We had a Grandma day.
I love one-on-one time with my grandchildren.
When they are quite young, it is usually time at Grandma’s house.
It is that magnificent push on the swing or snuggling together as we read favorite books.

It is different with my oldest granddaughter.
We can go to special places and out to lunch.
She has the energy and stamina to keep going until we come back to Grandma’s to rest.
We read, have a special snack and enjoy an hour or so before I drive her home.

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I had my three-year-old granddaughter with me.
We were having a Grandma Day.
In these toddler years, a Grandma day is quite simple.
It means doing something special together.

That something special may be going to a local coffee shop and choose a favorite doughnut.
It may be taking a walk to find leaves, and flowers, or listen to birds as we go along.
It may be going to a store to choose one special thing.
The latter was what we did on our latest Grandma Day.

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It was the day of the sprinkle shower for my daughter-in-love.
She is due with her second child in a few weeks.
Her friends did all the planning.
I was delighted to be a part of her special day.

I have often heard the same “wish” at bridal showers.
It would be so nice to have another shower to replace sheets and towels.
It is always said tongue in cheek, but if truth were told, those sentiments are slightly true.
It would be nice to replace those kind of things a few years into your marriage.

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We went to our daughter and son-in-love’s church for Easter.
It was an opportunity to be with three of our grandchildren.
Our oldest daughter was there as well.
It was a smaller group than we are used to, but still so wonderful to be together.

My granddaughters were in their Easter dresses with little button down sweaters.
I saw their dress shoes and remembered the days when my daughters were similarly dressed.
Downstairs, near the entrance, there was a tray of Easter cookies.
My almost two-year-old granddaughter was happily biting a cookie that looked like a baby chick.

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I have a packet of seeds.
They came in a box with other items.
They came as part of an online conference I attended virtually this past October.
It is the conference I usually attend in person, but like everything else, it was put on hold.

Tickets for this year’s creativity conference went on sale last week.
I didn’t even try to obtain one.
All the people who had tickets in 2020, when everything shut down, are now able to use them.
There was only a handful of new tickets available for this year’s conference.

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I woke up at 3:30am.
I reached over to check the time on my phone.
In my sleepiness, I hit the Instagram icon and a cooking video started to play.
I quickly tried to turn the video off so it wouldn’t wake up my husband.

Suddenly, I saw that I had inadvertently dialed the emergency SOS on my phone.
I heard a voice.
In my half awake state, I thought it was dialing 911.
I heard the dial sound and I heard a voice.

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What do you do in the midst of war?
What do you do if the war is not on your doorstep?
War kills, destroys, and dismisses human life as expendable.
War is not a person, but a person or people are behind war.

What do you do?
I have been struggling as I see images and read the news.
I have been sad about the people who are being displaced and who are losing everything.
I have been amazed at the bravery and determination of unlikely heroes.

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On top of my Hoosier cabinet, there are wooden blocks that spell a word.
The word is, BELIEVE.
I thought about those blocks as I was sitting at the kitchen table.
I don’t remember where I even purchased them; they seem to have been around forever.

Believe in what?
What is it you believe in at Christmas time?
The object of your belief tells you a lot about yourself.
The object of your belief tells you a lot about your worldview.

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It always happened the first weekend of December.
We would hear the sirens in the distance.
The first time I heard them, I thought there was an emergency.
I was assured by a neighbor that the sirens were for a good reason.

We were living in our first house.
We had two daughters; one was a toddler and the other was an infant.
The older one was just the age to appreciate what was happening.
Santa was coming to visit on the back of a firetruck.

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I was meeting three friends for lunch.
I went to grade school and high school with two of those friends.
We all met the other friend in high school.
So many memories are packed into our friendship.

The sign of a good friendship is being able to start right where you left off.
No need to explain or go back to chapter one.
Chapters of our lives have been shared along the way.
No need to see each other all the time, but when we do plan our visit, it’s as if we never left.

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