May 31st will always be a marked day for me. It is the day that my grandmother, a major mother figure in my life, passed away after a 9 month battle with cancer. She was only 66 years old. I was 11. The loss of my grandmother was the first loss I had ever experienced in my life up until this point – and tragically, my grandmother was also the person whom I had felt closest to. Grief has many…
The other day I was reminded of something my grandfather used to do as a hobby. I don’t remember ever actually witnessing my grandfather work on this hobby while I was around, I think it must’ve been something he did when we kids went home for the night (my grandparents took care of my brother, cousin and I while our parents worked). They were paper houses, like mini house models if you will. He didn’t need to buy any special…
For Portuguese people, Kale Soup is a staple, a cultural meal. (My kale soup recipe) It’s something most, if not all of us enjoy eating. For me Kale Soup is familiar and comforting, it makes me proud that my people are such damn good cooks haha, but mostly, it reminds me of my grandparents. My grandfather, specifically. When my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer in 2004 and knew that her time was coming to a close, she wanted to make…
I want to share a memory with you about my grandmother. Her name was Norbina. I think I am comfortable saying she had the biggest influence on me in my formative years. To this day I still look up to her. She and my grandfather helped in raising myself, my older brother and older cousin while our parents were at work. I’ll never forget when my cousin started school. He was a year ahead of me so It was…
When we became parents, my husband I knew that we wanted to give our child/ren a childhood filled with warm family memories and traditions. Recently we celebrated Julia’s very first “1/2 Birthday”! I had seen photos of 1/2 birthday celebrations on Pinterest and thought it would be such a fun idea to do every year on her 1/2 birthday! This year we decided to celebrate by doing a little photoshoot with a cupcake, and let her have a little taste…
As soon as we found out we were going to become parents, my husband and I knew there were certain things we really wanted to do. One of these things was to make our baby a “baby book” to document the first year of her life. In today’s fast-paced and very digital world, people hardly print photos anymore. This is something I am trying to make sure I actually stick to. Having photos on social media and our hard drive…