Wednesday, November 11, 2015

I Am From Leftover Cookie Dough and Walnut Stained Hands

Lately I’ve found myself thinking about the house/farm we called home for all the years we were raising our kids. It was the same place my grandpa was born. It was the same place my mom was born. The roots ran true and deep and there’s no other place I would have wanted to raise them.

The house you raise your family in and the effort you put into making it a home is vital to your child’s sense of self-worth and confidence. But you might be surprised to learn that it’s not the size of the house, the amenities of the house, or the address of the house that make it a home. To your children, it is the culmination of your family’s ‘fingerprints’—the tangible and intangible personality traits that make the home that builds your children into adults.

I could spend a few minutes expounding on what I mean by family fingerprints or personality traits, but instead, I’ll let a small portion of Emma’s poem—one she wrote in high school—do the job for me.
Where I Come From—by Emma Noble

I am the floor that creaks…
The red tile kitchen floor…
I am from 105.3 in my brother’s first truck…
From the walnuts that stain my hands…
From the chair I stood on to dry dishes…
From my mom’s flowerbeds, sidewalk chalk, gravel on my bare feet…
From a musty barn full of sheep…
I am leftover cookie dough...
I am from pigtails and cowboy boots to t-shirts and peace signs...
I am from the scar on my finger from sticking rocks in the VCR when I was three...
I am from "Golden Girls" reruns...
Never having to lock our doors...
From my sisters' clothes...
From red church pews--when churches still had pews...
The metal bowl in the kitchen and knowing what's in every cabinet...
From my dad’s hankie in his back pocket; he always has one…
I am from 12750 County Road 7160

Take it from Emma, parents; raising kids is about the little things…a whole lot of little things that make life something to smile about.

Love,
Momma D

                            Copyright 2015 Darla Noble. No part of this can be used or copied without permission from the author.

                                                                                                         




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