Influence on the Next Generation

I’m not sure how many of you read the comments but Jen left this comment and it was one of those kinds of comments that made me smile.

I broke down and bought a Zojurishi bread machine in Feb 2020 just because I don’t have enough hours most days anymore. Then Covid struck…so it’s been used a ton. My son wanted one for his high school graduation and he took it to college…in the dorm! I think his floor does lots of experimenting with different breads

I can just see college kids who have never had homemade bread tasting the bread Jen’s son has made, going home and telling their parents, then coming up with ideas on how to make different types of breads.

My guess is that when Jen bought her bread machine, she had no idea that would be something her son would want to take to college, and no idea how many people he might influence.

So often, we don’t know how something we have done has influenced others but as a mom and grandma, I try to think about things that I can do that will expose Addie to something she might never otherwise experience – whether it’s making bread (though Chad and Nicole always have some kind of bread dough going and Chad does a lot of experimenting – way more than I ever did), or whether it’s going out to the fruit tree, picking fruit and making jelly. Last spring, she helped me pick dandelions and then “helped” make dandelion jelly. She may never make her own jelly but I do hope at some point in her adult life, she will open a jar of jelly and remember having made it with me.

She had gone out and picked oranges off trees at my parents’ home but when she discovered the plum tree at our Texas orchard . . as she says now “I cannot live without a plum tree”.

Seeing that picture makes me miss the Texas home. There’s a plum tree, a chicken, the greenhouse . . the things I loved but the girl . . she was in Missouri and that was way more important than a plum tree, chickens and a greenhouse.

Things that are important to use, whether it’s growing and canning our own foods, or our faith, or our heritage, while we can’t control how much our kids and grandkids choose to continue or participate, at least we can expose them and then it’s up to them how they handle it in the future.