I loved raising our children, but as a working mother, time and energy were never in my favor. Then POOF! All four of our kids were grown up.
The grandkids started arriving when I was not quite 54. I waited a long time for these little darlings. By then wisdom had set in and I realized this was a second chance. I pay close attention to the cute things they say and do, and I take way too many pictures and videos because I know how fast these little ones grow up.
This post is about the day I let my grand baby dig into his beef macaroni:
To Grasshopper From Grammy
Messy! Remember the days when the mess had its ways? Ah, the fun and the play, mush molded like clay.
Hooray for grandmas who say yes to the mess.
Messy, messy, messy. Carefree and light. Messy hands building pathways to the future, creativity pouring forth from your developing mind.
Free to learn, to feel, to play, to laugh, to smell, to taste.
Sweet memories made.
Free to explore wherever the messiness takes us. Colors, textures, squishy, messy sauce.
Like paint on the plate, you dip your fingers and smush it on your face, rub in into your hair, and all over your tummy, the tray, and up to your elbows.
You laugh and giggle and smear more sauce, then dip a noodle and slurp it up. Yummy messy goodness.
No, no–Oh, splat! Not on the wall! Whoa, what a mess. An adorable mess.
Who needs finger paints when you’ve got beef macaroni? Finger-licking messy scrumptiousness.
Will his baby mind remember? No.
But Grammy will remember and forever treasure these baby messes, as precious as his giggles and his harmless threats to toss his blanket on the floor if he’s put in his crib for a nap.
Sleep and rest awhile as layer upon layer of learning settles into your soul. These baby messes help you grow, develop, thrive until you become the person you are meant to be.
With love from Grammy
Here’s a 54 second recording. I kicked up the speed. This video still makes me smile.
When Grasshopper turned four years old, he became a picky eater at times, just like a lot of other kids. To read about Picky Eaters Disposing of Their Food in Sneaky Ways, go here.
To read more “Messy” prompt-of-the-day posts, go here.
What are your thoughts? Did you love to make messes when you were a kid? Were your parents strict? Did your grandparents let you make messes?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. To receive future posts, sign up by email in the sidebar.
The theme for this week’s photo challenge is “Out of This World.” The assignment was to “share a picture that takes us on a journey into the unknown.”
The photos I chose to feature definitely look like something from another world. Devil’s Postpile in the High Sierras near Mammoth, California, is an amazing natural wonder of hexagon-shaped basaltic columns formed from lava, glacier, fire, and ice.
This magnificent piece of nature’s art is a national monument.
Doesn’t it blow your mind?
The video below takes you on a quarter-mile hike to get to the awesome splendor of the postpile. To skip the trail part and view the Devil’s Postpile, go to 13:00 minutes into the video.
Déjà Vu. Today’s post is from my archives. It was published in 2012 way back when I was on Blogspot. Perhaps it will serve as a writing prompt for you and spark a new poem, short story, or whatever your muse leads you to write or create.
“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.” ~ Albert Einstein
Inspiration! It can happen anywhere!
Ideas are born in the strangest places, ignited by bizarre objects or strange people. Or a random photo from my daughter’s honeymoon pics.
Here’s the scoop: Amy was excited to get a window seat on the plane. Then the passenger behind her rested his/her ugly, bandaged foot on Amy’s armrest. She couldn’t stomach the sight of it. Her hubby gave in and traded seats. (After all, a happy wife is a happy life, right?)
If you were in an English class and were given an impromptu assignment to write a paper based on the photo below, what would you write?
Nonfiction? How to politely elbow that foot off your armrest? How acts of violence can get you kicked off a plane? The importance of cleansing wounds? *yawn*
Humor? Is there anything that could possibly be funny about that foot? Hmm…what would Erma Bombeck have written?
Horror? Remember the movie The Crawling Hand? It scared the heck out of me when I was a kid! How about writing a sequel called The Prowling Foot?
