Making the Most

I come from a long line of women on my maternal side who are experts at Making the Most of any situation. 

My Irish Grandmother found herself in the colonies (Cape Town) with 4 children and a husband who worked 24/7 in their printing business.  While I am sure she, at times, was frazzled, money was tight, the kids annoying...she might have wished Grandpa was at home on Sundays to give her a hand.  What we do know is that she Made the Most of the situation and packed up a picnic and those 4 kiddos and headed to the printing house.  In what little time and resources they had they made the most of a Sunday together as a family.

When we first came to Canada and jobs and funds were tight and taking vacations seemed a long ways off and Sundays were long without our friends....My Mom (half irish if you're following the lineage) would round us up on a Sunday afternoon and take us all on a "cruise".... we'd walk onto a BC Ferry and sail through the islands to Swartz Bay - stay on the ferry when everyone else disembarked - and then eat dinner as the sun set as we sailed back.  It was a vacation and adventure and it certainly Made the Most of a quiet Sunday.

Today we were feeling the post vacation blues.  The first week back kicked our butts as we expected but there were some curve balls we didn't anticipate.  And though it was truly wonderful to see our boy yesterday it was a long day for us just-barely-over-jet-lag folks.  And this morning it was grey and rainy and there is a distinct Fall chill in the air. 

As I wandered around Save-On doing the groceries, giving myself a talking to about gratitude and expectations and sucking-it-up...I had an idea to Make the Most of today.  When I came home we spent a couple hour cooking, meal prepping and baking and then I set the table for lunch. 

It's pretty clear we're not in Paris-in-the-Summer anymore but we can Make the Most of what we do have - which today was bread, cheese, meat and a bottle of French red wine - throw in a jaunty tablecloth and some candles and voila! Parisienne lunch is Steveston.

We can't live in Paris-in-the-Summer all the time or else when we had Paris-in-the-summer it would not be as special as it was... but we can Make the Most of the moments we do have. 

Thanks to Granny Nora and my Mama for inspiring me and helping me remember .........