old photo

Happy 4th of July !     Do you like old family photos?  Wonder what they thought when they saw the statue of Liberty at the end of their long journey to the United States.   Here’s my paternal great  grandparents .  That is quite some mustache on great grandpa isn’t it?  He died in a terrible lumber accident in Minnesota or Michigan, but they lived in Cheboygan Michigan.  Francis and Johanna M.(wonder what her middle name was)  are the mom and dad in the picture.  This photo was taken  about in the early 1880’s.  I can figure that out by my grandfathers birthday (small boy in front). 

I think the mom, Dad, and three oldest came over from Poland in about  1875.  The mom  must have been a young bride since she  was born in 1859.  Wish there was some diary or written account of something from the lady in the picture who I know nothing about.  Coming to America in the late 1800s must have been inviting because in school the kids had to learn Russian instead of Polish.   Poland was in the middle of Europe without natural boundaries; not an easy place to protect.

July 4, 2010 | Categories: My memoirs | 1 Comment »

my diary – like Anita Dwyer’s

Anyone read the June 13th post on the diary of Anita Dwyer Withers?  Well, I’m writing my own  diary like she did- short entries of this and that.  Didn’t write as much as she did and she had a quill pen unlike my keyboard.  She couldn’t include a photo as I did on 6/16.

Diary of Elizabeth (lisa) from Elizabethian Tea

June 3rd, 2010

We were going to take a day trip  to Cosco,  which is an hour away, but decided to delay it for a later time because the air condition has to get fixed in the car first.

June 13th, 2010

It is finally getting hot outside which is very good for the garden.  The pumpkin plant  has a tiny gumball size pumpkin on it.  I’ll make pumpkin casserole  when they are ready.  You clean out the pumpkin and stuff it with rice and cooked hamburger,onions and spices.  This will be the first year that my pumpkins came up so early.

June 16th, 2010

Went an hour away to Cosco today since we now have a Cosco card (after 5 years of not having one).   I got a  1 ft stack of these paper trays  to play restaurant at home.    I love these little paper food trays.  Makes me think of my kitchen as a deli!

June 18th 2010

I made homemade ravioli yesterday and it turned out delicious. Watched some u tube videos of people making it before I tried it.   I love to use the hen’s eggs when I make homemade things.  Used about 6 eggs.   The filling was ground up seasoned cooked hamburger, artichokes, and strawberry spinach.

June19th, 3010

We went strawberry picking today and have a lot of  freezing to do.  I’d like to try strawberry jam this year since I’ve never made it although I have made plum butter.  It smells like strawberries in the kitchen with two big boxes on the counter.   For lunch we had crackers, cheese and strawberries.

June 19, 2010 | Categories: My memoirs | 1 Comment »

a little family history

This is about 1923 or so on the back porch of my Dad’s house where he grew up. My Dad is the one on the swing (far right) holding his cap in one hand and his arm around uncle Johnny. My Aunt Mary must have been in the house in a crib. This porch was off of the kitchen. We called our grandpa Doc . I think he wanted to go by that; he was a dentist and all polish. My grandma was german and a little french.

This photo proves that the porch was a little slanted even back in the 20′s. I don’t know if it sunk a little or was meant to be that way to drain water ?

Here’s the house in Wisconsin. See the bottom back porch with the awning? That is where the previous photo was taken. This picture was taken in the late 50′s I think. See the two windows in the attic? You could see the whole neighborhood from those windows! This big old house was built in 1907, then my grandpa bought it in 1916 and it stayed in the family till 1995. I lived in this house for a few years in the 90′s while married with 2 small kids. Most of the picket fence was gone by then as well as the awnings on the windows.

Here’s my Dad (third from left) and his brothers. Probably 1928 or 1929. Isn’t in neat to have photos from where you came from?!

July 24, 2008 | Categories: My memoirs | 3 Comments »

you can get through surgery

something to thank God for

I had good caring nurses recently in the hospital who were kind and helpful, for them I’m thankful as well as being thankful for my surgeon and anesthesiologist. Before I went to the hospital my daughter and I read Psalm 41 which was a comfort to me all morning. It was about the person who gives consideration to the poor and how he’ll be blessed. Here is the verse that I took into surgery with me:

“The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness”. Psalm 41:3

The Love of family and friends

I was surrounded by the love of family and friends far and near through phone calls, emails, cards, and gifts and from visits from Christan ladies that took time out of their day to drive out of their way to my place to let me know they care about me.

My two sisters have encouraged me over the phone and I received beautiful flowers from my sister in law which brings me to a special sister in Christ who took a whole day out of her week to drive me 40 miles to the hospital (after driving 40 miles first to where I live).

She has her family at home and grandchildren near by, yet, she spent the whole day helping me get to surgery and stayed through the operation, not to mention she denied herself a cup of coffee that the nurse offered her on account of knowing I couldn’t have a cup with her since it was half an hour before the little blue cap and blue slippers go on for surgery.

Counting my blessings

I was counting my blessings the night I stayed in the hospital from the hours of midnight on; just couldn’t sleep for some reason. How close and comforting was the Lord to me as I sipped on ice tea all night. The dedication of medically trained men and woman was something to thank God for as well as for caring sisters in Christ.

Update years later:

Dedicated medically trained?  They didn’t tell me there were metal titanium  stitches in my breast.  I found that out 2 years after the surgery at the chiropractors office in an X-ray.  Bunch of frauds…

April 24, 2007 | Categories: My memoirs | Leave A Comment »

Hand Salve

Here’s my new jar for the hand salve I make. 2 oz jar for 4.50
Ingredients: olive oil, beeswax, flowers and herbs.

