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Talk to kids about learning from our parents and grandparents, and their eyes roll back in their heads so far you think they might get stuck there. Every kid knows that our parents and grandparents don't know ANYTHING, right?! Why is it we have to be old enough to be parents ourselves before we learn that there actually IS a lot to learn from our parents and grandparents.

I was blessed to know all four of my grandparents into adulthood. In fact, my mother's paternal grandparents lived until I was almost a teenager. I so enjoyed visits to their farm, and I was enthralled at how simply - and ably - they lived. Years later, as we sorted through their home before it was sold, I was fascinated to find the tools with which they had existed... my great-grandmother's butter jar - a one-gallon glass container with a screw-on lid that held a paddle and a handle for cranking. She would pour in cream from the cow, turn the handle, and create fresh, silky butter. I found fabric she had pieced together in colorful quilt patterns to be quilted later into warm blankets for cold Ozark nights. In the shed, I found many of my great-grandfather's tools with which he repaired farm equipment and plowed his garden. I didn't learn any of these skills directly from my great-grandparents, but through the stories and lessons of THEIR children, I have learned plenty.

My own paternal grandmother helped my mother teach me to sew. She would show me how to cut patterns from newspaper or paper sacks to fashion clothing for my dolls. I can't say I ever mastered making the miniature frocks for Barbies that she created so nimbly for my sister and me, but I did learn basic tailoring and can sew pretty well anything to this day. My grandmother continues to teach me about sewing, even at age 96. Just last year she accompanied me to a fabric store to select drapery material, and she advised me on which fabric was right for my window, how much yardage I would need, and even what color spool of thread was appropriate. And the draperies are beautiful!

My mother and grandmothers taught me to cook - and I don't mean how to heat a TV dinner or a frozen pizza. We cooked from scratch at my house every day. Probably about the most "instant" we got was opening a can of English peas or maybe some pear halves for a salad. We peeled real potatoes and mashed them or fried them. We grew our own vegetables and canned or froze them to enjoy all winter long. Thanks to the ladies in my family, I can rustle up a full breakfast

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