Saturday, June 16, 2012

Grandma: Counting Money

I had intended on writing this blog last Sunday because I have another one about Grandma especially for Father's Day.   As usual, things happen, and life goes too fast!  It is actually quite interesting to me that I have these inclinations to post right after I mow the yard.  I used to mow my Grandma's yard when I was a teenager, and now that I am an adult, I find it the best time to think uninterrupted.  (Kind of difficult to listen to the girls with the mower running!  Lol!)

This week, I am going to write about learning the value of money.  (Literally!)  It starts like this....every time my sister and I spent the night at Grandma's we would get the lecture from Mom, "Don't fight!  You make your Grandmother nervous when you do!"  (What does that really even mean?  But who am I to question what my Mom says?  Lol!)  Anyhow, on one of the overnighters, we (Grandma, my sister, and I) had plans to drive to my Aunt Pat's house for a visit.  We were warned by Mom to be extra good since it would be a 30 minute drive to Pat's.  Grandma had this one covered!  She gave Jessica and I each a handful of coins, and each time we were bad, we would have to give one back.  Unfortunately, this was SO long ago that I don't remember giving any back, but I do remember comparing money with Jessica to make sure that she didn't have more money that I did.  It would have been such a travesty if she had MORE than ME!  ;o)  So, here we are counting out our coins in the back seat of the car, and comparing what we had.  I had more than Jessica.....do you want to know why?  Mine were BIGGER than hers!  So they MUST be more, right?  To my dismay, Grandma overhead the conversation, and quickly figured out what was going on. She set us completely straight, and I didn't have more than Jessica!  :o(  She explained what each coin was worth, and helped us to sort them out.  Still to this day, I occasionally wonder why the dime is smaller than the nickel and penny.......it's just not right!


In case you care, this is the answer I found when I Googled it:

Originally, a cent had 1 cent's worth of copper, a nickel 5 cents' worth of nickel, and a dime 10 cents' worth of silver. Because the same weight of each metal was worth a different amount, the coins' sizes had to be different in order to match weights and values. For example, silver was (and still is) worth a lot more per ounce than copper, so a dime could have a lot less metal in it but be worth far more than a copper cent. 


Even though the monetary value of coins no longer represents the value of their metal content, the traditional sizes are maintained.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Grandma

It has been quite a while since I have last posted.  Life got super busy and many things went by the wayside.  I have been meaning to write about my Grandma for quite sometime.  Rich, my husband, has told me many times when I tell him a story about her that I should be recording this somewhere for a time when I don't remember or am gone.  What better place than here?  Her memory will be preserved on the internet forever!  :o)

Not that I don't think of her often (every day it seems like), but I think of her more often during the spring and summer when my fondest memories of her take place.  She left us almost 3 yrs ago but not without leaving us her legacy.  I will try to write about her more often this month especially since it will be a tribute to her during the month of her death and the month of her birthday.

This story takes me back to the first anniversary of her death.  My Grandma was always outside working in her yard.  Growing things, sweeping up lawn clippings, and just tooling around.  She would always tell us that when we see a robin for the first time after winter, then it was officially spring.  So, a year after her death, I am in my front yard mowing the lawn, thinking about her, and am treated to the red-bellied bird for a half hour flitting about in the yard.  She would move a little with each pass, but always remained within 5 feet of me.  I knew that Grandma around in spirit!  This story fast forwards 2 more years to 10 days ago when I was again mowing the lawn.  I was in the back yard mowing along, and again I am visited by the lovely robin!  She stayed with me for an hour this time (it takes that long to mow the back)!  She flitted about staying out of reach, but never farther than 5 feet away.  It brought a warm feeling of knowing that Grandma was near.  Tonight, I was hurriedly mowing the lawn again (I know.....it seems like the mowing never ends!).  Natalie and Olivia were playing in the yard, and I was just in the zone walking back and forth trying to get the grass cut before the rain came down.  All of a sudden, I look down, and there are some sort of red balls in the grass.  I was puzzled as I had never seen anything in the grass like that before.  (I have a black thumb......)  So, I stopped the mower, stooped down, and to my surprise, they were strawberries!  (My Grandma ALWAYS had strawberries growing in her garden!  My sister and I would help her pick them all the time.)    I called the girls over to show them, and they said, "Mom, we KNOW!  We picked one and got the roots.  We planted it in this pot."  (duh!)  We looked at the berries for a few more minutes, and then I continued to mow.  With every row, there were MORE strawberries!  By the time I finished mowing..........we found that approximately 1/3 of our back yard is COVERED!  (I can't possibly mow now, right?  Lol!)  I am sure there is a logical reason for all of the above, but I like to think that Grandma wanted us to know she is thinking of us here.  It warmed my heart and wet my eyes, but now I have to find my thumb and "sharpie" it green!  I need to mark off at least some of the berries to form the garden we have been meaning to plant since April!

Thanks for reading!  I hope you enjoyed the first memory/story about my Grandma.  The rest will be purely memories.  I learned so much from her and miss her so much.  At least her memory will live on in me and the rest of my family.   Speaking of which......if any of my family has a memory of Grandma, please leave it in the comments.  I would love to read what meant so much to you about her!