Full Circle

This is a picture of my grandma Johnson taken when she was a young mother. Like so many from her generation, her seemingly ordinary life was full of the extraordinary. She married her high school sweetheart. Five years later, and with four young children, she stayed on the family farm while he went to Texas to serve as a riflery instructor during World War II (which makes me think twice about complaining that my husband is in Texas for four days this week). He came home, they raised ten kids together, and after twenty plus years of marriage, they left the farm and enrolled together in college. She earned a teaching degree, taught for a year, and went back to school to earn a Master's degree. She was particularly concerned about the number of children who couldn't read and found her way into teaching the kids who were struggling with this skill. When I was writing my dissertation on how to prepare young children to become good readers, she never failed to ask me about my research and what I was finding.

When we were kids, Grandma was really into healthy eating. Snacks at her house were always homemade wheat bread and fresh raspberry jam. She used to get wheat from my dad so she could grow her own wheat grass. We, the kids who rebelled if our mom brought home anything but Wonder bread and Cream O' Weber 2% milk, thought she was crazy. CRAZY!

A few weeks ago, the kids and I planted wheat as a little science project to watch it grow (it grows super fast, so it is ideal for the patience level of my kiddo's). A few days ago, I had a wheat grass and strawberry smoothie. I thought of Grandma and smiled. It was a pretty good smoothie. Maybe she wasn't so crazy after all.
Grandma Johnson died just after Christmas this year. It was a peaceful death and she was happy to be reunited with her husband and parents. Even still, we miss her around here...happy birthday, Grandmother Johnson.