Queen Elizabeth, Family Photos & the Spanish Armada

Black and white frames and photos dot my floor. It has been a few years since I put up my “family wall.” The kids have grown. My daughter is holding a baby who is now eight years old!!!

Okay, time to update those frames.

How fun to pull up photos from this last year. Flipping through pics, brought back sweet memories stored deep in my mind. Memories seemingly forgotten, that have now come alive. Birthday celebrations, crazy birthday cake hats complete with candles, Easter egg hunts, Christmas cookie contests, fishing trips, and a family vacation complete with rock climbing, horseback riding and zip lining.

As I was deciding which pics to include, I wanted to convey a love of family, fun and just a bit of crazy. Ha!!! Hoping that those who view our wall will get just a glimpse of who we are.

I was about to finish when I remembered one last picture that needed to be included.

If you come to my house, you’ll see a twelve-year old boy grinning from ear to ear waving two twenties and a ten-dollar bill in his hand. Let’s just call it the Mimi’s challenge!! “This mission should you choose to accept it, is not for the fainthearted, the many, or the feebleminded, but for the few.

That’s right. I’m talking about kids tough enough to read fifty history books. Yep, you heard me right. Fifty and no slacking!!

I started collecting Landmark history books when my kids were college age. It became a fun past time, giving me reason to visit small town bookstores on road trips. My favorite is “The Landing of the Pilgrims.” I love their story of grit, determination, and faith.

Reading the story, I can almost feel the splash of the waves as the Mayflower bobs in the Ocean.

My face becomes wet with tears as I rejoice that not one Pilgrim was lost in the journey. One of our men was thrown into the sea in the middle of a storm, only to have a rope wrapped around him and pulled back on board. It was a miracle!! The hand of God was upon us. The sighting of land, the fear of Indians, the lack of supplies, and the first winter in which half of our passengers died.  Those who were well took care of the sick. And when the sick died, we buried our loved ones in the night, so as not to give way the dwindling of our numbers.

Yet, we did not give up.

As a reader, I find myself in their shoes. When I return to the “real world” the images and metaphors stay with me and I am transformed by their journey!!

This is the power of a good book. It awakens the moral imagination.
The reader travels to other worlds and navigates himself through them, imagining herself in the place of the heroes and heroines who populate those worlds. These worlds allow the reader to experience the risks without the consequences of real failure, and to experience the joy of self-discovery. What does it mean to be human and stand face to face with the truth about ourselves and others? And if the story has done its work, it leaves the reader with a desire to correct their faults and to emulate goodness and truth wherever it is found, says Vigen Guroian in his classic pedagogical work “Tending the Heart of Virtue”.

So, that’s what this Mimi did. She gave the grands a challenge.

Hudson Taylor who is turning thirteen in July, couldn’t wait to tell me he had finished reading all fifty books. Ahh, but there was one more caveat. He needed to write a one-page book report on the book he enjoyed the most.

A few days later, my youngest daughter called and said, “Mom, he is so excited. He just finished his report. No hurries, but he sure is excited.”

So, what does a grandma do? She hops in her car and heads right over. Ha!!!

When I showed up, he handed me not one, not two…but SIX handwritten pages on Queen Elizabeth and how Sir Francis Drake defeated the Spanish Armada!!!

I love it!!! Precious memories forever enshrined in a photo, and LORD willing… in little hearts as well.

So here we go, one last picture to put in the frame.

Congratulations, Hudson. Mimi is proud of you!!!