HOMESPUN « Ordinary daily life often made extraordinary by grandchildren

Sunday Snapshots: Good Squirrel Bad Squirrel

December 8, 2013 by Debra

GOOD :) And by the way never waste money on these squirrel logs ; they don’t eat them.

BAD!!!

Posted in pets and wildlife, Sunday Snapshot | Tagged squirrels | 1 Comment »

Instant Grandma and Pick Your Forecast

December 6, 2013 by Debra

Emailing back and forth with two other grandmas earlier, one of them remarked that I was having too much fun being an instant grandma. That struck me as funny…instead of Instagram, there is InstaGRAN :)

Brent is my grandson, but he has an older sister, Kate, and my son always refers to this as “Buy one Get one Free“.

Well, then about six months ago he started dating a lovely girl that we already knew, but these two started to think about getting together….and I held my breath, hoping that they would, because I really like her.

On the other hand I was not sure that they’d manage to cope with five kids altogether ( because my son has Brent’s older sister Kate almost as much as her mother does. ) Thus far they have managed, and she has a boy who is going to be six soon, and the three year old twins.

The reason that this funny ”instant Grandma” remark came up is because I told them how the mama had posted something on FB that one of the little girls had said. I guess that Mama hadn’t shaved yet because when the little girl felt her leg, she said that her mommy had “sprinkles” on her leg. Little kids say the cutest things.

Here are two recent pictures from their day care…now can you blame me for loving this instant Grandma thing…they are so darn cute your heart just melts….even when one of them bangs two snowglobes together and shatters one. Because she looks up at you and says “Sorry, sorry, Oma! ” and of course you are ready to give her something else to break because she is just too cute! :)

My son and the mama didn’t have much time, nor do they now…for romantic dating or time alone. I think that every day is pretty crazy for them…and if they are right for each other for the long term…( well I hope that they are ) then perhaps they’ll marry someday. I would not want them to do that now. Living together with all of these children is a testing time. I know that marriage is the ideal but in this day and age, many do not last, and I just think to test things out in a situation like this is better.

As to grandparenting in general…I enjoy it but I also heave a sigh when they leave, and then I have a good day of putting things away or finding this or that toy here or there…until the next onslaught. When Brent was little and I babysat him and had him here overnight I was a nervous wreck…constantly worried about him falling or getting hurt. Were these twins 1 year old I doubt that I’d enjoy them as much as them being 3 1/2 years old.

SHOULD my son and their mama stay together and end up wanting a child together down the line, SHE is a twin, too. Oh my…there are odds of another set, aren’t there.

As to those grandmas that I was emailing with…if you haven’t visited them lately do so..Joyce at What Happens at Grandmas and KC at Amaraland. Joyce has a new Christmas craft up on her website and KC has a story about what a brat ( my take on it :) she was as a little kid….LOL! She’s got some cooking adventure stories there that make me just shudder when I think of it happening to me as the mama or grandma. They are too funny / you will enjoy :)

As to my little guy…after a houseful at Thanksgiving, and both he and Kate here together on two days that she was on school break, the other day I had him to myself for awhile. I don’t have TV ( cancelled cable about a year ago ) and rarely do I get a movie for the kids…but on this day I’d returned some library books and came home with the DVD “ICE AGE” in case he wanted to watch it. Here he and my dog Jugsy are settling in for the movie. Brent generally lasts about a half an hour and then wants to see what I am up to or goes upstairs to play or plays with something down here…but there was a half an hour of “ICE AGE” at least :)

Speaking of ice, I know that much of our country is under some ice or expected to have some soon. We have had two rounds of ice pellets thus far here, south of Pittsburgh. Prior to this we had heavy rains for days… the ground is saturated, the roads are full of puddles.

Local Weather Stations earlier: ( Pick your Forecast / none are the same! :)

ONE said that Pittsburgh would get a wintry mix and then 4-6 inches of snow. SOUTH ( me..here ) would get an inch or less of snow.
ONE said my location would get 3-5 ( upped from 1-3 earlier )
ONE said my location would get 4-6.

Big difference between the guy that said 1 inch and the other two! :)

Posted in Misc, Simple Pleasures: The Kids | 3 Comments »

5 Randoms Early December

December 4, 2013 by Debra

Something simple and sweet after the excess of the holiday. I love these little Clementine tangerines.

So do these two…a tabletop tree in the dining room had lights that did not work anymore. So we had to dismantle the entire tree and put it back together again and of course, they loved that !

Putting together some snowball blocks for a future quilt project…

While it looked like this a week ago, tomorrow we should hit close to 60 degrees!

