Can an obsession with Martha be hereditary?!

I wish my mother in law was still alive. I wish that often because she was one of my dearest friends. But now I'm wishing it because she would get such a kick out of this latest phase of Joy's. When she died, Joy was only six. Back then she was into Madeline books and dolls and soccer.
But now, she is 10 and she's all about Martha Stewart! And it's pretty cute.

My mom in law and I went through our own major "Martha phase" back before she was born. Did we ever! We were always swapping our favorite recipes and making them for each other when we came to visit one another. How I ever had the patience to make those complicated recipes with toddlers running around is truly beyond me! She owned all her books and watched her show. I used to get her magazine as a gift from her sweet cousin who was another Martha fan.

During our last school year, Joy stumbled across Martha's show on TV when she was suppose to be watching Mr. Demme (Math U See) explain fractions and really fun stuff like that... But Joy really wanted to see Martha poach eggs instead! Imagine that! Ever since then she's been interested in Martha.

Here she is even getting Andrew excited about her recipes. She checked out MS Living at the library!

"Grandmum" would have loved this picture!

An exciting thing happened at our evaluations. When I mentioned her love for Martha over Mr. Demme ; )

to our evaluator she said that I should let her watch it. "Missionaries have to be creative," she said. And that's Joy's goal in life, to be a missionary. Well, she was thrilled. Of course she still has to do math! I'm sure missionaries need math!

So after we jog, Joy reminds us that "It's time for Martha!"

Today, we were watching her make her spaghetti squash recipe. I told the kids they'd had it before because "Grandmum" used to make it. They didn't remember it. But since Randy Jackson loved it, they were all for it. (He was "blowing it out the box" by getting my kids to want to eat more veggies! "You rock Dawg!") ; )

I went online and printed out the recipe and accidentally printed out two copies.

Those who knew my mom in law will enjoy this...

Just like her (but purely by accident) I said "Oh Joy, do you want your own Martha Stewart recipe file?" (she had a file for everything and she made files for every body else too and then she'd mail clippings to you to put in those files she made you..)

And then she sounded just like I used to! And she said "Um, I'm a little busy right now..."

And I laughed so hard and so much that I couldn't finish my sentence which was, in "Then I'll make a file for you." Just like she would have said. Which I did, because I couldn't resist. All this Martha stuff is a "good thing" because Joy will be an awesome homemaker and missionary someday. And Grandmum would be so proud. Mom sure is!

~Becky