Tag Archives: Grandparent

Nana’s Hands

Posted in family, Family Values, generational changes, grandkids, Grandparenting, Life, Quotes, Spiritual by

If we can be generous with our hearts, ourselves, we have no idea of the depth and breadth of love’s reach. Our Nana was a generous woman with a big heart not just to her family but to all kinds of people, even people she didn’t know.

 She did nice things without expecting anything back. Nana was especially good at baking and she made the best chocolate chipcookies in the world.

One of the best things about Nana was that she loved people and they loved her back. Friends and family knew they could stop by and see her anytime and Nana would always welcome them. Everyone in her family depended on Nana to keep them up with the latest birth or who got married in the neighborhood (in the old neighborhood) as my dad use to say. They grew up in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 

Now Nana’s not here to tell us what’s going on, or to bake those favorite things she was so good at making. Nana passed away a few years and my cousin found this poem and we realized that it describes how we felt about our Nana. It’s called “Nana’s Hands.”

Nana’s Hands used to touch us with. Nana’s hands would scold us and sit us down in a chair. Nana’s hands would applaud us when we did something good. Nana’s hands would hold us every chance they could. Nana’s hands would aid us when we fell down. Nana”s hands, Yes I miss them, they were the best hands around. Nana’s hands would spank us and she would say, “Now, Baby, you act right.” Nana’s hands would stroke us and tuck us in at night. Nana’s hands would pray for us, they would pray for everyone she knew. Nana’s hands would rise in the air as in God she put her trust. Nana’s hands were special; they were the very best. Nana’s hands got tired, and now they are at rest.

We thought a lot about the last line of that poem it taught us that it can be hard to lose people we love but it can sometimes be for the better too. When Nana got sick we felt bad for her when we realized she couldn’t do things she loved anymore and she was in pain. At least we knew that she didn’t hurt anymore.

 We also realized that we never thought about how things would change once Nana was gone. Losing someone you love can definitely help us appreciate the people who are special to us while we still have them in our lives.

Create A Family Value’s List

Posted in Chidren, family, Family Values, grandkids, Grandparenting, Life by

 What are your top five family values?  What traits do you hope your child or grandchildren will have as an adult? 

 Using the following five strategies in the acronym “TEACH”  can help you decide which traits really mean the most to you.

T- Target the value you want to apply right this minute in your home. Focus on only one at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed and spin you wheels trying to do to much. Many moms and grandmothers target a different key value each month. Write down your choices so you don’t forget.

E- Exemplify this value in your own everyday behavior. The easiest way for children and grandchildren to learn any new value is by actually seeing it in action. So intentionally start looking for ways to tune up your chosen value anytime you’re with your children or grandchildren.

A- Accentuate the targeted value in simple ways. For example, if respect is your targeted value seize the opportunity to make a point about treating all people with dignity by showing respect to the people in your life. 

C-Catch your children displaying the value and praise them for it. ” Hey, I know it was hard to admit you broke your brother’s hockey stick. I appreciate your honesty.

H- Highlight the value of the value. ” I loved how you smiled at Grandma today. That was being really kind. Did you see how her face lit up? Whenever you’re kind, it helps make the world a better place.” Whenever you highlight a value be sure you name the value and tell your child exactly how they made a different.

Here is an example of a few values : assertiveness, caring, charitableness, courage, excellence, fairness, friendliness, dependability, determination, generosity, helpfulness, honesty,industriousness, kindness, joyousness, politeness, tolerance, understanding, unselfishness, wisdom, purposefulness and a hundred more words that describe family values. This is something that grandparents can do to.

Grandparents Can Bring Back Letter Writing

Posted in Chidren, generational changes, grandkids, Grandparenting, Letters, Technology, traditions by

In this age of cell phones, Email, faxes, letter writing is an all but forgotten practice and most young children have never written a letter.

 Now days we talk to our friends on our cell phones it rarely occurs to us to write a letter. When was the last time your received a nice long juicy letter?  Having grandchildren is an excellent opportunity to revive an old custom.

One of the most important things to remember about letters is that they are both a form of communications for the present and a record for the future. Ask your grandchildren to keep a copy of your letters, but to be on the safe side, keep a copy yourself. When I was a young girl my grandmother and I wrote letters. I would read her letters ( and my replies) they were full of grandmotherly advice. I still have a few of the letters she sent, and I treasure them dearly, even though they are more than forty years old. I only wish they contained more details.

