A Visit to Miss Molly's Tea Room

Left to Right: Wanda, me and Linda








Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting Miss Molly's Tea Room in Medina with Linda and Wanda, two dear friends. If you haven't been to Miss Molly's, I'd encourage you take the time to go. It's a fun outing for the girls and little girls would love it!

I have even taken my husband, Ken, because the food is delicious! To go along with your tea or other beverage, they offer a nice variety with yummy salads (they have amazing chicken salad!) and finger sandwiches as well as soup and even veggie lasagna and other hot dishes. I've never tried the desserts, because the lunches they serve are so filling! I can only imagine they are delicious, as well.

The dining room at Miss Molly's is larger than these photos would lead you to believe. They also have a nice gift shop where teas, teapots and lots of other fun items are available.

And of course, if you go to Medina, you must go to the Root Candle factory store and showroom. That alone is worth the trip, but stopping for lunch at Miss Molly's with your best friends is just icing on the cake!

Laughter is a Tie That Binds Us

What we experience with others forever bonds us to them. I suppose that can be both good and bad, but I am especially amazed at how this is true - in a good way - with laughter.

My mother had the most amazing sense of humor. She was known, in fact, not only for her cooking, but also for her love of laughter. There are certain things that happen even now and I am reminded of something she said years and years ago. She’s been gone almost 17 years, but her humor lives on. She always said such funny things and many of those things I found hysterical were private jokes just between the two of us. And of course, my husband knew her and her sense of humor well, too. He often says something that she used to say and I’ll laugh out loud, remembering my mother’s wonderful sense of humor. Those things now bond us together, my husband and me, even though she’s no longer with us.

And some days, like today, aren’t filled with laughter. It’s been a down kind of day and one where I’ve had to find amusement, because I certainly haven’t felt it. Then, I remembered an experience my husband and I shared a few days ago when we were watching the Jets game (unfortunately they lost).

But I digress….

We were watching the game when a Wal-mart commercial came on. It’s a fairly new one, with a clown. Have you seen it? Well, I’m not sure why, but he and I saw that commercial and we laughed so hard that we just couldn't stop! Don't you just love that kind of laughter? Ken kept rewinding the DVR (or PVR or whatever the heck you call it) so that we could watch it over and over. Tears streamed down our faces! Now, it’s not too often that we laugh so hard that we cry, but for some reason both of us found that commercial so funny. It was truly a bonding moment. I will never forget how very funny that was and the moment I shared with my husband.

So, if you need your own reason to laugh today – or at least to smile – here’s my attempt to help. I know my mother would have loved this!

Click on the link below for a good laugh and enjoy! Copy and paste it in your browser if the link does not connect for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Axx5ZUFEc

Uncanny Ad Placement

Being a marketing person by profession, you would think I would have taken it in stride. Well, I guess I did. I mean, I did laugh out loud. Still, the placement of the ad was priceless.

You see, I was searching, just for the heck of it, for a new chicken recipe. So, I went to cooks.com, where I often go for inspiration. It's not that I am lacking for cookbooks, since I have dozens – literally, dozens. But I decided to visit cooks.com, just to see if anything ‘spoke’ to me today. I like to surprise Ken with a new recipe every now and then and today seemed like as good a time as any.

So, I was scrolling the site when I noticed an ad pop up, as they so often do. The ad was for CJ Banks (a plus-size store for women). Specifically, the ad said, “CJ Banks Size 14 & More.” And that’s when I laughed heartily. Now that same ad might just as easily have been placed on a news website or any other. But noooooo, the ad for plus-sized clothing was on a recipe website! Great placement, don’t you think?

So yeah, I’m a little fluffy. Well, actually a lot fluffy. And yeah, I have looked at the site for desserts and non-so-low-calorie recipes. So, apparently it was the perfect place for the plus-sized ad. I do a lot of shopping with CJ Banks. I guess they’ve missed me. My, those marketers are smart!

A Visit to the Past

Recently on Facebook, a lot of friends and acquaintances have been celebrating a ‘throw-back’ period, by posting old photos of themselves. I caught the fever, too, and included these two photos from my college days on my Facebook page. I think I was a junior at BGSU in the first photo and the second one is our engagement photo from 1983. (Not that you can miss it, but notice the big hair and the fact that I still had braces. There are more photos below.) It’s been fun to read the comments people write about all of the photo postings. Sometimes it’s easy to see the resemblance to the person from a photo decades old and sometimes it isn’t.

