Gramma's Place

I have decided to decline the offer of another 3-6 or 12 months of blogspirit. I will always have things to say I suppose, but I will have to find a cheaper way of saying them!
Thank you for your kind attention!

Well, I know I don’t look it, but I am a year older. I should be wiser and maybe I am, but I forgot the ginko again, so I can’t remember. For some time though, I have had a theory: If you stay married long enough whether you actually say it or not, you are living the Serenity Prayer. I can’t say I always think of it in those terms either, but it is a socially acceptable way of writing it in this blog and God knows I don’t want to be banned for bad language!
For those of you who have not been introduced to the Serenity Prayer let me give you the words, so you know what I am talking about.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

I have been married a long time. My husband and I have weathered many storms. We have not always gotten along and we have not always liked each other. I’m not sure if we have always loved each other. I know we have each taken our turn at treating the other un-lovingly.
Over the years I have decided that each couple whether consciously or not makes a choice if they will (or can) accept what the other person will dish out. If they decide they can’t take it they either leave or make it abundantly clear that they will not tolerate the behavior. If your partner is willing to change the behavior, then you have shown the courage talked about in the prayer. If you decide to accept the behavior you are practicing the serenity part of the prayer.
There is a popular saying that says ‘pick your battles’. If you understand that and put it into practice, you have the ‘wisdom to know the difference’.
When we were younger we agreed to disagree on certain things. Over the years though I have noticed that we have closer on most of our issues of contention. Now that our children are grown there is less stress and we can relax and enjoy each other more often. The reason we can do that is that we have continued to cultivate our friendship through the years knowing full well that the children would not always be living with us.
We still find each other interesting and we both try to stay interested in each other’s own pursuits. In other words we do have separate interests that may or may not involved the other person. As long as we cultivate an interest in what is going on with one another, we can remain in tuned with our partner.
Now, we realize that our time together is limited and we want to do the things we planned long ago before one or the other of us can no longer enjoy the plans of our youth. Of course money is always an issue too so we can’t just pick up and go or do things when we are trying to make sure we have enough money to have a comfortable retirement. With God’s help we will live long enough and stay healthy enough to accomplish all that He has planned for us and then we will be an example to our children and grandchildren and maybe even our great grandchildren!

I have bored some of you with my telling how wonderful my two grandsons are and now I will bore other people with how wonderful my elder grand daughter is! She is the only light haired grandchild I have and she has sort-of green eyes. She will be 6 in January and sometimes acts a lot older. Especially when there are younger children around. I guess it is the ‘mother instinct’. She has a round cherub face that lights up when she smiles. She loves pink and Angelina Ballerina. She wants to be a ballerina when she gets older. She also loves me to read to her and I love it too! She is full of hugs and kisses and she shares them with those of us who are worthy. She has been convinced she is a “Beautiful Princess” since she was born.
Her older brother has always (well almost always) tried to protect her and keep her from getting hurt. Her brother that is closer to her in age has not always gone along with the game plan. For a long time he just didn’t like her! She wouldn’t give up on him though and tried to make him like her much to his dismay. Finally he was convinced like the rest of us she is a sweetie.
She is also very smart. Her mom home schools all of the children. We watched her hold back on reading until her older brother got a real good handle on it. (He just didn’t want to read) Now she is going great guns and will soon pass up both boys if they aren’t careful! She loves to color as do I and so she bought me a coloring book and crayons for Christmas last year so we could color together!
She snuggles with her daddy nearly every day and he loves it because he knows he will not be able to do that too much longer. Her daddy is very outwardly affectionate and he will miss all those hugs and kisses but, as we all know our children do grow up and away all too soon!
She is a good girl and loves to help. She will fold clothes, wash the table, (at least what she can reach of it) and set the table, almost anything you ask.
Another thing she loves to do is sing. She has sung since she was really small. She knows the words to almost all the songs we sing at church. In fact, when we have church outside in the summer, one of my friends who lives across the street from the church can hear her loud and clear! She was a blessing right from the beginning because after I had two sons and then her mom had two sons we were really ready for a little girl!
She may have said the funniest thing of all recently when her grandpa said, “ I love you!” She said “I love you too!” and he said “I love you more!” then she said, “Maybe you do!”