The elusive cardinal enjoying a snack in that snow…

Posted in 5 randoms | Tagged cardinal, clementine tangerines, snow, tree lights | 5 Comments »

Over the river and through the woods…

November 30, 2013 by Debra

Last year at the holidays there were just two children …this year there are five. For Thankgiving, I decided to put the oldest three ( Kate, Brent and Javis, who is a year older than Brent ) at a long narrow folding table, using one folding chair and the piano bench, which seats two. The three year old twins would be at the grownup table with us.

As you can see, it leaves little space for walk-thru, but it did work. The white lump on the floor is one of the dogs.

Since my niece and her boyfriend were able to come as well, we squeezed in twelve for dinner altogether.

My son posted this phone picture to FB …here they are on their way. One of his friends commented that those kids needed a serious dose of tryptophan quickly as they were a handful! :)

We had our Thanksgiving on Friday. That way I had them all to myself rather than them having to run around to two or three dinners on Thursday. And it worked. Of course adults always eat a lot on Thanksgiving but those little kids were just shoveling in the food and asking for seconds.

But you know how it is when you are having a big dinner…first you dish up the kids but the adults are still milling around, passing food, etc. ? Well these kids were starting to panic and one of the them hollered “Can we PLEASE pray ?? ” Because they are trained not to eat until they pray. So there they were practically shouting “God is Great, God is Good ” and the rest of the prayer so that they could eat.

After dinner, my niece and I did the casserole dishes and china and crystal, and left smaller things and the silver for the kids to help with. I do believe that at least two inches of Dawn dish soap was used up by the little ones. They do love to wash dishes!

The others were assigned to drying the silver and putting it away. Here they are waiting for the next round.

Later on it was time to decorate the train table for Christmas. Then there was a snowball fight and the little ones had so much fun with that and my niece’s boyfriend.

Next it was time for music….

Since I had three sons, I always got a kick out of my nieces because they were girls. While Kate spends a lot of time with other grandma, I get a kick out of her when I have her because she is a girl. And so you can imagine how much fun it is for me to have Aiselyn and Mya following me around calling me Oma and snuggling into my lap or wanting to ‘help’ with this or that. On this round, not only are there girls, there are twin girls! :)

And…my son helps to paint their fingernails! :)

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Posted in Simple Pleasures: The Kids | Tagged thanksgiving | 19 Comments »

Little kids and how they think about things as they go along

November 26, 2013 by Debra

My little grandson is starting to figure things out.

I thought I’d post two of his recent thought processes.

We were in the car, early morning the other day, having taken his older sister to school. On the way back, we passed a farm with cows in a field. He shouted “Cows..YUM! You have to shoot them to get the meat but Kate ( older sister ) does not believe that!” Where did this come from, I wondered. Upon questioning he told me that his grandma Ida has a young cow but won’t shoot it since it has not grown horns nor laid eggs yet.

( I think that this might be about her neighbor’s cows…not sure :)

Then, he wondered what holiday this was right now. I explained that Halloween was over, Kate’s birthday was the next day, Thanksgiving was after that, in a week, and then Christmas. I asked if he understood Thanksgiving and he did not. I started telling him about the Indians that lived here before anyone else.

I thought that saying that they were “Red Indians” as I had heard as a child was confusing so I said that they were dark tan people with long dark hair, and that they helped the white people ( like us ) that came over from another country in boats.

He clearly had the crayon box in mind because he seriously informed me that we were not white people, but peach. And of course, he was correct.

( The car ride was long enough to explain that cows did not lay eggs, and to talk more about Thanksgiving…but what a hoot that morning’s conversation was :)

Posted in Simple Pleasures: The Kids | 5 Comments »

Feathered & Furry Friends

November 22, 2013 by Debra

Hey there little squirrel, want a peanut? Yes you…c’mon up and visit, little buddy.

Oh look who else wants your peanuts and cracked corn ! : )

Meanwhile after going through almost 10 lbs. of sunflower seeds at the feeders, and seeing only sparrows and other birds, finally Mr. Cardinal showed up. The missus was here the other morning but too elusive for my camera.

Oh, not you too!!?? Please don’t play hide and seek with me?

No, don’t turn your back like that either? Just one good shot, please? Yes you do look handsome but can’t I just see your face for a minute?

Thank you! :) I do appreciate it!

Meanwhile…yes, yes, I do know that “His Eye is on the Sparrow” and I don’t love you any less, it is just that there are so many of you little feathered friends and you eat soooooooooooo much, so pardon me if I showed a little favoritism today when Mr. Cardinal showed up.