My Granny's Traditions

"No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you.  After all, you are the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the inside."

I found out I was pregnant with Chloe the Saturday before Mother's Day four years ago.  Today, this Mother's Day weekend, and the past four years have been perfect in every way.  I have my husband and my beautiful children to thank for giving me a purpose in life and for making me a better wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend.  I am eternally thankful for them.

Now that I am a mother myself, I am even more grateful for the two most influential women of my life- my mother and my Granny.  The lessons they have taught me and the traditions they have instilled in me I carry with me proudly and have made me the mother I am today.

I am very proud to say I have been raised southern, I have married a southern man and I try to raise my children with southern morals.  My grandmother was born on a farm, I ate Sunday lunch most weekends of my childhood on a dairy farm and I have fond memories of fried chicken, sundresses, and my mother talking about her summers spent under apple trees.  I think some things are never mean to be forgotten and so I hope that my children while they may never experience our family's dairy farm that I did, will appreciate our southern manners and what it means to grow up in the south.

This year I started thinking about those same southern traditions that I have tried to continue to pass down now that I have a family of my own, and what I wish for Chloe and Yates to carry with them as well.

1 // It is important to have dessert.  Everyday.  Preferably after every meal.  Don't deprive yourself.

2 // It is important to get outside.  Garden, walk, be active.  Be hands on.  Do things for yourself but be ladylike in the way you do it.  A women never tells when she sweats, or "perspires," but she should.

3 // Read.  Read books, newspapers, magazines.  Read for yourself and to your children.  They will then in turn love to read and that will serve them well in life.

4 // Grow a vegetable garden.  Make sure you include okra, green beans, squash, and tomatoes.  You will need to perfect the way you fry the okra you grow, of course.

5 // Perfect baking a really, really good pound cake.  The kind that takes all afternoon to make after sifting the flour at least twice so that the cake is rich and moist.  If the cake turns out "sad" (caves in the middle)... well that just won't do, and you will have to start over because you could never serve anyone a "sad" cake.

6 // Learn to appreciate a good gin martini.  Two is your limit though.  But make sure they are strong, with one olive.

7 // Nothing good ever happens after midnight (see #6).

8 // Sundays should be for church, family and fried chicken.  Also, rice is made for homemade gravy, which should always include peas, biscuits and dessert (see #1 and #5).  

9 // Love with all your heart.  Be grateful to everyone.  Use good manners, especially good table manners.  Don't put your elbows on the table.  Don't chew with your mouth full, and never ever, ever chew gum in church.

10 // Stand up straight.  Don't slouch.  Having good posture represents confidence and first impressions are everything.  You also never know who you might see, so always put on a bit of makeup no matter where you go.

11 // It's okay to drink a milkshake for breakfast, or a coke float.  You also should always have a variety of ice cream in the freezer.  Granny's favorite was coffee.

12 // Say what you mean and mean what you say.  My Granny always was able to speak her mind but she was witty and went about it in a way that never offended anyone.

Happy Mother's Day Granny.  You were and always will be my inspiration... the perfect southern lady.  You knew how to get your hands dirty planting okra every spring but also appreciated a fine country club dinner every Friday night.

I carry a piece of you in my heart every single day... and so therefore do my own children.