Even if your grandchildren don’t appreciate the letters now they will in the future. Letter writing is only one way of fulfilling your role of family historian. Don’t limit yourself to writing standard letters. Even your youngest grandchildren can look at pictures and if you have the skill of drawing you can send one of your drawing to them. 

As they get older you can send them picture letters where the message is conveyed by a few pictures or drawings about things they are interested in. If there’s a cartoon or comic strip you think your grand-daughter would appreciate send it to her. As they get older you can send them a disposable camera with an addressed and stamped mailing envelope and ask them to take pictures of anything they want and send them to you. And don’t forget to send pictures and postcards when you travel!

Once children get used to the idea that there may be letters arriving containing news, pictures, stories and other treats intended especially for them, they will come to look forward to them. Despite all our technological advances, most people I know feel a little rush of anticipation when they open their mail and hidden in among the bills, solicitations, and magazines is a personal letter or a post card.

Twentieth-century technology has vastly changed out ability to communicate over distance. Although it hardly seems believable today, at the end of World War Two only half of American homes had a telephone. Even in the late 1950s as many as a quarter of households had no telephone. Our grandchildren will probably find it just as hard to imagine that in 1990 only 27th percent of U.S. households had a computer!

 For hundreds of years or at least since pens and paper became commonplace and people who wanted to get in touch with other people separated by distance had only one way to do it. They wrote letters it was the only means of long-distance communication, at least until the telegraph was invented in the 19th century. 

Today the schools are considering replacing cursive writing with texting and key boarding. Grandparents can start hand writing letters and have their grandchildren write back to them. There are hundreds of fun subjects to write about while creating letters that in the future will become keepsakes.

Baby Sonograms Have Become Keepsakes…

Posted in Babies, family, grandkids, Keepsakes, Photos, Technology by

The beginning of a baby’s life can be captured on sonograms. I think that is pretty awesome. Making a college of girls and boys sonograms can be a fun way to create a keepsake.

A photo of a sonograms also reminds me how advanced technology is. We seem to take technology for granted these days. Don’t we? I remember when the first photo of a baby was taken after they were born and having to wait until they were born to find out if they were a girl or a boy. We sure have come along way haven’t we?

Have you noticed that even with so much stress in families day-to-day lives they haven’t forgotten to stop look around and recognize there is happiness all around them? Thanks to cell phones with cameras, camcorders, small compact cameras and social net works like face book and picasa web albums on google.com grandparents get to see their family’s photos and thanks to check in on face book they can be notified when their grandchildren are at a school play or a school foot ball game. I am a very grateful for all the techy gadgets that grand parents have available to them to use now days. Isn’t technology wonderful when it is used in a good way? It sure does help to keep us grandparents connected to our families more than any other generation.

I wonder what sonograms will be like a decade from now? How will moms and dads be sharing their first photos of their little boys or girls with us in the future?  I wonder what new and grand opportunities technology will offer us in the next ten years?

When Letters Were Written…

Posted in family, generational changes, grandkids, Grandparenting, Keepsakes, relationships, Technology, traditions by

Writing letters can be a lot of fun. When we write a letter to a friend or a relative, it’s called a friendly letter.  A friendly letter (or informal letter) is a way of communicating between two people. Who are usually well acquainted.

There are many uses and reason’s for writing a friendly letter and friendly letters will usually consist of a topic on a personal level. Friendly letters can be printed or hand-written. Hand written letters are known for many reasons such as a “The Dear John” letter or a “ The Love Letter.”

I grew up in the fifties and sixties when letters were written. Writing and mailing a letter, post card or a holiday card was the only way I could connect with my long distant friends and family.  Sometimes I would type a letter but most of the time they were hand written. I liked the personal touch. I wasn’t allowed to make  long distance calls unless I could pay for them. So, the price of a stamp it was. Except on special occasions I could pick one person to call for a few minutes.

The first hand written letter that I received was from my grandmother. She lived in Massachusetts and I lived in California. Being a long distant grandmother was definitely a challenge for her but lucky me she was creative a writer and her letters made reading and writing fun for me. I always looked forward to receiving her letters because she had a way of sparking my imagination. Who doesn’t enjoy having their imagination sparked?  It’s because of our letter writing that we managed to maintained a close relationship.

