuitively how to decorate homes that looked straight out of magazines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do trips to Ikea<\/a> help?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, I was nervous that our home, our “style”, would seem tired to them. As they piled in that evening, with hugs and laughter, kids heading straight to our own grandchildren’s playroom, my fretting abated. These precious ones were all the ages of our children; we loved them, and they loved us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, it happened. One of the girls, who is style personified, commented out loud, “This is a grandma’s house.” I’m pretty sure she meant it as a compliment, but it stirred a little chagrin in me… It’s true. No way around it. This IS a grandma’s house. Vintage. Family pictures everywhere. Memorabilia. A china cabinet full of antique glassware from my mama…my children’s grandma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Home Decor that Screams “Granny Chic”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then in a moment, my troubled thoughts cleared as fast as they had come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am a grandma and this is my house. It is comfortable and all are welcome. Countless long talks have been had on that old sofa and chair set. Tears shed and joys reclaimed. Family reminiscing at the dining room table. Stories. Stories. Stories. Children doing their best to out-silly each other, for their own and their grownups’ entertainment. Good food. Good times. Good memories made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our kids, all in their 30s now, have sweet memories of their grandparents’ homes. They still have one living, and MomMom’s home is definitely and beautifully a “grandma’s house” – a place that pulls us in with a big hug of welcome. With a bounty of baked goods, candy dishes full to overflowing, and the promise of coffee, iced tea, hot chocolate, or mulled cider – depending on the season. Picture albums that go back decades and decor that changes through the year, celebrating every holiday. A feast for the senses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That recent evening with my young family friends marked a change in my sensibilities. I hope to embrace the fact that our parents felt the sting of the Great Depression<\/a> and, because of that, it had a huge impact on my life as well. Our parents taught us to spend money carefully, hold onto things (“you might need it later”), fix what gets broken, and treasure keepsakes of past generations. And so it goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe we’ll paint the oak cabinets, and maybe we won’t. Maybe, we will update our furniture, and maybe we won’t. Hard to say…but I’m not going to feel bad about it. That’s just foolish really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike our children and probably grandchildren coming up, I’m more a maximalist than minimalist, more vintage than modern, more cluttered than orderly (sigh), and preferential toward brighter colors than earth tones [Joanne Friedrich<\/a>]. Our married children, like our young friends, have beautiful easy-on-the-eye homes…different than mine. We are different generations, and that’s completely okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Marine<\/a>, a marketing officer for a large real estate company, wrote the sweetest piece on “grandma’s house”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As a kid, it was a magical place with cabinets full of treats and a freezer that was apparently stocked year round with ice cream. Food tends to be a central theme when it comes to Grandma\u2019s house. I remember my grandma would make me whatever I wanted for dinner, and she would always have a special treat that involved some kind of mixture of confectionery delights.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a place full of love. It\u2019s where getting spoiled rotten is a way of life. It\u2019s where you look at those photos on the wall or on top of that coffee table that seem to cover the course of the better part of a century.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My kids love Grandma\u2019s house. It has special toys and snacks that they don\u2019t get a home. There are juice boxes and candies that are rare in other parts of the planet they have seen but seem to be plentiful in this small corner of the galaxy. On top of that my boys have the rare opportunity to also go to great-grandma\u2019s house, the same place I visited at their age.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what makes Grandma\u2019s house so special? It\u2019s simple. That\u2019s where Grandma lives.”<\/strong> <\/em>– David Marine<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with this house…you also get a sweet Papa in the bargain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What Makes Grandma’s House So Special? <\/em>– David Marine<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11 Things That Instantly Remind You of Grandma’s House – Southern Living<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Each Generation Shops in 2023 [New Data from Our State of Consumer Trends Report] <\/em>– Maxwell Iskiev<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
[This sweet book was chosen by our sweet daughter to read at her birthday lunch with me and all the grands. It is lovely and quite poignant for me because I, like Mama Seeton, had a whistle to summon the kids. My whistle also had just two notes, like in the story above, but used as in a bobwhite call. For the many years we lived in large, noisy cities, it came in handy. My adult kids will still look up to find me when I whistle softly at big family gatherings. Love this about them…and that they’ve passed this story onto our grands.]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
From Mama Seeton’s Whistle<\/em> by Jerry Spinelli, art by LeUyen Pham <\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few nights ago, we had a houseful of company. I was nervous about it. Not because of the children coming; for sure, they would love being here. It was the parents. These folks are some of the loveliest people we know, but our houses were very different. These were all young people who somehow … Continue reading Monday Morning Moment – Grandma’s House<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[926,2986,690,2126,1241,1705,4343,1567,147,795,1450,353],"tags":[10672,1928,10671,10670,10669,2789,1459,1458,4051],"class_list":["post-32708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attending-or-focus","category-attitude","category-babies-children","category-community","category-contentment","category-conversations","category-daughters-and-sons","category-decluttering","category-family-2","category-love-2","category-monday-morning","category-monday-morning-moment","tag-clutter","tag-downsizing","tag-gram","tag-grandma","tag-grandmas-house","tag-hospitality","tag-monday-morning","tag-monday-morning-moment","tag-papa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pauPAB-8vy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32708"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32734,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32708\/revisions\/32734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}