Blessed

For the past week I've found myself thinking, 'I should tell them this or that', but didn't. We've been as busy as a one-armed wall-paper hanger around here (not that we hang wall paper these days; too crazy expensive to have it removed when you change your mind!)

It's hard to believe 2020 is already a month in. January felt more like April here in Texas, with wind and rain here and there but it never really got cold. 

Yes, fleas and ticks and mosquitos, you won. See you this summer. 

There IS still February to get through, and you just never know what will happen. Texas absolutely cannot deal with anything that really resembles winter, but especially ice. All those overpasses become unpassable, and we don't have the trucks and salt and such to do much about it. So we'll see what the Groundhog has to say next week. I'm a solid Punxsutawney Phil follower, and love rewatching Bill Murray get stuck in town til he gets it right. This year that's what we'll be doing the night before the SuperBowl. We used to live not too many miles from Punxsutawney and I so wanted to be there when they pulled the rodent out of his hut, but Cub Sweetheart discouraged me from doing so, saying it was really just a big revelry. I'm not a 'big revelry' kind of girl, but I still regret we never went.

For the past handful of years I've chosen a word of the year. Then I write it in the back of my Bible, where, being honest, it tends to get forgotten. This year I bought a planner, (The Christian Planner, on sale now) with beautiful red leather binding. I loved it so. Two weeks in, I followed my daughter's suit and tore the entire planner out of the binding, took it to Staples and asked them to put in in a spiral binder instead. While they were at it, please add monthly dividers. And two clear pocket folders, where I put *school calendars, the hours of the library, etc.

I have to admit it lost a bit of its lustre, but it works so much better now! It lays flat, I can turn to the upcoming months' calendars to note appointments, etc. and I won't be forgetting my word, what I wanted to concentrate on this year. (I'll post about that a bit later down the road.)

Every time I see a woman wearing the new style of higher waisted pants with the front of the shirt tucked in I am reminded that we are ALL so influenced by beauty and style in this crazy society of ours, and it often doesn't work well, fit us, or flatter. My pants will stay at my waist and my shirt will fall loosely across my tummy to a flattering length, because I brought three people into the world and have the shape to prove it, You young, skinny, not-yet-given-birth girls out there - go for it! Just remember that there's a happy balance between fashion and function. I'm not going to say anything here about that other group of females currently sporting this trend, because my mother told me if I couldn't say anything nice, not to say anything at all.

Not saying anything at all.

BUT,  I will be darned happy when this current fashion trend runs it's course and Target has tops and t-shirts that aren't designed for board flat stomachs, which nobody has, by the way.

I've been a Grammy now for over 18 years, but I'm always learning. From books, from my Littles themselves, from their parents, what to do and not do. One of the things I've learned is that they love getting mail in the mailbox with their name on it. Once they're teenagers they enjoy that, but a Starbucks gift card, or a $5 bill or such sweetens the deal; when they're little all it takes is a letter. If you want to go wild, throw in some stickers. Or a dollar bill.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote to our two youngest Littles who are 5 and 7; they got the same letter written on a word document, personalized a bit, then I found some stickers in the back of a coloring book we had at our house, and stuck in a $1 to buy gum.

Coming home this week from a very long day at the hospital where Cub Sweetheart had knee replacement, the sweetest little envelope was in the mail. Inside was a note.

Isn't it so soul-feeding that in this crazy complicated world we live in today, it's still the simple things? A five year old, still learning to read and write, sat at a kitchen table with a pencil gripped between her little fingers and took a chunk of time to write me a note. I was able to envision her sitting there with her mouth twisted to one side, bottom lip held down by her baby teeth, while she concentrated on each word she wrote. Her world will change so dramatically over the next ten years, but for today, right now, I am one of her best friends. So much bang for my one buck.

Do you remember when it was a big deal that you were considered old enough to get to chew gum? My father chewed Wrigley's, he kept a pack of it in his shirt pocket, and now and then would give me and my brothers and sisters a piece.  I realize now, grown up, that the pack only held five pieces, and there were six of us, so to share with us emptied out the entire packet and then some. What you don't know at the time..... Once in awhile I got to have Fruit Stripe or two pieces of Bubble gum, which made the best bubbles ever. If you had a couple of girlfriends to blow bubbles with that was even better.

On a girlfriends level, I went to a neighborhood hair dresser that my family uses and asked her to chop at least 4" off my hair. My instructions were don't let it touch my shoulders, but be sure I can still stick it up in a funky pony tail to take a hot bath, and tuck it behind my ears. I sat in a barber chair in her kitchen for 30 minutes while her little white dog ran in and out of my feet, scattering my chopped off silver hair all over the floor. We got to know each other a bit, and when she was done she told me the charge was $15. That's a big win in my book.

And last, Cub Sweetheart is getting along great from his knee replacement earlier this week. We've been home one night, he slept reasonably well, and we've got support in the way of a home nurse and physical therapist coming to our house today. I told Cub Sweetheart last night that we said, 'in sickness and in health' but I realize now we should have added 'through joint replacements'.

Waking up in the middle of the night to give him pain meds reminded me what a cycle life is. It's been so many years since I had to get up to care for anyone, but being up, tending to someone I loved, brought back all those night feedings, diaper changes, sitting sleep deprived in a rocking chair with a baby over my shoulder, patting their back. Or taking the temperature of a feverish child, and wiping down their forehead with a cold washcloth, rearranging covers, and mostly letting them know I was there. Our kids remember that I wasn't always the most gracious middle-of-the-night nurse but I remember the worry when they were running a high fever, or we couldn't get them to keep down broth, and the relief I felt when they were running around the house making a mess again.

It's a blessing, a privilege, when you get to still have a taste of that, isn't it?

Watch Groundhog Day if you can, we're rooting for Kansas City because they haven't won since 1970, and I'll be back soon,  to tell you what I'm working to Cherish this year.

*Note to grandparents out there, do this. You'll know what days your Littles have off, so you can take them for the day, when spring break is, their concerts, open houses, etc.