The Crawling Hand trailer – 1963
Sci-fi/Paranormal? Ugly Foot Finds Its Doppelganger in an Alternate Universe?
Fairytale? A parody on Cinderella? Would the prince dare to try the glass slipper on that foot, or would he turn and run? What if the toe wound made Cinderella’s foot swell and she couldn’t fit it in the glass slipper? There would be no happy ending. Instead, maybe an outbreak of Athlete’s Foot destroys the kingdom?
Romance? Good grief! I’m not going there.
Mystery? One with lots of subplots and dead bodies with missing toes? *Shudders* Definitely not a story I could write!
“Everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” ~ Sylvia Plath
What are your thoughts? Could you stomach sitting next to that ugly foot? Do you find ideas in weird places? What inspires you to be creative?
You know what that photo inspired me to write? A crazy blog post!
“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
I’ve been working on a speech the past three weeks or so to compete in an upcoming Toastmasters contest. Recording myself and watching it is super helpful so I can catch any bad habits I need to work on. Slowly, but surely, my speech is coming together. The message is important to pretty much all of us, so I’m passionate about it.
The video below is my latest presentation of the speech at my Toastmasters’ meeting. I wish I could say I nailed it, but I didn’t, so I’ll keep practicing, but first I need to revise it. Again. I’ve probably tweaked it at least 30 times. Almost there!
For those who are unable to watch the video, here’s the speech:
I Have Good News and Bad News
First, the bad news: Alzheimer’s disease may soon outpace heart disease. Presently, there’s no known cure.
Now for the good news: I’m going to share fun ways you can lower your risk of getting this dreadful disease.
A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine reported there are leisure activities we can do to help prevent Alzheimer’s and dementia. To name a few:
Reading
Playing board games
Playing musical instruments
Dancing
There’s More Good News
An article in Getting Healthier titled “How Dancing Can Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease” addresses how creative thinking and making decisions helps improve memory and brain function.
The article lists activities that involve creative thinking. Raise your hand if one of these appeals to you, even if you don’t know how to do it yet:
Ballroom dancing
Crossword puzzles
Sudoku
Reading
Learning a foreign language
Small detail crafts such as needlework, knitting and sewing
Cooking classes and practice
Drumming
Learning a new skill
If you’re not sure what new skill to learn, I highly recommend juggling. According to Nature magazine, juggling increases gray matter. It improves your brain and your coordination just by practicing the movements.
There are so many variations to juggling, you’ll never run out of new skills to learn.
All of those activities involvecreative thinking and help reduce your risk of dementia.
Say what? You mean we can ward off the heart-breaking, brain-erasing disease by participating in fun, stress-relieving activities? Yep.
Doesn’t that make you want to get up and do a happy dance?
Dancing the Charleston
Here’s a Breakdown on the Results of the Study:
Sports such as bicycling, swimming, golf, and tennis reduced the risk of dementia by 0%.
Reading reduced the risk by 35%.
Doing crossword puzzles at least four days a week showed a 47% reduced risk.
Dancing frequently reduced the risk by 76%. Specifically – Ballroom dancing known as “freestyle social dancing.” For example, the waltz, Foxtrot, swing, tango, and Latin.
The study explains that ballroom dancing applies various brain functions working together in sync. For instance:
Music
Emotions
Thought
Movement
And physical touching of your dance partner
Ballroom dancing applies all of these brain functions. It also involvesrapid-fire responses, which create new neural pathways. It’s as if the brain is performingmental gymnastics.
Changing partnerskicks it up a notch because we have to adjust to dancing with a different person.
I Have More Good News
There’s no talent required. Regardless of having two left feet, no sense of rhythm, and no experience in dancing, our brains still improve.
We reap the benefits while learningnew skills. That means just going through the process improves your brain.
Stimulating the brain by learning new skills is key, especially skills that call for split-second decisions.
There’s Even More Good News
In case you’re unable to dance, other experts are studying the benefits of singing to fight dementia.
