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It’s Teen Time

When your birthdays push you past the half-century mark and beyond, there's something the great P. G. Wodehouse would have called a stone-dead cert:  You have a long list of things that mark the increasing acceleration of time.  Candles on…
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One Brief Shining Moment

It was one of those golden moments, the kind that linger in memory, perhaps more powerful because it was utterly unexpected. It began with one of those instincts you can’t suppress, because it is rooted deep in your bone marrow.  We were…

A Humbling Thing

Editor's note:  This week G-ma welcomes a guest writer.  She's our beloved sister, and we'll call her G-aunt here. Enjoy G-aunt's reflections on how deftly small children put us in our places and teach us what only they can. He’s named…
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Cookie Chaos

Picture this:  The next day, there were cookie sprinkles in my bed. You really can’t make this stuff up.  How did the little multi-colored devils make their way from the kitchen?  Certainly not because I was eating in bed; I was too…
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Sing a Song (It’ll Make you Dance)

Desperate times call for…well, you know the line.  If you’ve ever been on a road trip with two near-adolescent siblings in a phase of constant bickering, you may know a level of desperation that staggers the imagination. About two hours…
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Just Five Words

Why do siblings fight? Why does the moon orbit the earth?  Why do cats dominate dogs?  Why do Kentucky basketball fans loathe the Duke Blue Devils so bitterly?* Some things represent forces of nature, beyond the influence of humble beings…
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Watch This

Our fall break adventure was so lovely, but it was ending.  Time to go home.  There were so many memories packed into just a couple of sunny days—a crackling campfire with sausages roasting, boat rides in a wind so vigorous that the lake’s…
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In the Mind of a Kid

In the course of everyday family life involving school-aged children, schedule demands often dictate the shape and form of interaction. Conversation may feel less like an in-depth news interview and more like a quick declaration  aimed at a…
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After the Longest Year

He raised his long, gangly arms instinctively, then dropped them again, uncertain.  The study in his light blue eyes was tentative, watchful, hopeful, but unsure. I looked right into them, longing to restore his comfort, trying to beam away…

Two Hops for Hope

A few days after United States voters elected a new president and America’s first female vice president, I sat on a stool at the counter in my daughter’s kitchen, chopping with my granddaughter. Her mother was working up a beautiful breakfast…
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Storytime, COVID-style

A drama in one act The scene  Location No. 1:  A 7-year-old girl’s bedroom at about 7:45 p.m.  The room is captured in the screen camera’s eye and beamed over the ether to another screen miles away, via the technology that is re-defining…
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It’s Tea Time

The accomplished hostess knows this fundamental truth of entertaining:  Good parties tend to grow. A little gathering at my place on a recent weekend morning started with just two guests, with my granddaughter Sis as hostess and me hovering…
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Hear the Birdie?

If there are many things that lift the heart faster than making a child laugh, I can’t name them. The other day I tried a little trick with the grandkids with a bit of an ulterior motive, and it got a better laugh than I expected. Hey,…
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Old Rabbit, Harry, and Me

It’s a surprisingly moving cinematic moment, when delivered as beautifully as this one is, to see an older man connect to a younger one by asking about his favorite stuffed toy from childhood.  The older man is the legendary Fred Rogers,…
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Kids With Cameras

The scene:  A sunny Sunday afternoon in the neighborhood. The subject:  G-ma's new best pal, being lavishly admired by Buddy, camera in hand. The result:  Documentary?  Comedy?  Biography?  A pinch of all those flavors. Click below…

Remember This

Is grandparenting is a joy like no other? Just ask a G., but only if you have plenty of time on your hands, because chances are you won’t get away quickly.  In the age of social media, you could choke on all the evidence, drown in endless…

A Summer Souvenir

A late-season malaise has settled over the wide porch, the headquarters of summer at my house.  The plants are sagging moodily in the August heat, their blooms barely even tired replicas of the first brilliant bursts.  The shards of a broken…

Can I help?

Consider for a moment, if you will, the peanut butter sandwich. Universal staple for a child’s mid-day meal for generation. And maybe something more. I was about to make one for Sis, my six-year-old granddaughter, at lunch time on a…

Deep in the Night

I was just drifting off, Kindle about to tumble from my exhausted hands, when I heard it.  First, a little squeak, sort of, and I looked at the strangely garrulous cat, but she was dozing soundlessly on her corner of the mattress.  My granddaughter…
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Top 10 Grandkid Questions

If the grandkids are awake, breathing, and on the premises, questions are buzzing like bees swarming a hive in summer.  There is nothing to stoke the mental agility, touch the heart, and occasionally terrify the soul of a grandparent more…

Madness, Jr.

It’s a March thing.  It’s a mad thing. And for us, it’s a family thing. In the state of my birth, with its blue-tinged grass, honey-colored Bourbon, and the fried chicken that conquered the world, basketball reigns supreme. …
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Demystifying Detritus

The grandchildren are growing up so quickly it almost hurts to watch it.  With spring birthdays just weeks apart, Buddy and Sis are about to turn eight and six, respectively, and change seems to manifest even in the (luckily) small intervals…
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About the Aftermath

Four generations turned up at our family Thanksgiving table this year, a memorable time, indeed.  Seated with honor at one end of the table was my 87-year-old mother, now bearing the title our uncle used to call the OLM (Oldest Living Member). …

We See the Moon

“I see the Moon, and The Moon sees me The Moon sees somebody I’d like to see…” Low, off-key, the little children’s ditty pops out, first as humming, a melodic memory from childhood a half-century ago.  Absently, I begin…
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