Being a Grandmother, Autumn Days, Grandkids

"I loved their home.  Everything smelled older, worn but safe; the food aroma had baked itself into the furniture." 

 

~Susan Strasberg

 

This is how I felt about my grandparents and their homes. 

 Both sets of grandparents lived close by and I visited them often. 

 I loved the feeling I had as I entered their home.  The homes were old and worn,

 but I felt safe and secure there. 

There were delicious smells and certain objects that stand out in my mind. 

 My Grandma Lundgren's old stove and her black phone in the hallway. 

I loved her big front yard with the roses that ran along the sides.

  Grandma Bagley's home had an old hand washing machine in the basement and a laundry shoot.  They had a huge garden and a fish pond. 

 

I am a different kind of grandmother.  I tend three of my grandchildren on a regular basis. 

 I sometimes worry that they will think of me as a babysitter rather than a grama,

 so I try hard to have fun, rather than discipline. 

 Plenty of hugs and loves, but I want them to learn from me as well. 

When we pick up Jake from school, Sam always points out the Temple, so whenever he sees it we start singing

"I love to see the Temple" 

 when he can't see it we stop..then when he sees it again, we start up again. 

 

Yesterday it was Veterans Day. 

 There were lots of flags waving as we drove along.  I explained to my young audience that their great grandfather had fought in a war to keep them free.

 Sam's reaction to this was

 "You've got to be kidding me!!!" 

 I said

"NO, I am not kidding!!!"  

 I told them, " That's why the flags were waving"

so, they started counting the flags. 

 

When we got home Mike had raked up a lovely pile of leaves..

he should have put them in bags and carted them away, because we had a lesson on how the leaves fall during the autumn..

 

Jake said, as he usually does 

"It's a beautiful fall day!"

 

And then the leaves got spread all over the yard!

 

Sam and Dylan love jumping in the leaves!!!

Wren came over..she wasn't so sure.

Jake likes the leaves,

 but would rather climb a tree.

 

 

So whatever kind of grandmother I am, my relationship with all of them is simple. 

 I don't know what they will remember about me, but I will remember days like these. 

The beauty of an autumn day.  Their smiling faces as they play and ask questions, and learn, their arms around my neck,

 and that I love them.