What a nice variety of activities to choose from to lower your risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
You’ll never get bored if you mix it up. Remember, talent is not a prerequisite to learning new skills, and you don’t have to master your new skills to improve your brain.
New skills can include new sports, news games, or new hobbies, anything you haven’t learned yet or variations of skills you already know.
Experts suggest we start doing these activities now and keep doing them frequently.
So, get out there and dance your heart out, learn new skills, and keep your brain young.
–o0o–
Feedback From My Fellow Toastmasters
After the speech, we had a round robin for club members to offer suggestions to improve my speech. Here are a few of the suggestions:
My voice is too soft/quiet at the beginning. Need to grab the judges’ attention.
Incorporate juggling into the speech.
Start the speech by asking a question.
Mention that sports activities are good cardio workouts, but this particular study focused on the mind.
I had thought of adding a bit of juggling in the speech, but I’m a long way from mastering juggling and I figured bumbling with the bean bags might be distracting for the audience, plus I might lose my whole train of thought or get the giggles and not be able to compose myself, not to mention going over the time limit, which automatically disqualifies us.
I think I’ll clarify the part about the benefits of sports activities, and I may start the speech with a question. Perhaps something like, “Do you know someone who has Alzheimer’s or dementia?”
Then I’ll mention that my father has Alzheimer’s and how I’m concerned about this disease affecting other family members, friends, and myself.
I sincerely hope this information is helpful to you so you can exercise your brain as often as possible. 🙂
What are your thoughts? Do you have a friend or family member who has Alzheimer’s or dementia? Do you do any public speaking? Have you ever heard of Toastmasters International?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Some kids are picky eaters and some of them come up with creative ways to get rid of foods they have an aversion to.
When I was care giver for two of my grandkids, I tried to stay a step ahead of them, but it wasn’t always easy. George usually came over to help out with mealtime. One day when Grasshopper was four years old, Gramps wouldn’t let him have one of Mommy’s homemade cookies until he cleaned his plate.
Gramps wasn’t paying attention that day, and soon enough, Grasshopper’s plate was empty, so he got a cookie.
As it turned out, Grasshopper pulled a fast one on Gramps that time. When I cleared the table, I discovered a surprise in his cup: the rest of Grasshopper’s chicken and probably all the kidney beans, too. Not his favorite!
Here are some other funny food memories some friends shared with me:
Paul Kyle:
“My brother used to hide peas in his milk. They stuck out like a sore thumb in the clear glass.”
Anthony remembers this from when he was four years old: “I used to store my mushy cereal inside my cheeks, hamster style; then slow-walk to our half basement and bury the gooey stash in the gravelly soil. I hated the texture of mushy cereal. Still do.”
Melissa Lewicki:
“My little sister hid her deviled egg sandwich in the center, lidded bowl in the Lazy Susan. After a few days the smell was dreadful. Mom never figured out where the smell had come from until we moved six months later and she found that petrified sandwich when packing up the Lazy Susan.”
Thanks for the chuckles, Paul, Anthony, and Melissa. I got a big kick out of your stories.
What are your thoughts? Do you have a similar picky-eater story to share? Do you have a food you have an aversion to?
I’d love to hear from you!
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“A Face in the Crowd” is this week’s WordPress photo challenge. I picked this photo because the child is focusing on her shadow.
This is my first photo challenge, and what a fun photo to feature. Too much alliteration? Well, it’s a photo of a child and they love playful language, don’t they?
They also go through a stage when they’re intrigued with their own shadow. What an adorable phase. It’s delightful to watch children react to and interact with their shadows. If there’s more than one child, they’ll try to step on each other’s shadows and make a game of it.
