I have always believed that love is spelled TIME. This means to me physically being with those we love and care about even if traveling is the only way to accomplish showing our love and care. Yes, emails, calls, texts, social media, Facebook and etc., connect us, but to really connect on a personal level, most of us acknowledge that physically being together is the only true way.
Returning to Ohio where I am from and where I still have dear family and friends enriches my life beyond what I can convey in words. Hopefully these photos will give a sense of how treasured these going home trips are to me. Even though I am at this stage of life being a wife, mother, mother-in-law, sister, daughter, grandmother, friend, busy with my career endeavors, I am committed to make and do the TIME.
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My sister Kim and one of my favorite cousins, Amy
August produce in Ohio is so yummy that not to plan meals around these delicious fruits and vegetables would be craziness. So this is exactly what we did here preparing roasted vegetable and Caprese salad. Plus, Ohio corn, peaches and cantaloupe are reason enough to plan an August Ohio trip!
Family TIME for us involves doing special dinners whether home or going out. This venue is iconic and I can’t wait to go back.
Wonderful dinner at historic Gervasi Vineyard. The grounds are jaw dropping gorgeous.
Having fun with which one is not like the other … hint: think grey hair
No way was I not buying these gourmet oils and vinegars. The wine just happened to jump in my car!
My awesome family from my late dad’s side in Urichsville, Ohio. Everyone is so generous with their time and delicious homemade food. You cannot believe how fresh their green beans and new potatoes – picked that morning – tasted with the ham they had prepared. And even homemade yeast rolls and their own blackberry jelly … I mean really … how can you beat that meal?
A bonus was doing my CEU course presentation in Cleveland at Rustbelt Reclamation while also spending special TIME with another very special cousin, Joyce. The folks at Rustbelt and those 60 or more attendees represented how friendly and responsive Ohioans really are … really. I appreciated them all.
Another huge highlight was my dear high school friend, Karen, having a dinner party for 11 friends who graduated from Salem High School together. Her home is on the historic registry so of course I was in awe of it all. We all laughed for hours like school girls. If those walls could talk … oh my … nothing over the top but hilarious escapades to remember with such joy and with only a knowing that those that go that far back with you can relate.
Lastly, but my all time joy, is having TIME with my almost 93-year-old mother. Traditional Rummikub time with of course chip dip, chips, etc. We have been playing this game for decades and always have “our time” and our own kinda of fun. Which is why when my mom’s friends ask her what we do, she says we just have fun doing our thing. This is, of course, a lot of eating, talking and laughing, eating, talking, and laughing…..
What could be a better TIME than that for me? Nothing would be except, of course, having the rest of my family together.
However, often there’s a price to pay for making travel happen in TIME, energy, effort, planning and money. But, I can think of no better use of all the above than for those that I love. No, not one thing is more important to me, not one.
So guess what? We are already planning our holiday schedules to make sure we all make and have the TIME to be together.
Here’s to you all hoping you all know how to spell love with TIME. I am quite sure that you do and would love to hear what your special get togethers involve.
And of course, it truly does not matter how fancy or casual does it? No, surely not, because if it did matter, my family and friends would not give me the TIME of day!