Lucille's

Being Glammy

(Little Davis calls me 'Glammy'. I'll take it!!)

Thinking about the precious times I have with the grandboys. Can't recall any that cost much money......seems there are so many things to do that just require a bit of time and effort.

Down at the cabin, we go on an adventure in the woods.

We have a secret trail to the beaver pond that noone else in the family knows about. The boys wear their beaver and frog backbacks that I found at the thrift store. They have stuffed them with their water bottles, fish crackers and paper and pencil in case they have a need to 'study' something. We trudge through the underbrush, over and under logs, the boys picking up stick swords and slingshots along the way in preparation for the wild beasts that will surely bound out at any moment. They play that I am the princess (of course) and that they are the knights.

Jerod and Davis showing their knightly mettle

We sit on a log and eat our snacks, discussing weighty matters, then leap to our feet as a buffalo or panther lunge out of nowhere bent on consuming the princess. Thankfully the wild beasts are thwarted by the valiant efforts of her brave escorts. Along the winding up and down pathway, we discover amazing treasure and scoop it up on pieces of bark to bring back to the castle

The adventure doesn't take too long and the delight it brings is so precious that I have to say 'yes' once again. The years are slipping by and I know these days will soon be just a memory.


Now baking is another thing. I can hardly recall a single time when their first words upon meeting have not been, "What we baking today, Grammy?"

Baking is the best fun ever. We wear matching aprons.There's egg-cracking and scooping the eggshells out of the batter and one more chocolate chip and sugar-testing and cocoa-tasting against Grammy's advice and sprinkles gone wild. Sometimes we need to combine adventure and baking by going into the woods in Fort Langley to pick blackberries.

 We bake tiny food for a teddy birthday celebration. This of course necessitates making invitations and delivering them to the other stuffies by peddle car and hanging streamers and choosing a special gift from the toybox for the birthday celebrant.

Playing trucks and responding to emergencies is important work.

Oh, and the dollhouse. It's mine....an antique....... a gift that I hinted loudly about one recent Christmas and received from my kids.(don't ask!) Unlike my great nieces who organize and reverently play with the little pieces, the boys have a different approach. They try to see if all the furniture will fit in one room. They hang the Grammy doll from the chimney by her toe and shove the Davis doll's head in the little porcelain toilet. Paper flames leap out the windows as firefighters climb up the trellis to save the house from destruction.

An old favourite is' Grammy Gonna Get You'. Here are the boys 'hiding' behind a tree waiting for me to catch them.

We make bird pie. It is a complicated recipe requiring dump trucks, and boards for ramps and a wheelbarrow. We gather dead grass for coconut and dead-headed blooms for cherries. All manner of twigs and  dirt and other garden refuse magically combine with buckets of water to produce the delicacy that apparently the birds consume in the nighttime.

We tell funny stories, make buildings from milk cartons, put together puzzles, make roads from the dominoes, create giant bubbles, free the zoo of plastic animals from their little suitcase......all great fun.

But nothing on earth could ever match the belly-laughing fun of Grammy's secret weapon.......Frank the farting  (yes you read correctly) mouse. There is something about little boys as you know......and Grammy's aren't supposed to approve let alone participate, so it is doubly hilarious.(I will let your imagination run with this one!)

I hope you find ways to make memories with your little people. There are so many simple inexpensive  ways to communicate your love to them by just entering their world and being a child again. Getting off the couch and really being with them creates a climate where they will ask you the important questions and be receptive to your answers. It will build trust for the years ahead.

 I am reminded that Jesus said we must have faith as a little child. Their little souls are so fresh from heaven and it is a small leap for them to embrace the love of God when we teach them. They are not seeking answers to the hard questions or looking to solve all the world's problems...they simply believe. And in that there is rest.

Perhaps we should be more like them.