I like the contrast of the child’s shadow against the shadows of trees in this photo. Is she aware of the other shadows, too? Or just her own? This photo could actually serve as a writer’s prompt, don’t you think? I wonder if that’s how Peter Pan got started? 🙂
I remember when my grandson wasn’t quite two yet and how seeing his shadow on one wall entertained him every day when the light was at the right angle. It was so cute the way he’d wave his arms, jump up and down and hop back and forth, focusing on his shadow’s mirror image. He even played peekaboo with his shadow when he walked past the corner and his shadow disappeared.
I recorded him one day. Then of course I had to play around with the special effects in iMovie because it’s a kick. I know a video isn’t part of the photo challenge, but it’s a good example of a child’s delightful interaction with his shadow. It still cracks me up when I watch this because he’s so curious, so amused by his shadow.
Seems like such a simple thing, but shadows are actually kind of complex, aren’t they? When it comes to photography, they certainly are for amateurs like me!
What are your thoughts? Do you enjoy watching kids at play? Have you ever watched a child interact with their shadow? Do you enjoy photography? Do you think shadows are tricky?
Last September George and I were on a weekend trip with two of our kids. I held onto the handrail while cautiously walking down a stairway that led into a pub. My daughter and son walk faster, so they were way ahead of us and were scouting out a place to sit. George was behind me.
Well, the staircase was wacky, but I didn’t realize it. I missed the bottom step, turned my ankle so the outer part of my foot took the brunt and then landed spread eagle on my bottom after falling in slow motion. Why is it always in slow motion?
George watched me tumble, helpless to do anything. My son turned around and did a double take as if he was thinking, what the heck is she doing on the floor? He came back and offered a hand to help me up. So did George.
I was dazed, wondering how in the world I missed that last step, especially since I’d held onto the rail. The table we sat at faced the tiled stairway, so while my daughter and son placed our orders, I studied that stairway and realized the handrail ended at the third step from the bottom. I took a picture, then walked over to get a closer look.
Standing on the third step from the bottom, I recorded a video while walking down the stairs.
I wondered if the designer of the handrail had one too many drinks while working on that project because clearly that rail is too short for that stairway. Plus, there was no white line across the edge of the bottom step to give patrons a heads up that it was there. To top it off, the lighting was dim, so that made it hard to see the floor.
These falls can happen anywhere and of course when we least expect it, but that staircase is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
When we got home, I called the place to notify the owner they need to fix the railing so it goes down to the bottom step and paint a white line on the edge of the step, too. Actually, a white line on the edge of each step would make the staircase even safer.
The pub can thank their lucky stars I’m double jointed and that I didn’t get injured. However, double jointed or not, if I had fallen on my head, it wouldn’t have mattered how limber I am.
During the phone call, I reminded the employee I spoke to (the owner wasn’t available), “Hey, this is California. People are sue happy.” So, they’ve been warned. Next time we go to that resort town and visit that bar, if they haven’t fixed their staircase, I might have to name the place on my YouTube video and here on my blog. Someone could get hurt pretty bad on a stairway like that.
My blogger friend Susie Lindau wrote a post describing recent injuries she’s suffered titled “Bad Luck Comes in Threes, Right?”
One of her injuries was a fall in a restaurant. Her ski boots were slippery as ice on the tile floor, so she didn’t just fall once, but twice! The owner of the restaurant told her he’s been meaning to post a sign warning patrons they should not wear ski boots inside.
That would be wise, Mr. Manager. Sheesh!
We need to do our best to be mindful of our surroundings and watch our step, especially if we’re distracted or in a hurry.
One time I was rushing at my sister’s house and forgot there was a step in her entryway. It blended in with the floor. Being double jointed didn’t help me with that fall because my knees took the brunt of the fall. Swelled up pretty bad and was badly bruised, but no lasting damage. Whew! My poor sense of equilibrioceptionwas partly to blame for that fall.
Wishing you sure-footed adventures when you’re out and about and when you’re at home, too. That’s when we’re more likely to let our guard down.
What are your thoughts? Have you or a loved one had a bad fall? Do you hold onto handrails? Do you make it a point to be mindful? Do you have any other suggestions to improve that stairway?
