A Sauer Kraut

Last night I had to make a quick trip to the store for milk.  I am such a bad mommy.  Somehow I let us run out of milk and juice!  Sure, we had juice boxes for lunch, and we had grapefruit juice, but my kids aren't big fans of grapefruit juice.  These days I only go one place to buy milk, and that is Aldi.  It's at least a dollar cheaper a gallon and there aren't any artificial growth hormones in it so that's a plus!  Anyway, as I walked into the store, I was surrounded by packages of German food (I'm guessing Oktoberfest?) when a jar of sauer kraut caught my eye.  To tell you the truth, I'm not overly fond of the stuff but I found myself picking up a jar of it and putting it in my cart.  That jar of sauer kraut took me down memory lane.  It wasn't just a jar of pickeled cabbage, it reminded me of times spent with my Pop-pop and how much I miss him.  Pop-pop was my dad's step-dad and he was the only grandfather I ever knew on that side of the family.  He never had children of his own, but he always treated us as if we were his and it wasn't until I was older that I ever knew the difference.  My Pop-pop loved to go to Oktoberfest and at least once I can remember him taking us with them.  He loved polka music, which I wasn't really exposed to except for his influence.  He also had a sign in his home office that I loved.  It said, "A grouchy German is a Sauer Kraut."  I thought of him as I bought that jar of sauer kraut.  Some night soon I will eat it for dinner and remember.  For now, it is sitting on my counter so I can look at it and think of him.  Before he died, I went to the nursing home to visit and he said something I never expected.  He said, "you have been a good grandaughter to me, but you have also been a great friend."  Pop-pop was never really a touchy feely kind of person so those words were precious and they will stay with me forever.  Isn't it funny how such a mundane task as buying milk can turn into something so special?


This is Pop-pop and Nanny holding my sister.