Looking at these old photos brought to mind the trip my husband, Ken, and I took to Charlotte, NC last fall for a business conference he needed to attend. In many ways being in Charlotte was like visiting the past, since we lived in the area for a couple of years about 23 years ago. We had rented a sweet little house in a small community called Locust. Needless to say, since we were so close, I just had to visit that area and see the little house I had visited so many hundreds of times in my memory since we lived there.

Ken was game, so we left the Charlotte area and headed into the country to the little community where we had lived. I just knew I would remember the exact road we needed to turn on, despite the fact that it was dark when Ken and I arrived and we had not visited the area since we moved to Durham in 1989! Well, it took us a few tries, but we eventually found the road and then the little house where we lived. What a joy it was for me to see that little brick house! The house was nearly new when we moved there in 1987. It was the last rental we had before we bought our first house. So many goals and dreams were born in that little house! We dreamed about our upcoming move to Durham and the house we would buy there. Most importantly, we dreamed about the family we would have once we purchased our own house. Matthew was planned, but still very much a dream in those days. Yet, because of all of these dreams and musings, that little house took on a personality of its own in my memory and one I have 'visited' countless times.

I told Ken that night that I’d love to take a trip, a tour, if you will, of all the places we’ve lived in our 25 years of marriage. That would be 12 locations, counting the one where we currently reside. The states would include Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia and finally, Ohio! Each one is fresh in my memory, probably because “home” has always been so important to me. So, seeing as though it would take a week to visit all of these locations, I think I’ll just stroll down memory lane instead and flip through the photo albums as I go.

Do you have memories you like to ‘visit’ on a regular basis? Mine generally include time we spent so many years ago as a young married couple, planning our life together. Others are the wonderful memories I have of my parents, and of course, my college days! Sometimes I’d like to go back, if only for a little while. If I could go back, I would first spend time with my mother, just the two of us for an entire day! Wow, that would be awesome! If I had a second wish, I’d go back to when Matthew was little. What a treasure that would be! He was such a sweet baby, and I have loved every stage of his development, but I have to say, it would be his toddler days that I would visit.

Here are photos from those days...


Here my sweet mother and I were photographed at our home in Durham. We were best friends! This photo was taken only about a year before she passed away at age 53. She's been gone almost 17 years and I think of her many, many times every day. I still miss her so much it hurts.



Here I am with my Daddy. He was such a tough guy with a heart of gold! He was truly one of the most generous individuals I've ever known. This photo was taken about 1o years ago. Daddy has been gone almost 5 years. I miss him so much.


Here is our sweet little family in 1993. I treasure this photo!



Matthew and Mommy. He was such a sweet little boy!

If you had the opportunity to visit a time in your past, where would you go first? Second? Why do you think it would be in that order?

A Reminder from a New Friend

This afternoon I saw several deer in our backyard. This is not especially unusual except that we live within the city limits (of a small town) in a fairly busy subdivision. Our lot isn’t that large, either, yet for some reason deer often pass through our yard to the woods behind our house.

Several of the deer stood there under the pine trees for a few minutes, cautiously looking around, and then eventually disappeared into the woods. What both surprised and delighted me was that one deer stayed for quite a while and laid down in front of an evergreen bush. Several additional deer came through, hung out for a while and then followed the path into the woods the others had taken. Yet, there the lone deer stayed, seemingly quite comfortable. She was chewing on something and looked for all the world like she was a young lady lounging by the swimming pool. I was entertained for over an hour as I worked on dinner and washed and folded laundry.

I decided that she probably needed a place to rest and relax. I marveled at how at ease this gorgeous created seemed, and I was so grateful that she seemed to feel comfortable and at home and wanted to just hang around for a while.

It reminded me of Matthew 11:28:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
-NIV

Do you need rest today? Our heavenly Father is always present, ready to share our burdens and lighten our loads. Seeing the beautiful deer comfortably resting in the backyard reminded me that I need to trust the Lord and find rest in Him. He loves us and cares about every detail of our lives. If we let Him, He will provide comfort and give us the rest we need.