Category Archives: grandparents

a weekend off

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How does that old song go?

Everybody’s workin’ for the weekend…

Egads, that song IS old, like back when MTV played music videos like all day old!

Yes, most folks are doing the Monday through Friday thing just so they can rest and play through their weekend.

Lucky!

Me, I work pretty much every weekend. A weekend off is a rare thing and is usually in order to take Jodie to a dance competition. Juggling the needs of this circus I have no choice. I love that I can be there for Hollie to watch the babies. Jodie and Daniel live too far from their schools to walk and there is no school-provided transportation available. Well, I did give up the short bus hoping Daniel could stay at his school rather than be moved to yet another school in the district. And then there is homework…fourth grade homework is hard, especially hard for a kid like Daniel. The kids need me. They seem to need me more the older they get. Sorry to the moms of little ones who just can’t wait for the freedom of older kids. It doesn’t always work out that way. The fact that my workplace only offers 12 hour shifts makes it all the harder. This is why I gave up my full time position more than four years ago and accepted a per diem position. I love my job. I love what I do. But my family right now needs me more and needs me to have more flexibility in when I work and when I am home for them.

In the workplace, I gave up a lot. Some think I don’t take my career as seriously I should. Some assume I’m lucky to stay home and choose not to work full time and work “whenever I feel like working”.  Not true. But it is what I choose to sacrifice the career a little for the family. And so I work pretty much every single weekend, when my family is home resting and playing.

But this weekend I had off…Friday through Sunday, which is the weekend in the night shift nurse-land.

How glorious!

How desperately needed.

So I put my calls directly to voice mail…because I knew that I would be called to come in due to staffing needs and new admissions. I was. I felt a little bit guilty because I know how hard it is to find extra staff when short-staffed, especially with surprise admissions…and especially on weekends. Yes, I felt a little bit guilty. But I reminded myself how desperately I needed my own weekend off for my own physical, mental and emotional health. It was time for me to take a weekend off and to enjoy…

a date night with the husband…

spending a few hours in my daughter’s stylist chair…

some cuddle time with a 10 month old who doesn’t believe in napping on a lazy Sunday afternoon. OMG, Fallon is TEN MONTHS OLD!!!…

enjoy some silly play when chores should be done…

and take some time to just play a little with my boy…who won’t be little that much longer…

to try out yet another recipe that I pinned on Pinterest and then sit down and enjoy some Sunday afternoon football. The enchiladas, by the way, were delicious!

And now Monday is here…back to the juggling of the kids, school, after school obligations and activities, the grandkids and everything else…oh, and work this weekend. I am so glad that I took this last weekend off.

it’s a sign

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The grands are here three days a week while Hollie and Ben are working hard for the money. Hurray for free childcare!

It’s all good. I do love the time I get to spend with my grands, Trouble and The Little Monster, a.k.a. Hazel and Fallon. I don’t recall working this hard back in the day when I had three babies in diapers and potty training and taxiing another to and from school and other activities. It’s amazing how parental amnesia makes us forget the really sucky, hard stuff. How else would our species survive? Then I happen to come upon happiness like this:

There she is, encouraging her baby sister Fallon.

Then Buster has to get in to the act, pressing his nose against the glass and getting all up in Hazel’s business.

And to think I find myself wondering, out loud, often, why it is that I can’t have nice things…or clean windows. After all these years, you’d think I would see and appreciate or accept the signs.

Sigh!

But thank goodness I do have so much fun and so many memories made with these two amazing grandbabies of mine…and with Buster too.

This week’s Focus 52 prompt was Signs. Be sure to check out more signs over at Jan’s place and may I invite you to join in on next week’s prompt. It is Silence. Now to ponder how I might capture silence with my camera here with this circus act.

my kids are so very lucky

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Dad
He never looks for praises
He’s never one to boast
He just goes on quietly working
For those he loves the most
His dreams are seldom spoken
His wants are very few
And most of the time his worries
Will go unspoken too
He’s there A firm foundation
Through all our storms of life
A sturdy hand to hold on to
In times of stress and strife
A true friend we can turn to
When times are good and bad
One of our greatest blessings,
The man that we call Dad.

~Karen Boyer

Happy Father’s Day my darling husband and thank you for being exactly the kind of dad I wished and hoped for  for our children and grandchildren.

getting down

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For this week’s Focus 52 project, Janice writes:

Often our eyes are so busy focused straight ahead and center, that we miss a whole lot of other things going on around us. …But how often do you look down?

I know that she is thinking about the assignment of shooting from a ground level perspective. But as I thought about what I wanted to shoot for the assignment I couldn’t help thinking of how we as adults are.

When my kids were small I would warn them to watch where they were going because the grownups don’t.

We don’t.

Okay, perhaps we do pay attention to our surroundings and watch where we are going…at our eye level. But do we ever look down? Think about that the next time you are at a mall, a park or any place where they are a lot of small human beings. Watch the people walking about and see for yourself. Usually the people will grumble about watching where they are going or inattentive parents as they bump into small ones…small ones they did not see at all because they weren’t looking down.

We rarely do look down. We often don’t even get down, grumbling about bad knees or creaky backs or getting dirty. But sometimes down on the ground is where the fun can be. At least for a small child.

Fallon is starting to crawl now. Which means that my carpets and floors have never been cleaner. She’s having a blast exploring her surroundings learning more and more as she goes.

I love this stage. So much discovery is happening. How sad it would be if I didn’t take the time to get down on the floor with her and just play…or make her crawl after me to discover more. I can get her to follow me just by holding my camera in my hand. It’s the bright red camera strap she wants, I know…probably to chew on. It’s a fun game for her. And it wears her out so she takes the best naps in the pack-n-play that I have for her.

I overheard one of her other grandmothers telling someone that now that Fallon is crawling she is going to have to set up that “playpen” to keep her confined. I couldn’t help but cringe as I stifled the urge to scream out, “You can’t put her into baby jail!“. How can she possibly play and explore in a 30 inches by 40 inches space? She can’t. Fallon knows that “playpens” are for sleeping in…like at Mi-ma’s house. She’ll scream and rage if her grandmother dares to confine her that way. And think of what she would be missing too if she did keep the baby in baby jail.

Moments like these.

I’d much rather take the time to keep the Big Top baby-proofed and (achy back and creaky knees be damned) just get down with Fallon.

Be sure to stop over at Janice’s place and see more views from a ground level perspective.

four years ago today

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Four years ago today was one of those days I pray that I never, ever forget…even when I seem to forget what’s his name who played that guy on that show that used to air on Thursday night. Four years ago today I cut an umbilical cord, which probably for me isn’t a big deal since I cut umbilical cords from time to time in my line of work. But this time was different. Four years ago today I cut the cord that connected my baby girl to her baby girl. In that moment, as Hazel took her first breaths and loudly announced her presence, my little girl became a mother for the first time and I became a Mi-ma for the very first time and together Hollie and I became connected in a way that we were never connected before.This little girl changed our lives forever that day. She changed them for the better. All of this because of this little girl…

…this exquisite girl-child…who just so happens to be four years old…today…and all year long.

Happy, happy birthday Hazey-Face!