Wet Oatmeal Kisses

This week has been one of great reflection for me. A dear family in our neighborhood lost their son tragically, and he left behind his wife and his four "babies" that are about my "babies" ages. It has caused me to have a little more patience, laugh a little more with my family and at myself, hold them a little closer for a little longer, and tell them with more sincerity that I love them. I haven't wanted Ira to leave my side - unfortunantly it has been "one of those weeks" that he hasn't been by my side much. But at the end of the day, even those long days, he has still been around long enough to wrap his arms around each of us. It really puts things into perspective of those petty little things that cause "stress", or are "inconvenient". As long as we have each other - we have everything that is important.

I have also been scanning some of my late-Grandmas family history, so all the families can have copies of it. I have had the opportunity to hold things in my hands that my Grandma, Great Grandparents, and Great-Great grandparents (etc.) held, wore, and touched with their hands. I have held my Grandmas baby booties, poems and letters written by long-ago relatives, pictures, and even original marriage certificates. It has been a long process, but I have been so grateful to have the priviledge to read their stories, and see many of their pictures, and get to know them. Someday, when I go to the other side (hopefully I'll go to the heaven side!), I will see them, and I will know them, and we can be together as family again.

My Grandma Wrights baby booties

My sisters and I on the bottom row (all high-school age)

My mom, her mom, her mom, her mom & her mom (My Great-great -great Grandmother)



Both of these experiences have really caused great reflection for me. I don't like the tragic way that I had to be reminded of how important my family is - but nevertheless, I am grateful that I could be reminded. I am so grateful for the blessings of the temple so that we have the possibility of not just seeing each other again someday, but being together as a family.


When I was going through my grandmas things, I found this writing - I don't know the author, but amidst all of these experiences, I have thought about this writing many times. It must have made an impact on my Grandma as well, or she wouldn't have kept it in her treasures. Her life on earth is now gone, but I am still here to take advantage of these "wet oatmeal kisses".

Wet Oatmeal Kisses
The baby is teething. The children are fighting. Your husband just called and said, "Eat dinner without me.
One of these days you'll explode and shout to the kids, "Why don't you grow up and act your age?"...And they will.
Or: "You guys get outside and find yourselves something to do. And don't slam the door!"...And they don't.
You'll straighten their bedrooms all neat and tidy, toys displayed on the shelf, hangers in the closet. You'll yell, "Now I want it to stay this way!"...And it will.
You will prepare a perfect dinner with a salad that hasn't had all the olives picked out and a cake with no finger traces in the icing and you'll say: "Now THIS is a meal for company."...And you will eat it alone.
You'll yell, "I want complete privacy on the phone. No screaming. Do you hear me?" ...And no one will answer.
No more dandelion bouquets. No more wet, knotted shoelaces, muddy boots or rubber bands for ponytails.
Imagine. A lipstick with a point. No babysitter for New Year's Eve. Washing clothes only once a week, no PTA meetings or silly school plays where your child is a tree. No carpools, blaring stereos, or forgotten lunch money.
No more Christmas presents made of library paste and toothpicks. No wet oatmeal kisses. No more tooth fairy. No more giggles in the dark, scraped knees to kiss or sticky fingers to clean. Only a voice asking: "Why don't you grow up?"
...And the silence echoes: "I did."


Kam and I sharing "Wet Oatmeal Kisses"