How I spent August

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Fathers & Sons

This is son Joey.  He is a great uncle who is now also a daddy!

This compact little bundle pictured below, so cozy and warm within, sure took his time emerging from the womb.  

But emerge he did.  As it so invariably happens.  When it was his time.

Beckett Alexander is the newest man-child in the family.

A beautiful first born son to our second born son and his wife.

Friends and Family swarmed in, delighted to hear the details of this life-altering experience.

And life altering it is.

We are all changed again, in ways yet to be measured and defined.

I watch my beloved with this bundle and remember a time long ago (was it truly so long ago?)
In my minds eye, I see this staid and stoic man dancing around a delivery room with his own man-child in arms.
A feeling monumental stirs inside me but resists words.
Ppft! Hate it when that happens.

Little Beckett Alexander with the big hands and feet? ~ ~ It is a great privilege to welcome you to our world.  You are here with us according to a grand plan and purpose of God.

As grandmother, I am now supposedly old and wise enough to wait patiently for this to unfold.
If I default in my penchant of ploughing headlong, may it be in the area of prayer.
In the stillness and beauty of this summer morning reflection, I earnestly desire that it may be so.

JB the Sweet

It was inevitable.

The "all or nothing" package deal I suppose.

    Grandparents Day.

 But seriously.  C'mon, weren't these adorable kids just born?

 The relentless march of time rattles me on such occasions.

Do not confuse this disclosure with ingratitude.  No sir-ree.  To my way of thinking, grandchildren are like dessert after a fine meal.  Highly anticipated.  Sweeter than everything else and filling you with a richness almost beyond your capacity to bear.

No.  

I will wear this mantle with all the pizzazz I can muster.

I will BE that older woman crying Carpe Diem to the overwhelmed mother of three in the checkout line.  I will tell her to unclench her teeth, that this stage is worth every hair-pulling minute, that her kids are adorable and I love them all, especially that one there, peeing in the corner.  

( a line borrowed from an article my daughter shared online.  Read it for laugh of the week!)    

And just so you know? They can come over ANYTIME and unload a kleenex box one by one.  

ANYTIME do ya hear?  With my blessing to boot.  In fact, I'll be on the floor with them.

Soon enough they'll be leaving them lying around crumpled on a coffee table somewhere.  Used.  

 Here's our JB leaving the crime scene by a stealth belly crawl.

 Under cover.  But not.  He's a big guy.

Discovered unashamed &
- disarming me with one of those slow blink smiles of his.
How I love my l'il JB.

And now on a different kind of note altogether.
A neighbour down the way sent this over.  I thought it was beautiful in a sad kind of way.
Another reason to Carpe Diem.
(With a Liberation Day anniversary around the corner, feel free to share)

Maternal Musings

Today, in a sunlit spare room upstairs, I spent an extraordinary afternoon with the contents of small ordinary looking box.

In a corner of that room, lie two very large rubbermaid totes filled with memories of my mother.  

Totes filled with precious personal things too sacred to discard -- things that need to find a new home somewhere and which by some nebulous design, became the assignment of this first born daughter. 

Me.  

So ill-suited to the task.

I wondered if today would be the day.  

In one entire afternoon, I managed to rifle through just that one little shoebox sized container, discovering (among other treasures) this well-preserved professional portrait taken in the late 1940's in Rotterdam.  

That's my mother in the middle - parked between her parents and brothers.  

The lighting is perfect and the pixels so crisp I can almost see the colour green of her eyes.  

And then it struck me.  How surreal this moment was! 

....to finally begin the process of picking through my mom's things and 'randomly' start with a box that she had, as first born daughter, kept of her own mother's memories...

The newspaper obituary, the funeral service program, old family photos, hand-written letters & cards of condolence from her church family and abroad...  

All perfectly preserved and protected for the sake of posterity - for such a time as this? 

I am oddly without words sufficient to describe the feeling of this experience. 

At once tingling the spine & nourishing the soul.

The Princess and the Pea(nut Butter).

The basement Rec room is nearing completion.
Many have asked (and in truth, we have often revisited the conundrum ourselves)
"why exactly would a pair of empty nesters in a cavernous space think to add more square footage of surface to dust and vacuum?"
Indeed, this is a fair question.
There is a well-considered, long-winded answer and then ---
there is the more obvious and simple one rendered by photo:

 A sleepover exclusive to the junior grand-daughters.

A boom box still under grandmarmie's control :)
 

 A growing stock of Value Village dress-up clothes.

 The pseudo glass slippers.

And there you have it.
Our unapologetic 'do it again in a heartbeat' reason for the thing.
Frivolous
... and SO much fun!

A Floridian Family Fest

           Here's just a few things one finds to do with a fabulous
                               family fest in Florida!

Hanging out in the pantry

Neil Diamond singing "Beautiful Noise".  A fitting tribute to our reality here :)

Sunday Dinner round table...

Knitting a new pair of Lacey Look socks on a pair of 2.75 circular turbo needles.
FYI  Turbo defines the make of needle and in no way references the handlers' speed.   

With fear and trepidation, I'm about to start the heel gusset.  But the inevitable emergency situations can be most definitely MUST be handled via email by my sister/knitting counselor-mentor.

The pool Beautiful.  It is SawWeET!

     Breaking out of the tried and tired,
experimenting with new recipes.

In a terrific environment to boot

Unpacking a shipment of barstools for our rental home.

Beloved says when we finish setting up the basement rec room back home, 

we're doing the smart thing:  Shipping in some big boxes from the grocery store and calling it done!

                                           Shell shucking

                                         Leapster Explorer

Morning walk on the golf course, 

Scavenging for grandpa's collection

A highly popular past-time!

                               Fancy nails with polish and art deco

*sigh*  

Curious George & Green Eggs and Ham 

never seem to lose one ounce of appeal

                                                      Sunsets at the beach

                                             Pelican imitation