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http://tinyurl.com/Muffins-MayhemPO
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Dear Reader,
One of the ingredients for my personal happiness is spending time with my grandchildren, so later this week I'm gonna be one excited and deliriously happy grandmother. Bailey and Seth, two grandchildren from Wisconsin, are coming to visit for ten days. This ten day summer vacation has been a ritual for Bailey for the past three years, but this will be Seth's first visit. The kids tell me they're counting the days, but I'm embarrassed to say I think I'm more excited than they are. I'm not expecting miracles, everything doesn't need to go smoothly, and I'm not looking for the perfect vacation, just the opportunity to create memories with grandchildren I rarely get to see.
Every year as my husband and I were driving to the airport to pick up Bailey, I'd worry just a little bit that I wouldn't recognize her. Kids change, especially teenagers. They grow so fast. I wonder if Bailey worries she won't recognize me--grandma's getting older, too. And I'm a little bit strange--especially for a grandmother--blowing bubbles, hula-hooping in the front yard, cranking up the music and dancing around the living room. Sometimes I wonder how Bailey describes me to her friends when she gets back home. They must ask, "What's your grandmother like?"
I loved visiting my Grandma and Grandpa Hale when I was a kid, but I remember thinking some of the things my grandparents did were boring at the time. Walking through the woods picking up walnuts, my grandfather could do that for hours. Me, just a kid, I got bored with it after a while. But you know, today when I think of my grandfather one of the first things I remember are those darn walnuts, the long walks in the woods, and the lessons about squirrels my Grandfather tried to impress upon me. Grandpa hunted squirrels in season, but he also made sure the city squirrels that lived in the trees in his yard, were well fed. He even built platforms for them. Grandpa told me it was okay to take from the earth, "but Suzanne, you need to do your part to give back. It's the circle of life," and he'd give me a big hug.
A simple "boring" day. Yet I can still feel the hug, and when I close my eyes Grandpa and I are walking through the woods. Boring? Strange? Maybe I'm worried for nothing. Maybe this "strange" grandmother is one of the perfect ingredients for creating lasting, loving memories. I sure hope so.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
www.MuffinsandMayhem.com
* This month's Penguin Classics book is A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov. To start reading and enter for your chance to win a Penguin totebag go to: http://tinyurl.com/July10Classics
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