Happy New Year to you! God gave us a new baby grandson December 28th. Brantley. He is beautiful. His two sisters, Cheyenne and Izabella say they will keep him. Good thing. I have to giggle under my breath while helping out my daughter while her husband is doing the fireman shift. (48 hours on 4 days off...3 hour commute!) Some of the things the little ones say crack me up. Some of the things the adults say, including me, crack me up when I stop to hear it. Like "Izzy, get baby Jesus out of your mouth!"

We took all 3 kiddos to the doctor. Chey is almost 4, Izzy will be 2 in March and newborn Brantley. First the arrangement of the car seats for the safe placement...not only for the driving but for the helpful Izzy. She wants so much to share her "Binky" with the baby. So, putting Chey between worked well. Then getting them into the car, taking them out of the car at the Dr., and running after Izzy while the Dr. examined the baby. Whew! Afterward a trip to McDonald's...eating in the car. Then we dared a stop at the store, two carts. We made the mistake of putting the baby carrier into the cart with Helpful Izzy. She kept "giving" the baby gifts.
When we finally go home, Missy (the mom) announced they will not be leaving the house for the next year! I suddenly remembered why I did my grocery shopping at midnight, alone. One baby is hard, but pretty easy. Two babies was a stretch, but you still had two parents, one for each. But three! Now that is a trick!
My friend Karen had twins for her second pregnancy. How did you do it Karen? Missy is quoting "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Yes, she can and will, with some help from her family and friends.

     We've spent a lot of time with our grand babies these past weeks. They love to create and I love to watch them, encourage them and sometimes guide them. Mostly they know what the creative thing will be without my help!
     We like to have grandkid weekends...or at least overnighters. Last weekend was with 4 girls age 10 to 21 months in our tiny Chicago apartment. They LOVE it! A special time being crammed into a small space with creative juices flowing. After I picked them up we went to Michael's Craft Store. Morgan and Cheyenne agreed it was like being in heaven! I had to laugh, because that is often how I feel going into an art store. They picked the crafty things they wanted to do and off we were to a fun evening. Grandpa Ron made frozen pizzas for dinner and the girls ate, played and created. How fun is that?!
     Some of the other grandkid weekends included dress-up fashion show with grandma's clothes. Puppet shows. Last summer I put up easels in the yard and we did crazy paintings with tempera then used squirtguns to make it run down the cardboard. Ron made a little "beach" by filling a concrete mixing box with sand and filled a small baby pool. It was great fun!
    If you have grandkids or nieces/nephews or family friends....take some time to make memories with them. It doesn't cost much...sometimes free, but the relationships you build will be precious!  Enjoy!

So...today, I will try again. I am having trouble embedding this blog into my web page. It appears to be a simple thing to do, per the tutorials on the net. However, when it appears on the page it is tiny. I really wonder why anyone other than my family would even try to read this, but as a tiny little thing, no one will read.
Off to try again....wish me luck, if you actually read this post!

Thought for today...Is it a narcissistic thing to write a blog? Are people who read them voyeurs? We live in a strange world after all!

So, here I am trying another approach to blogging on this website. It has taken me several days to figure out how easy this is...really. It is easy. Just do it the way everyone is doing it instead of trying to figure out how to make a blog using Xara. It just can't be done with my version.
I've been in the Nashville area with my grandkids while my daughter and son-in-law are on a trip. I thought, "great, I can get so much done on the computer". However, it never really works out the way we hope. I spent too many hours trying to do something simple and, here I am on Thursday no farther along than on Monday.
I did read a great little book written for kids. "Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry. My grand daughter had it, Ron read it years ago, highly recommending it. The story is about Denmark during the Nazi occupation. Good, fast, read while waiting somewhere.
So, now to actually add this blog to my website.