lessons

thank you all so much for your prayers and well-wishes. i am home for a couple of days, but will be going back to spend some more time with my grandma. we now know that my grandma will not have any treatment for her leukemia. the doctors have said that she her body is not strong enough to handle chemotherapy. basically, we just have to take things one day at a time. the prognosis is a little blurry. the doctor said she could be with us two months or longer, but it is hard to know just how long. so, we are going to enjoy the time that we have left with her. i am so thankful that i am able to be with her during this time. she lives three hours away, so we will be back and forth visiting with her.
over the last week, i feel like my mind has been in overdrive, processing what all of this actually means. i have been trying to take in all the beauty around me. the photo above is part of my grandparent's farm...land that i have spent so much time enjoying since i was a little girl. all the storytelling over the past week has been priceless. i have learned things about my grandma from her childhood. things that have only helped to solidify what i already know about her...that she is a loving and caring woman and a woman full of faith. for as long as i can remember, every time i tell her, "i love you," her response has been, "i love you the most." this past week, i have gotten to hear her and lucy go back and forth with the same dialogue.
my grandma is an amazing cook and baker. she is widely known for her divinity candy. it is a tricky candy to make. you can't have too much humidity in the air (a feat that is nearly impossible here in georgia), you have to boil the sugar to just the right temperature, and the end mixture has to be just "so" before you can drop it onto wax paper. dropped too soon, and all you get is a big white mess. no one in our family has learned to make the candy, except my grandpa (with some help from grandma), but we all know the importance of learning this art. at lunch on monday, my grandpa commented on it being a perfect day for making divinity. i jumped right on that! so, my grandma sat up for a while to show me how to make it. i took notes, notes that were not all that easy to follow, since she doesn't actually measure all of her ingredients!

i received a special lesson in watching the sugar mixture boil. she carefully described how the bubbles have to be a particular size and height before you can pour it into the other ingredients. the photo above is "just right." during this lesson, my grandpa told me that i need to just get a candy thermometer. my grandma's response was, "brooks, i have made enough divinity to fill up this entire house, and i have never had a candy thermometer!" this is true. and there is a part of me that wants to learn it just the way she does it. i am sure that it will take me a while to master it (if i ever do). but, if i can i know she will be proud and just look at the yummy, fluffy goodness i will get to enjoy...