Violet Pastilles

Fast forward a few years, I discover scarves and long flowing dresses, I become more a child of air than of earth. I spend more days skipping school than attending school, I am a free spirit, a dancer that looks for reasons to pirouette through the woods, imagining the likes of Robin Hood or Puck from Midsummer’s Night Dreams. I lived this sort of enchanted, dreamlike life. I imagine every teenager feels that way – discovering new things every day and feeling like no one else knows what you know. It is a powerful, wonderful existence.

My group of friends would ditch out of school and drive to the Arboretum.  This is way before the Arboretum was a popular and structured place to visit. We were free to roam the woods to our heart’s content. We would grab beer and wind our way into the woods laughing and carrying on. As an introvert I would usually slip away from my group of friends and find a quiet spot to sit. My favorite resting was a fallen tree over a stream.  Picture Robin Hood jumping on a log to instruct his merry men – that is how I felt every time we would visit this spot – a spot I was certain no one else knew about! Those were happy days for sure.

At this same time, I was enchanted with everything Art Nouveau. I loved the intricate drawings, the long flowing hair and beautiful dresses. It was inspiring to me, I think that is why I gave up the grunge hippie apparel and started wearing dresses and scarves (I still love scarves today by the way!).  My boyfriend Jim, indulged my love of this period, by buying me countless Dover Fairy Tale books (Red Fairy Book, Blue Fairy Book, all different books with fairy tales in them! BTW, I still own these beautiful books so let me know if you would like to borrow them sometime!).

Because Jim of course knew about my sweet tooth he bought me these lovely little French candies called Violet Pastilles. These little round candies came in a tin with violets on the cover. The tin itself was beautiful and inside – delightful little candies that have the most delightful per-fumy taste that ends with a sensuous anise flavor. Whenever I opened a tin of Violet Pastilles I found myself swept into the past, imagining myself with beautiful long, complex hair with a crown of flowers around my head and wearing a lovely long flowing dress with huge bell sleeves. It is funny where a little piece of candy can take you!

Mallo Cups - Need I say anything? Simply perfection!!

Good & Plenty

I know I have already written about licorice, but Good & Plenty are a bit different than licorice, don’t you think? They have that soft, yet crunchy out layer of pink or white before you get to the licorice part – a bigger bang for your buck, if you will!  I recently picked up a box of Good & Plenty at the store (they were having a 10 for $10 special, and no, I didn’t buy 10 boxes of candy, I only bought two!  I do have some self-control after all).  As I poured out a handful of candy I thought of when I was younger and how I would spend a whole box full trying to determine if the pink ones tasted different than the white ones!  My childhood self swears they taste different, but the grownup me knows they don’t (they don’t, right?). As I was making my way through the box of candy I started thinking about parenting and how when it comes to raising our children we always want to be different than how our parents raised us but yet we are kind of the same too.

Being raised a Kennedy in a family of 9 plus a dog, a parakeet, multiple hamsters, and a handful of motorcycles, things were pretty relaxed. The house wasn’t spotless (just ask my mom about how after cleaning the bird cage one day the bird seed sprouted in the bathroom and grass started growing in the carpet). No one seemed to care we were too busy with life! There is another side of being a Kennedy though, and that is the “stiff upper lip” side. We weren’t an overly demonstrative family, yes we loved each other (most of the time) we didn’t always show it. I may love my siblings, but I don’t think I ever told them that (at least not when I was younger). And there were certain things you just didn’t talk about  - for example, illnesses, feminine hygiene, sadness, etc. I’ll never forget that when it came time to go buy my first bra my dad asked my mom where we were off too – the response – to go buy an “unmentionable.” Say what??

Fast forward to being a parent myself. Yes, admittedly, I have kept much of that relaxed nature of housekeeping (maybe not to the extent of growing bird seed in the bathroom), but I have worked hard to shed that layer of stand-off-ness. I hug my kids and tell them I love them as much as possible. It is natural and not forced. I think I have done a good job being a more open and honest parent than my parents, But when I see Steve, my sweet husband, with our kids I know I have miles to go. There is no conversation that he won’t have with our girls, no matter the topic. He loves our kids openly and honestly without reservation. There was a reason he was the stay-at-home parent more than just income potential, he is a natural. And while there at times when Stephanie is more like a Kennedy than a Budge, Steve is in her face saying give me a hug, and she does!

So there you go – when you open a box of candy, you never know where it will take you! Today it was about being a better parent and about love and openness with your children. What will you think of when you open a box of candy? Go find out, they are on sale – 10 for $10!