We moved into our big house in town right before Thanksgiving 1988 which means we have lived there for 33 years come Thanksgiving.
It is a rather large house, and when we first moved in, it was just the right size for a family of five. Plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms for everybody to have their own, and even a third floor for great parties for our teenagers.
As our kids graduated high school and moved on to Mississippi State and Ole Miss coming home frequently, they had their own spaces to come to. It was for so many years just the right size.
Now it is just the two of us rattling around in that big old house. We live in our little keeping room and the kitchen, bedroom, and bathrooms. We very rarely go to the second floor and it has been years since I climbed to the third. I have often told my husband we may have “squatters” living up there.
Our grandchildren love to explore the top floors and the attics off the bedrooms and over the garage — even though one of our boys has told them we have a ghost who lives on the upper floor.
We keep pondering the idea of selling it and moving out to our country house as it just fits us and is much easier to maintain. But each time I think of leaving all the memories and cleaning it out, I nearly blubber with tears. Roy says that our children will have such a difficult and challenging time when we go home, and this job has been left to them.
I remember when we sadly had to go through my mother and daddy’s house several years ago and it was most difficult, not only the cleaning and getting rid of memories, but just so gut wrenching. We found so many things of ours that she had kept through the years that meant so much to them. Nothing of real value, but of so much significance to them. And I know without a doubt that is how our house will be.
There is so much of me there. My kitchen where I loved to cook. My children, everything kept in their rooms. And my husband, he says all the sweat he poured into the yard keeping it well-manicured.
How do you just turn loose of so many memories and move on? It’s going to be really hard when we decide to live the rest of our days in our “Little House on the Prairie.”
I love donut holes and I found this to be really easy to make.
Donut Holes
1 box of refrigerated pizza dough crust cut into 12 1-inch slices, then each cut in half crosswise to make 24 pieces.
¼ cup of sugar mixed with 1 t. cinnamon (I love Saigon cinnamon)
Heat oil in a heavy pan. Drop the dough pieces into the hot oil and cook for about 30 seconds until browned. Remove and toss in the cinnamon and sugar mixture before serving.