I’d love to hear from you.
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One year ago, we attended the last-minute wedding of our youngest daughter, Suzee. “Why last-minute?” you may ask. In mid-January 2017 my husband, George, was diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer: leptomeningeal disease. We were still trying to process the diagnosis of Stage 4 lung cancer.
George wasn’t showing any neurological symptoms at the time of the leptomeningeal-cancer diagnosis, but that wasn’t expected to last long. All four of our adult children freaked out. The whole family did. Suzee, our youngest, had her father write “I love you” on her wrist, and that night her boyfriend Brett tattooed it for her.
April and her family had just moved to North Carolina in September 2016, so she made plans to fly back to California with the two kids so they could have “quality time with Gramps while he was still acting normal.”
Suzee expressed her desires to get married soon so her father could escort her down the aisle while he was still able to walk. We met Brett’s parents, Dave and Roxy, a few days later at a Mexican restaurant. We all hit it off and had a nice time.
That night, Brett proposed to Suzee. Here’s their engagement picture, a selfie:
They decided to get married while April was out here with the kids, which would be in a couple of weeks. Twas a whirlwind from that point on. I took George to various medical procedures (will cover all that in a future post) and he had started chemo January 12th, 2017, so I was busy caring for him and didn’t help plan the wedding at all, except for decorating a box to hold the gift cards:
My niece, Carrie, graciously offered to have the wedding in her yard. It was going to be held by the pool, a gorgeous setting, but a monster storm changed all that, so white tents were set up in the driveway instead. One tent blew into a neighbor’s yard the night before the wedding when a strong gust swooped it up. The rental company had to come out the next morning and replace it. By then the torrential downpour had let up, and scattered showers alternated with bright, blue-clouded skies.
It turned out to be a beautiful wedding, a day to rejoice and celebrate. We pushed our sorrows aside and embraced the joyful occasion of welcoming our new son-in-law into the family.
Groom’s parents: Roxy and Dave – Bride’s Parents: Lynn and George
Slide show:
Joyful ever after.
Happy First Anniversary to Brett and Suzee. May they enjoy every precious moment and celebrate another 60 years.
Note: George’s cancer is basically in remission. I need to finish blogging about his journey, but it’s not easy to write about and it’s taking much longer than I planned. Here’s Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 if you’d like to read the beginning of the journey.
All four of our children are married now. We have five grand kiddos and are looking forward to more. Life is good and we’re eternally thankful for countless blessings.
What are your thoughts? Do you enjoy celebrating anniversaries and other special occasions? Do you like to go all out or keep it simple? Are you able to push sorrow aside to find moments of joy? How are things going in your life?
I’d love to hear from you. Thanks so much for stopping by!
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Happy Friday! Almost everybody has a hidden or quirky talent. What’s yours?
Below is a 57-second video of my youngest daughter, Suzee, showing off her quirky talent. She learned this cute little trick from her father when she was three years old.
Her brother does a mighty mean eyebrow dance, too, but I’ll have to highlight that in another blog post after I get a good video of him.
Here’s Suzee’s husband, Brett, demonstrating his quirky talent. He can throw a Frisbee so it comes back to him. The video is 26 seconds long.
Boom-erang!
Yes, I know better than to video vertically, but it was the only way I could get the Frisbee in the shot. Turned out very cool. Nice going, Brett!
I grew up in a funny family. Funny as in ha-ha, lots of laughs, and also funny as in weird, but weird is good in my book. If you missed my post Friday Funnies From a Funny Family, check it out if you need a giggle.
What are your thoughts? Do you have a quirky talent? How about a normal talent? What about your family members, do they have any talents? Are they fun, funny, quirky, or something else?
I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by!
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Clint Eastwood with real-life heroes Alek Skarlatos, Spencer Stone, and Anthony Sadler
For Valentine’s Day, George and I got to see the movie The 15:17 to Paris. It’s the remarkable true story of three American friends who thwarted a terrorist on a train to Paris in August 2015.
Directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, he got flak from some critics for casting the real-life heroes to play themselves, but that’s what George and I found intriguing about the movie.
Back to The 15:17 to Paris. I loved this movie. Very cool that the real heroes, childhood friends, starred in it. I enjoyed learning about their lives prior to the train scene, especially Spencer’s struggles and how so many things he’d learned in life prepared him for the day he’d take on that terrorist.
I also liked the scenes of the three friends traveling around Europe for the first time. True to life scenes that didn’t need any special effects.
The part on the train with the terrorist was intense. Completely blew me away. It makes me appreciate the heroics of Stone, Sadler, and Skarlatos so much more. Hearing about the incident on the news, I figured three against one, they probably took him down easy. Man, was I wrong.
I don’t want to ruin the movie for you. You’ll have to see it for yourself to appreciate what these heroes did. They deserved the medals they were awarded, and Clint Eastwood deserves a medal for taking a risk and casting the real life heroes.
Here’s the trailer:
Here’s an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live:
According to Alek Skarlatos, Clint Eastwood filmed the terrorist scene exactly as it happened, and the heroes appreciated how Eastwood stuck to the smallest details.
I was surprised to learn that many of the train passengers in the movie were the real-life passengers, and the one who was shot in the neck, Mark Moogalian, also played himself. Wow!
Eastwood was interviewed on Jimmy Kimmel Live prior to the interview with the three heroes:
Wouldn’t you think that terrorist on the train was enough violence for a lifetime? Stone had another close call after that:
An article in Los Angeles Daily News states “Less than two months after the Thalys train incident, Stone was out drinking with another group of buddies in Sacramento when they were attacked by a gang from San Francisco. James Tran is now serving a term in Folsom Prison for stabbing Stone to a life-threatening extent.”
Stone said he thought that incident was much worse than the terrorist on the train and he actually thought he was going to die.
I’m at a loss for words. May these young heroes be safe and well and enjoy life to the fullest from here on out.
They wrote a book about their friendship and the events on the train to Paris:
Here’s the description of the book: “On August 21, 2015, Ayoub El-Khazzani boarded train #9364 in Brussels, bound for Paris. There could be no doubt about his mission: he had an AK-47, a pistol, a box cutter, and enough ammunition to obliterate every passenger on board. Slipping into the bathroom in secret, he armed his weapons. Another major ISIS attack was about to begin.
“Khazzani wasn’t expecting Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos, and Spencer Stone. Stone was a martial arts enthusiast and airman first class in the US Air Force, Skarlatos was a member of the Oregon National Guard, and all three were fearless. But their decision-to charge the gunman, then overpower him even as he turned first his gun, then his knife, on Stone-depended on a lifetime of loyalty, support, and faith.
“Their friendship was forged as they came of age together in California: going to church, playing paintball, teaching each other to swear, and sticking together when they got in trouble at school. Years later, that friendship would give all of them the courage to stand in the path of one of the world’s deadliest terrorist organizations.
“The 15:17 to Paris is an amazing true story of friendship and bravery, of near tragedy averted by three young men who found the heroic unity and strength inside themselves at the moment when they, and 500 other innocent travelers, needed it most.”
What are your thoughts? Have you heard about The 15:17 to Paris and these real-life heroes?Do you like this kind of movie? Did you have a nice Valentine’s Day?
I’d love to hear from you. Thank you for stopping by!
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Legend of Monster Island
Action Adventure for kids - Book 3 in the Monster Moon Mystery series by BBH McChiller (Kathryn Sant and Lynn Kelley) Available in paperback and eBook.
Writer of fiction for children and slice-of-life pieces for grownups, Master Certified Health Coach, mother of four, grammy to seven grand darlings. Goofball. Subject to laughing jags. Co-author of Monster Moon Mystery series under pen name BBH McChiller. Altered art scrapbooker, Toastmaster, YouTuber, and recovering court reporter.
