Sweet Southern Me: MiMi

So I promised earlier this week I would write a blog about my grandmother. There are so many places I could begin and some many wonderful things I would love to share about this woman. I guess I should start with a little history. :)

MiMi is my father's mother. She stayed at home, on the farm. She and my grandfather were tobacco farmers. Well, he was more of the farmer, and she took care of the house and family. MiMi had three children, my Aunt Helen and Aunt Connie, and my dad. Dad was a lot younger than his sisters (22 & 16 years), so he was kind of an only child. At some point, and I'm not really clear on when this was-MiMi and PawPaw started a restaurant in town. MiMi would get up and get daddy off to school etc, and then go make pies and cakes and other yummies at the restaurant. Then she would come home and cook lunch for all the men who were working on the farm-she use to tell me it could be up to 25 men! After that, she'd go back to the restaurant and work there. Go home, make dinner and do it all the next day. MiMi and PawPaw were also members of the local Methodist church. She played piano and organ there for 42 years. I'm almost 100% sure she didn't miss a Sunday for at least half of those. When she did miss it was for something like-giving birth...you know, minor things. :)

When daddy went to college, PawPaw had gotten ill-they weren't living on the farm anymore they had moved "in town." PawPaw died from colon cancer shortly after becoming ill. Daddy finished college, and met mommy. They were married and MiMi moved in with them! My mommy is a saint by the way. While I LOVE my Mother In Law, I would not want her living with us. MiMi lived with us almost my entire life. She even moved with us to Missouri for our brief stint there.

Growing up, both my parents worked, so MiMi was the one to pick me up at the bus stop, watch me after school, and take me to my friend's houses. When I would get home from school, she always had a treat for me, most of the time it was no-bake cookies. I LOVE no-bake cookies. When I was younger she would make dinner for our family every day! Fried chicken was her specialty...and my favorite. Along with lemon pound cake, chocolate pound cake, fried apple pies, and really any pie or sweet you could imagine. MiMi made the best desserts...ever. You name it and she made it. And it was always perfect. When it was warm, I would play outside with my friends. The front door would always be open and MiMi would sit and play piano for hours. Always church hymns. Always perfect-never missing a note. You could hear her playing from down the street.

As I got older, MiMi's health began to fail. Where she use to pick me up and watch me after school, instead I would relieve the sitter and watch her. When she was hospitalized I'd stay the night in a chair next to her bed so she wouldn't be alone. My loving MiMi had Alzheimer's disease. Finally, we had to move her to a nursing home because we could no longer care for her. While it was a relief to not have her in the home and always worrying about if she would fall or wander off, it was hard because she had always been in our home.

Fortunately, after some waiting, we were able to move MiMi into a nursing home where they specialized in care of Alzheimer's patients. It had been the same home PaPa (PawPaw's father) had been in (PaPa was 103 when he died in 1993/4). As hard as it was when MiMi died, I knew she was in a better place-she probably plays the piano everyday and makes everyone fried chicken and no-bake cookies.

I want to share one of my MiMi's recipes with you. Its for her no-bake cookies.

MiMi's No-Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk (DO NOT USE SKIM-must be at LEAST 2%)
1 stick butter

Mix the above ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a low boil.
Once ingredients are at a boil, add:
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 1/2-3 cups quick oats (must be quick oats!)

Drop on wax paper and let cool completely.

I am sure that this is the same way everyone makes them, but there was something special about the way MiMi made them. They were made with love, and so they were always just better than any other ones.

-Jess

My wonderful husband bought me new kitchen appliances when we got married...and painted the cabinets, changed the hardware, added new knobs, installed a tile floor, painted, new ceiling fan, new lighting, and installed a new sliding glass door...it was a wonderful present-and I helped with most of it. I love my kitchen now-shades of blues and yellows with white accents. LOVE IT. But. We have a breakfast bar area, and two chairs that came with the house (my husband says they are the most expensive chairs he's ever bought..haha).

That's one of the chairs. Microsuade-dark wood...I hate these chairs. The colors are all wrong, plus they collect hair, and one has a mysterious stain. I've been looking for something in white wood-similar to the make of these. I couldn't find anything for less than $50. I'm in school. We don't have $100 for two new chairs.

I decided I could paint these chairs the same color as my cabinets (since I have a gallon of left over paint). But what about the seats? Well I love toile and my kitchen is blue and yellow with roosters...surely I can find something. I did. A discontinued Waverly fabric. I purchased the fabric online for $9/yd and even got free shipping! YES! Once the fabric arrived I began my project.

Mysterious Stain...

Once I removed the cushions I went to sanding. The weather was sort of nice when I started this project sometime last weekend...

I then primed the chairs-in case you missed it-the best primer EVER is Porter Paints BlankIt.

I forgot to photograph the chairs primed etc...but I used two coats of primer and two coats of Advantage 900 (Porter Paint) in color: Mother-of-Pearl.

While I was waiting for paint to dry, I recovered my seats in my beautiful fabric.

I was so impatient to see how the fabric would look on the chair-

Once everything was painted and dried (this took a few days because I was doing this between classes, clinicals, and studying-and it took about 30 minutes to paint each chair by hand each time I painted them) I put them back together...

(We still have MINOR things to completely finish the kitchen...vent covers-paint around the trim...)

...and another look at the roosters

Over all, I'm extremely happy with my chairs. My total cost was:

Paint: $0-on hand

Fabric: $9/yd...chairs took one yard..so I have two left to make a valance with!

On a side note-today is March 1. While that is an important day because it hopefully signals the return of spring in a few weeks-it also is my grandmother's birthday.

She would have been 93 today. She was an absolutely amazing woman, and someone who helped rear me and my sister and loved everyone! I'm planning on writing a small entry about her later this week-

Happy Birthday MiMi!