Tom & Brenda's Family Journal

We are blessed with a wide view of sunsets at our farm in Alto, Michigan.  This sunset from late November shines over our field.  It symbolizes for us the sunset on Tom's months of chemo as well. Tom had finished chemo on Tuesday, Nov. 20.  This gave us much to be thankful for this year. Our family had a blessed Thanksgiving. Our daughter Jennifer and her husband Sudeep hosted Thanksgiving this year.  This was a first for Jennifer.  She did a great job.  Kristen and Chris came from Ohio and joined Tom, Eric, Jennifer, Sudeep and I for a delicious meal.   We also celebrated Kristen's birthday that day.  Spending time together was the highlight for me.  Our plans were to go shopping on Black Friday; however online shopping was so much easier. Later that weekend we celebrated our daughter-in-law, Sherry's birthday.   November and December are big months for birthdays in our family.  We still have two m...

Emma C. Nason Home A Children's home in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan When I first met Tom and was telling him about my family, I said that I had 22 sisters and brothers. But I went on to explain that I lived with my parents at a children's home where they were the directors. For our first year there, I lived right in the large bedrooms with the girls-about 10 of them. Then I was given my own bedroom. My parents had an apartment in the building but my sister Susie was the only one who stayed in it with them. The Emma C. Nason Home has a wonderful history in the Soo. Emma C. Nason was a woman who moved to the Soo in the early 1900's from New York. Her goal was to start a home for wayward sailors. I'm sure there were many of them in the Soo during that time. Nason's vision for this home must have changed over time and she actually established a home for unwed mothers on Ridge Street. So when the city leaders started a children's home, they named it the E...

Here are some pictures of our flowers at the cabin right now. Some of these flowers, such as the lilies below, were planted by my grandmother and continue to bloom summer after summer with just a little care from me. Other, like these daylilies, were planted by me with help from my girls. These lilies came from a friend of Jennifer's. We went to his home and dug them up. They probably wondered what happened to them to be transplanted into the cold UP winters but they seem to thrive in spite of the cold and love the warm sunshine. These flower beds are on the sea wall in the front yard and they offer a special challenge. The sea wall is actually metal barrels in the ground so planting can be difficult digging around the barrels. Weeds like to grow up the sides of the barrels which makes them hard to remove. Also not many perennials can survive the winter in this spot. I believe the ground gets colder in the sea wall than surrounding flower beds. I've gotten hosta from Pa...

Dear Friends, I am sorry to have taken such a break from blogging. Our world was turned upside down on January 18 when our beloved mother passed away unexpectedly. Our family came together in such support and love that helped us each of those very difficult days. Our life now has a huge void in it and we are working to find out what normal will be now. I'm sure many of you know what we are experiencing. I've kept very busy working. I'm at Hopkins Middle School between 2 and 3 days a week. My work there is primarily with the teachers but I really love the time I get into classes and work with students. This week I even got to help two special education students write book reviews. I'm on the Literacy Committee and one of our projects this year is to start a Book Review Club. The students receive free books in exchange for writing a review that will be published on line. We had funding for 12 students to join and on our first meeting, 80 students showed up. Who...

We did so many fun things when our kids and grandkids were here this summer. Tom and Sherry and the kids left last Monday and I've had time to rest up from all the fun times. Here's a few pictures of our activities. Cupcakes are my new hobby and I got the new Martha Stewart Cupcakes book. Jay wanted to try the peanut butter and jelly cupcakes so we made them together. They were very tasty and a hit with the family. Our neighbor offered us the use of their paddle boat so it took quite a group to get it down to the water. It was fun but it was a little hard to paddle so the adults had to do it. Sherry got quite a workout. One evening we went to my parent's for dinner. My mother's gardens are lovely. I don't know how she gets such good results but I know she must have a secret ingredient. As always, Mom cooked a fantastic meal and that included ice cream pies which we all loved. The kids all got money from Grandpa for helping with the work around the cabin and ...

Now these are the mornings that make memories for us here at the Cabin.  We had a beautiful sunrise over Sugar Island.  I didn't see the light show at the beginning of the sunrise.  It is always a combination of pinks and blues but happens very early here in the UP.  The first signs of morning come near 4 AM.  When I'm home in Caledonia I am up at 4:30 so I would see it but here at the Cabin I have no friends waiting for me to come run or walk.  So I see the later parts of the sunrise. Yesterday was errand day because it was cold and rainy and that limited our outside work.  There are lots of small details to open a second home.  Mail delivery is the biggest headache.  Getting our mail to where we are is hard because we've been in so many places in the last year.  Any suggestions for easy and affordable forwarding of the mail?  Then we had to set up trash pick-up.  We also visited 4 hardware stores looking for replacement bolts for our water heater.  No luck-it's too ol...

I haven't blogged in quite a while for several reasons.  First of all, I have been working almost full-time to complete my contract with Grand Rapids Public Schools and the Kent ISD.  I still have some remaining days on my contract but I was advised last week that I can carry over the remaining days until Sept.  The grant expires Sept. 30 so I can work up until then with this contract.  I am meeting with GRPS officials next week on Thursday and Friday to discuss work options after that. Our past week has been filled with several unexpected events. Tom's mom has been ill and hospitalized.  She is doing better but is still in the hospital.  So our schedule was adjusted from what we had planned.  We are so thankful for the wonderful health care facilities in Grand Rapids.  Special thanks to the Meijer and DeVos families for their additions at Butterworth Hospital. We have also been working to get Jen's house ready to rent.  That mostly fell on Tom's shoulders.  Tim Anderso...

The past week gave us some great reasons to celebrate in our family.        On Sunday night Madelynn and Jay, our two oldest grandchildren, were baptized.  It was a celebration of their declaration of their faith.  They are both very clear about their trust and faith in Christ and it was a blessing to be there to see it.  After the church service, we went over to Tom & Sherry's for a time with Sherry's family.  We had a meal of pancakes and all the fixings.  There was lots of love, food, cousins and fun. Jay took time out from all the fun to have some reading time.  It warms Grandma's heart to see her grandchildren love books.           On Tuesday we celebrated Mom's birthday with her.  We had a great time with cake, gifts and fun.  Mom is a joy to be with and is spreading that joy to her great-grandchildren who call her Grandma B.  Her contentment and wisdom enrich our lives and we are so happy she has had such a healthy year.           Today I had a coffee and lun...

Last Friday we left for the Soo around 9 AM.  As you will notice in the pictures there were boys in the car.  Tommy, Jay and Jack went up with us to spend time with Grandpa while the girls were away. I used the time in the car to try out some new writing lessons on the kids.  (Poor kids to have a grandma who teaches writing).  They worked very hard and we have a cute book now about what they would take to grandma's house.  It was based on the book 'The Bag I Take to Grandma's House' by Shirley Neitzel .  By the way, Shirley won the Frostic Award from the Michigan Reading Association last week.  She formerly taught at Kettle Lake School and was Eric's teacher for 3rd grade. Jack sat next to me and had even brought homework from school to work with me.  They called it playing school and called me Mrs. Benedict.  I think playing school is much more fun than real school. We arrived in the Sault and spent some time visiting my parents.  Then the girls left and met at the...