"Where I come from a lotta front porch sittin"

Alan Jackson said it all........

"I said where I come from

It's cornbread and chicken

Where I come from a lotta front porch sittin'

Where I come from, tryin' to make a livin'

And workin' hard to get to heaven

Where I come from"

I have been spending a lot of time on my porch these days.  Early morning coffee and crosswords on the front porch.  Lunch on the back porch.  Reading before our 'before supper walk' on the front porch.  Supper on the back porch.  Hummingbird watch and winding down the day on the front porch.  Seems like I spend a lot of time on my porches.  I may not have the house of my dreams or the porches of my dreams, but I do have the most wonderful memories of the many porches in my life. 

One of my few memories from when I lived in PA happens to be the porch the front of the Inn that my parents owned. It was a large wrap around porch.  I vividly remember my mom's porch furniture and her glass wind chimes.  I have searched for similar wind chimes to no avail.  We bought our home in 1986 and for years when my husband asked me to sit out back in our yard, I would always wish we could just sit on our own porch!  Although I do love to spend time now sitting out back in the shade of my yard, I can't help but think back to how much the many different porches have meant in my life.

I remember how many times we would travel to PA to "111 Hanover Street" for a visit in the summer.  I considered it my family home!  Although I didn't live there, my grandmother did with her daughter and sons. We would make the trip during the summer and although I looked forward to seeing my family, I really couldn't wait to sit on the porch.  That is what they did, they sat on the porch.  I have so many memories of my family spending hours on the front porch.  My children grew up sitting on that porch!

My mom's house had a back porch on which we would sit and spend so may enjoyable hours.  That porch saw so many cups of coffee, popsicles, and ice cream floats. My kids' bathing suits and towels would be hung on the rack.  My mom would sit for hours working on her plastic canvas crafts, while I crocheted, knitted, or did cross stitch.  When we bought our house in 1986 and didn't have a porch, I would go to my mom's during the day to sit on her porch! I finally did get not one, but two, porches in 2002.  Today we have my in-laws old sofa swing and my mom's table and chairs on our back porch.  The front porch is not very big and isn't wide enough for a rocker, but it is still a favorite place to have morning coffee and evening hummingbird watch parties.

My in-laws had a screen porch off of their kitchen! Countless days and nights we spent sitting out there.  I can remember my mother in law running a cable to move her tv to the back porch, so she could watch the Red Sox outside when the weather was hot and humid!  We had many meals as a family on that back porch. We would pick blueberries and then have a coffee on that porch.  It was on that back porch, after picking blueberries, my sister in law told us all she was expecting her third baby. We then shared our secret that we, too, were expecting our first one!

Summer is a time to slow down and enjoy these extensions of our homes.  As I sit right now on my back porch, I hear a cardinal singing.  I have my crafting near me.  I have my cup of coffee.  I can't decide if I feel sad without my mom or if I feel content knowing that we made so many memories on her porch.  What I do know is that there is a big porch in Heaven and my mom is sitting on it with my Aunt Barbara and Aunt Karen.  Uncle Eddie is joining them until The Price is Right comes on.  They will be there until the sun is too hot, then they will go back out after supper.

When I started this blog, it was to help me with the stress and anxiety of taking care of my mom throughout her Alzheimer's journey.  I debated the past few weeks if I should even continue this since my mom has now completed her journey. However, out of nowhere, I start to miss her and I now realize, I am still on that journey even without her.

I also started this blog to write down the memories that I have of things from my life and things from my mom's life, so that my grandchildren will be able to know more about us.  For that reason, I hope to continue.  They may not really ever enjoy what sitting on those porches mean but they can learn how important they were to me, their parents, their grandparents, etc.  It took me from 1986 to 2002 to get my porch.  They might be able to learn how their Grammy didn't always have what she wanted right away, so it isn't too bad to have wait for things.  And....if they don't learn anything, at least I know that I wrote things down to pass on to them.