 The letters from my grandmother have become part of my favorite keepsakes. I read them and re-read the letters over and over. It seems like I have read them a million times but that would be an exaggeration.

My grandmother was a busy woman and she still managed to write letters to all fourteen of her grandchildren. She worked as a school teacher for over thirty years. She was known as Nana to fourteen grandchildren. She was happily married for over sixty years and the mother of four children. My grandfather wrote a love letters to her on each of their wedding anniversaries. She out lived him by two years and she kept every letter that he had written to her. How romantic is that? When I think about how wonderful those letters are I wish we still wrote letters today. 

When Life Is Like A Roller Coaster Ride

Posted in Babies, family, generational changes, grandkids by

I often wonder what would happen if our children really knew our stories really knew our lives would they be surprised by our choices? 

 Would they grieve our mistakes? Might our struggles, dreams, our failures and successes, somehow help heal some of the disappointments in their own lives?  Would they or Could they learn from our mistakes?  Some of my friends and family relate to their life stories as portrayed in films such as Parenthood, Terms of Endearment,  In Her Shoes,  The Notebook  or  Message in a Bottle.  As I consider the deep love, commitment, faithfulness, romance, infidelity, life decisions, and healing of relationships that are depicted in these movies, I cry but then when my family and some friends want to laugh at family life we watch a movie called Parenthood and once again the movie takes us back to those, messy, zany, experiences that we had as younger mothers and parenthood doesn’t seem so serious for a while.

Much of the film is based on the family and parenting experiences of the screenwriters and producer Brian Granz, who have 14 children among the four of them. There’s one cinematic scene that is my favorite. It takes place between Steve Martin‘s character  as Gil Buckman and Mary Steenburgen‘s character as Karen Buckman. They are married to each other in the movies and have three children. He’s a neurotic sales executive, trying to balance family life in suburban St. Louis and his career.

When he finds out that his son has emotional problems and the school psychologist tells them that their son needs therapy. Gil begins to blame himself, and deeply questions his abilities as a father. In addition, he’s dealing with his wife telling she is pregnant with their fourth child, he is unsure if he can handle the wonderful news.

 While Gil and Karen are talking about the issues of having a fourth child. Gil’s Grandma comes into the room. She tells them a story about when she was nineteen, and went on a roller coaster ride with Gil’s grandpa. His Grandma describes how much she liked the roller coaster ride.

She tells them, how much fun it was to ride on the roller coaster. It wasn’t boring, like  ridding on the Merry Go Round. The Roller Coaster, went up and down and up and down, and all around. The Merry Go Round just went around. Then Gil’s wife said, Your grandmother’s a smart woman. His replied. If she’s so smart why is she sitting in the neighbors car?

I agree with Gil’s grandmother I preferred the Roller Coaster Ride called parenthood, family and grandparent-hood. How about you do you prefer the Merry Go Round or The Roller Coaster Ride or both?

A Poem Called Grandma Wings

Posted in Books, Dreams, family, grandkids, Grandparenting, Spiritual by

This is a poem called ” Grandma Wings” author unknown. The other day when I read it I started to image what it would be like if grandmothers really had Grandma Wings. I hope that you enjoy reading this poem and my thoughts about it.

“GRANDMA WINGS AUTHOR UNKNOWN”

 I wonder where you keep your wings? Are they in your closet, with the rest of your stuff?  Do you put them away, and just use them at night?  Do give them to grandpa to polish up bright? I know you have wings, for this is true. Because God, always gives them to Angles like you!  I wish that I had a pair of wings. That would be awesome. Wouldn’t it?

Can you image?  The places we could go if you had angel wings? If I had angel wings, I would go to the heaven’s. I would ride with my grandkids grandpa, on his heavenly motorcycle. What would you do?

 We know that angels exist. We know God uses them, to send his messages and the angles meet among us. The holy angels never draw attention to them-selves. They typically do their work and disappear. We are told, that these heavenly beings are invisible. Being created by God for his service. They are mentioned 294 times, in more than half the Biblical books. The books record the activities of angels as serving as warriors, guardians,delivers, messengers, instruments of praise. It’s awesome, to read that grandmothers have a lot in common with angles? Isn’t it?