I call it: Elizabethian hand Salve.  It’s great to make something you use everyday.

What is a salve?   Well, there is ointment, salve and balm, all have some sort of oil and wax in them with different consistencies.   They include essential oils  and some are antibiotic, especially if you add neosporin.

My salve has flower heads and herbs steeped in the olive oil to bring out their healing properties in the oils. This winter I added spikenard and myrrh oil to some of  the salve. Guess what else? Green tea bags steeped in the olive oil will give me my Green Tea Salve. Celestial Seasoning orange herbal tea is my “orange spice” if you see that on the label.

The Beeswax– I get 8×11 sheets of fragrant wonderful beeswax at Silver Bow Honey. Good high quality beeswax matters. Not all beeswax is high quality , but Silver Bow’s is.

Olive oil- I use Walmarts because it moves fast on the shelf and I know it’s fresh. Olive oil gets rancid fast and has a short shelf life in the super market. Fresh olive oil, high quality beeswax and things steeped in the olive oil….. makes good salve.

 My personal favorite is Lavender Salve.  Will have to wait till July for some fresh lavender to make it.

March 7, 2007 | Categories: My memoirs | Leave A Comment »

A tribute to my Aunt Rose

Aunt Rose is the 5th child from the right. (My Dad is the 3rd from the right).

Recently I found some photos of relatives on a CD and this is my Aunt Rose as a young lady taken in her early 20′s at the time of nursing school somewhere in Chicago Illinois which would mark her at almost 90 years old now.  Aunt Rose was the 5th child out of 7 and I was the 5th child out of 7 kids too! always felt a link to her because of that.   Her father was all polish, while her mom was german with a little french.

It was a different time period to grow up in back then, the 20′s and 30′s. Public schools were so very different as were the text books. Wouldn’t it be neat to step back in time and go to school in 1923? My Dad (Aunt Rose’s brother) used to tell me that he ran home from school when he had to use the toilet because they just got modern toilets in the school and the echoing loud noise of the toilet flushing scared him as a boy.

My Aunt Rose helped her younger brother years later when he had Malyeria as an adult in World War 2, caring for him in her home.  Aunt Rose was quite a worker from what I have heard and helped a lot at home since her mom died when she was 7 years old.  Many fond memories I have of her and her sister, my Aunt Mary.  She’s old now and frail but I want to say- thank you Aunt Rose for all the memories I have of you.

-

October 1, 2006 | Categories: My memoirs | Leave A Comment »

A true story of a young ladies salvation

This is a true story of how a young 18 year old girl came to know Jesus as her Saviour.

It was 1978 and this young looking 18 year old had a lot of questions about what to do next in her life. It is a crossroads for many a young person approaching their twenty’s with all the many decisions to make for the future. Up and down the busy State street that connected Bascom Hill at the University of Wisconsin to the State Capitol was a steady flurry of activity as the college crowd mingled in and out of the many stores on that long “street” that covered more than a few blocks.

State street in Madison WI facing the State capital

Off of State street hid a quiet little book store filled with books about the bible and nothing more, unusual for the liberal town of Madison. In the door she went in hopes to find some answers to the pressing questions about God that she had. This was a rare bookstore in that you could check out the books as you would in a library. On her way home this young 18 year old girl knew there would be answers for her in these books. Weeks before finding this bookstore, all she could find were bookstores on State street containing books with thin old men on the cover wearing long beards who looked like they were living on rations of rice and not much water. Eastern religion ideas were plentiful in State Steet book stores.

Weeks later there came a knock on the door and there stood a nice Jehovah Witness couple- Tom and Barb. Tom was a fireman and Barb was in her 30′s tall and mature looking. It would have seemed that God sent them just at the time that this young 18 year old girl was searching for something spiritual about God other than her Catholic background. Months later she was told that Jesus is Michael the Archangel from the couple that gave her a bible. As naive as she was, she still knew that Micheal the Archangel could not be the Jesus that is in the bible.

The Holy Spirit is real and will lead one into the truth if one is sincerely searching. This young 18 year old was almost 19 now after a year of looking for spiritual answers. God hadn’t answered her prayers of meeting someone who can answer the  questions she had, were her thoughts at this point.  That very day while landing a job at a daycare downtown by the old MATC building, a lady who was babysitting her little niece in the church courtyard gave her the phone number of another Christian lady who could help in her pursuit of answers about God. Soon after calling the phone number, this almost 19 year old young lady came to know her need of a Saviour in the living room of the Christian mom who’s number she dialed. It took a while (almost a year of praying and searching) but the answers came! What she found out was this:

• You cannot get to heaven by good works, but only by Jesus who’s blood atonement covered our sins. We put our faith in what Jesus did on the cross for us.

• she found out that she was fooled by thinking she was going to heaven and God would accept her just as she was (friendly, and nice to everyone) without calling on Jesus to save her.

• This was news to her: Romans 5:9—”Much more than, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” The salvation of a believer in Jesus is secure and cannot be taken away this verse showed her.

• All people have broken Gods law therefore there needs to be a redeemer (The book of Romans shows that).

• Acts 26:18    “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins,  and inheritance among them which are  sanctified by faith that is in me.”   This is what Jesus said to Paul in the book of Acts.  It’s what Paul was to tell us through what he wrote.

January 31, 2006 | Categories: My memoirs | Leave A Comment »