Showing posts with label grandchildren. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grandchildren. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Summer is gone

This little guy made me smile.
 
It was a crazy summer.  You can tell that by the dates on my last blog post!  Shame on me for being neglectful.  I have a few excuses.  My two adult sons were home for the summer and I was busy feeding them.  I trained for and ran a half marathon with a new running buddy.  I was blessed with a new grandson and I spent a few days in New York via an air travel experience worthy of documenting – later.  I participated in the Grand TetonRelay with friends and family – also to be documented later.  My 91 year-old mother passed away and we gathered in the land of my roots for a celebration of her life. I had my grandchildren home for a visit. The list goes on …
 Oh, and we put in a new lawn! I didn’t do a lot of the physical labor.  Hey, I had two grown boys around to help and I was feeding them.  There were times, however, that I thought the grass would never grow!  So much dirt.  So much dust. So much patience!
How can this make a lawn?
When these few blades of grass poked through the ground I was both excited and skeptical.  How would they ever fill in to create a green carpet?
Time has a way of repairing and rebuilding things.  I stepped outside the other day to discover a lacy mushroom – the likes of which I had never noticed before - poking his little head through the now thick green carpet of grass. Gone are the weeds and piles of dirt that plagued our yard this summer.  Gone is the dust!
Gone is the summer. 


Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Taking inventory - It's a busy life


I think that is Pennsylvania down there.
 
What a busy couple of weeks I’ve had! Just look at this list:
Lake Erie.  It's like an ocean!

Six plane rides

One visit to the beach at Lake Erie

One road trip to New York State

Lots of hot dogs

One ice cream cone at Alli’s Cones & Dogs (Very nice people!)

Gotta have ice cream!
Two running workouts with a toddler and a stroller

One walk with a five year-old, a toddler, and a stroller

One visit to the Erie Zoo
 
One camel that didn't live in a zoo

About twenty walls scrubbed (It’s just an estimate)

One oven cleaned

One refrigerator cleaned
Hilly run in Erie!

Four windows and tracks scrubbed

One Krispy Kreme Donut

Two copies of Gold Pans and Iron Skillets given away on airplanes

One batch of princess sugar cookies baked with two princesses

One difficult eight mile run

One day of yard work

For making cookies.
Lots of Grandma Time

One outing with a standard transmission (I can still drive a stick)

One reminder to the Tooth Fairy

One dozen (roughly) bedtime stories

One rake and one shovel stuck in a tree

New grass sprouting

One goat head stuck in my foot
A rake and a shovel

Three or four broken hearts

Countless hugs

 

It’s a busy life!  It’s also a wonderful life.  If you don’t think so, stop and take inventory like I just did.  You are sure to find something to smile about. 
 
Remember, “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.” 2 Nephi 2:11

In other words, you would not know happy if you had never known sad.

 


Friday, April 25, 2014

Feeling good and here's why ...

I'm feeling a little excited today and here is why ...

It's raining - again.  We have experienced a drought for a couple of years and that is a very dangerous situation for agriculture in the high deserts of Idaho. A running buddy and I slogged through four miles of drizzle today.

I have an approaching trip to visit my daughter and her family.  I am excited to spend some time with my granddaughters!

My boys will be home in a week to spend the summer.  Excited and apprehensive.  My cooking regimen will have to be changed up!

I registered my team for the Grand Teton Relay last night!

Training for Fit for Life Half Marathon is going well.

I have a mini book tour approaching.  (Okay, it's just lunch and a library signing, but I am looking forward to it.)

My next book is taking shape and I think it is going to be great!  I will soon be giving you some teasers here and on Running Granny Green, because ... well, it has some running lessons in it. That's all about that for now.

I'm going on a Friday night date with my hubby.  What's not to love?

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Artwork for Grandma

I've certainly mellowed with age.  When my children "decorated" my walls with crayons, pencils, and pens, I was unhappy and probably even a little bit unkind.  Didn't those children know how hard it was to keep a clean house without added wall scrubbing? 
Things have changed.  When my granddaughters visited last summer, the three year-old did a little redecorating in several places!  I miss those little girls when they leave, so I have retained the new artwork.  It helps me feel connecte. I appreciate it so much more than I used to!
I think the time has come to remove the artwork.  The girls are coming back!  As they will be visiting during the holidays, I think I can withstand the separation until December. So, if I can bring myself to do it, I will be scrubbing walls next week.  In the meantime, I'm gonna enjoy it just a little longer!  

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Dear Blog, I've missed you!

I've been neglecting my blog a bit. I won't blame it on writer's block this time.  I've just had other things on my mind as in:
  • How many hoops will Spence have to jump through to obtain his Utah Residency status and have out of state tuition waived to the tune of $6000 per semester?
  • How many times will I tell my married kids and granddaughter "Goodbye" before they actually leave for Pennsylvania?
  • How sad will it be?
  • How long before I hop a plane to Pennsylvania?
  • How am I going to get through another year with a high school senior?
  • How much money will it take to fix the pickup so the "Service Engine" light will go off and an emissions test can actually be performed?
  • How many pints of beans will I can this year?
  • Ditto for quarts of tomatoes.
  • When does An Eclectic Collage: Volume II (A collaborative work on relationships by female authors) come out so I can tell all my friends?
  • What's for dinner?
 Well, I have some answers and they are all good!

  • As many as it takes.  Residency Awarded!  No more out of state tuition hanging over his head - nor mine!
  • About three.
  • Sad.  Very sad.
  • Five and one half weeks until I make my first visit to Pennsylvania and welcome a new grandchild into the world.
  • Hang on!  It's a wild ride!  However, I am wiser and more seasoned than the first two times I rode this attraction.
  • $175
  • Between 50 and 60.
  • Who knows?  They are just coming on.
  • September 15!  I am one of the authors of this book.  More info to come!
  • Whole wheat waffles - or maybe BLT's.  After all, the tomatoes are ripening!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Best Job Ever

I've said it before and I'll say it again ... "Being a grandma is the best job I have ever had!"
I love my own children.  I rejoice in their successes and mourn their sorrows.  However, there is nothing like grandparenting.  The pressure is off.  If the grandchild isn't perfect, it isn't my fault.  If she doesn't eat right today, I don't worry that she won't be healthy.  She can make up for it tomorrow.  If something gets broken, I now know that it isn't the first mishap nor is it the last.
The best thing about grandparenting is the unconditional love both given and received.  It was illustrated this evening when my granddaughter took my face in her hands and giggling said, "I see me!"
"Where," I asked?
"There!"
She nearly poked my eye out!  It took me a moment to realize she was seeing her reflection in my eyes!
"Do you know why you can see yourself in Grandma's eyes," I asked?  "Because, I love you so much!"
Another giggle and then the sweetest hug was bestowed upon this grandma.  Ya, I'm pretty sure that being a grandma is the best job ever!