I learned quite a lot from Nano but one thing I picked up loud and clear was that doing stuff in the kitchen should not be considered drudgery.  She spent much of her time Doing for people and when she wasn’t Doing in the kitchen she was Doing at her sewing machine and when she wasn’t Doing there, she was finding other places to Do. Well, as it turns out  I picked up on her ease in the kitchen and I kind of went berserk. Sort of rogue and free spirited (if you will).

I can’t draw to save my life and I sure can’t play piano or grow dahlias, but give me a stove and a cupboard full of this and that and a fridge with a few basics and I’ll cook ya up some tasty vittles.

I woke this morning intending to get some things done around here. I vacuumed a couple of closets and piled the boots by the basement stairs since I’m hoping like crazy that we won’t need them again until, oh, December?
I rearranged some drawers and emptied the fridge so I could do away with a few jar fulls that needed getting rid of.
I debated going for a walk but couldn’t face the chill in the air. Okay, excuses.
Just about noon time I decided to do some baking. We’re having a bit of a due this weekend. We’re expecting thirty something twenty somethings and I think we’ll need quite a menu.
I decided to make some jam jams and some buns.
It was mid mess that realization set in.  I was recreating some Nano specialties.

When Nano and Papa were at their first pastorate in Meadow Lake Saskatchewan, Nano didn’t know a whole lot about sewing and cooking but she jumped in and boy was she a quick lerner. It was 1949 and there was no running water and they had to break the ice in the water barrel in the winter before they could drink water or wash or cook and they had to stay close to the little coal stove to keep from freezing to death. Look on a map. Meadow Lake is Up there!
That’s when they really, together, had to start trusting God for
every little thing. They had no money and they prayed and God answered. He sent people who brought with them a coat or a dozen eggs or even a word of encouragement.
I always assumed Nano had been born knowing how to get things done, but she actually learned it and most of her learning happened after she married Papa.
In their first church and then in their second church there were people who loved God and thought nothing of taking the young preacher’s wife under their wing and helping to nurture and train her.
I have a friend who is Mennonite and she often tells me I don’t have Mennonite blood running through my veins but my heart beats Mennonite. The places God sent papa were mostly Mennonite and boy can those people get things done around the house.

So one of Nano’s stories was about her friend Mrs. Andres in Meadow Lake. She lived in the country and I can’t remember how many children she had. I’m sure my jaw dropped to the floor when Nano told me that the Andres Homestead was a poor one but Mrs. Andres, daily, swept the dirt floor in their cabin and that place was Spic.And.Span. Say WHAT? Mrs. Andres could make a mean pan of buns before you could say “My but your dirt floor looks fresh today”. She was one of many who spent their days cooking so that the men folk would have enough to eat so they would have enough energy to work the fields and milk the cows and fix the tractors and
life was awfully hard but
Nano spoke of those days with joy in her voice and a shine in her eyes.  Maybe you haven’t noticed that needing to trust God because there’s no hope otherwise, brings Joy.

Jump thirty five years ahead and Nano and Papa moved to another Mennonite community. It’s in the Valley, as it’s called. The Valley is just outside and to the East and across a couple of bridges from Vancouver. They moved to a house next to an apartment building and would you believe that in that apartment building, lived an aging Mrs. Andres. I am just not sure what her first name was. Nano always called her Mrs. Andres. Well those two reconnected and Mrs. Andres continued where she had left off.

When I was a wee little lamb, I had a big heavy wool quilt. Of course someone somewhere had made it for us. Once Nano and Mrs. Andres met again, they worked together to take that quilt apart and sort through the wool and clean it all. Then they made the pieces into two quilts and the Staley boys used those quilts for years, on their beds. Those precious quilts are packed away in my closet.  Maybe we’ll use them again some day.

Mrs. Andres also reminded Nano about
Jam Jams.

They are cookies that you fill with whatever you like. Nano loved Jam Jams.
Today I made jam jams. I’m not sure who in the World will eat them since my family really doesn’t eat much sweet stuff.
While I was making jam jams I made buns.
I grew up on buns. So often I would come home from school and there would be warm buns to eat. Nano did that on purpose, made the buns so they would be just out of the oven when we walked in the door. We ate them with butter dripping off.
After Papa went to be with Jesus, Nano came to visit us for a month at a time. The very day after she arrived she would get to making buns.
The Staley children still call them
Nano Buns.
So today I made Nano buns.
Oh I’m okay. Don’t worry. The sun is shining in my windows, Matt Redmond is belting out
Love that will Not Ever Let Me Go
and this place is topsy turvy and I have fresh buns and jam jams on the counter.  I am having fun remembering and I even sat down with a warm fresh bun and let the butter drip off.

There are two coming in the door very soon and I better get the barbecue going. It’s that kind of sunny and lovely, leaf budding day.

I’ll be putting the recipe for jam jams on the blog shortly, but just wanted to get this little bit off my chest. I hope you enjoy this evening and spend a little time giving of yourself to make or help recall a memory for someone you love.

XO