Grandma By Any Other Name....

Some people go through life as a grandparent with one name that their grandchildren call them. There are Nannas, Grammys, Memaws...... you get the idea I'm sure. I don't fall into this classification as a one name grandparent. Each of my Yankee grandchildren have given me my own unique name. Alley Oop called me Mammaw, with T~Bear I was Bammaw, Britt called had always called me Grandma until she became a teenager and then changed it to G'ma. Riley called me Gummaw and just recently has changed that to Grandma. Seth hasn't given me a name yet, but I am sure it will be as unique as the others. Oh and did I mention that Riley calls for me every time he gets in trouble and is about to be punished. I think it goes something like, "I WANT MY GRANDMA!"

The story I am about to share with you started when Riley was about 3 years old. We had all gathered at Chris and Melody's house for some sort of important celebration. I can't recall what it was, but I do recall a lot of people there. Riley loving the outside like he did, kept wanting to go outside. Chris told him he could go outside, but he wasn't allowed to leave the front porch. With Riley that was like throwing a bone to a dog and then telling him don't chew it. I happened to look out the window and sure enough there was Riley out in the yard having a grand time digging a hole.

I didn't want to be a snitch, but thought Chris needed to know that Riley was not on the porch. Chris walked outside and asked Riley who told him he could leave the porch. Riley is a smart child. Right away he figured out that Daddy had given him a 'fill in the missing name question'. The first name that came to mind was of course Mommy. Hmmmm.... Dad decided he needed to play this out, so he told Riley that he was going to go ask Mommy if she had said that. I was standing on the porch during all of this and saw Riley squirming around as his daddy disappeared inside the house, not knowing if Mommy was going to cover for him or not. I personally believe that Chris didn't even ask her. He soon reappeared and informed Riley that his Mommy said she didn't tell him he could leave the porch. Then came more truth searching by asking him if he was sure someone told him he could leave the porch. Riley's answer was "Yes!" Well then WHO told him that he could leave the porch. There was that fill in the name question again. Immediately his eyes fell on me and just one word came out of his mouth....... "Gummaw!" I know that I should have said something, but His big brown eyes were fixed on me and they were almost pleading, "Help me out here Gummaw, Pleeeease." I said nothing, but of course Chris knew I hadn't told Riley he could leave the porch. Still I said nothing.

It wasn't long that I started to regret not saying anything on that day. It also wasn't long before Riley developed a knack for spurting out nasty words. I am pretty careful about what I say in front of the grandchildren. As Riley was going through this phase that most children go through, that question was asked of him again ...... "Who did you hear saying those words?" Can you guess the answer Riley gave to his Mommy and Daddy? Ahhhh Haaaa..... It was "Grandma". This threw them because I was Gummaw, Melody's mom was Grammy and her Grandma was of course Grandma. It was a pretty far reach to think that he had heard his Great Grandma at the age of 88 cussing like that. The next question they asked was "Which Grandma?" Well it was the one that lives past the lake. Since the other two live in 'Tucky' that pretty much left me as the culprit that needed my mouth washed out with soap.

By keeping my mouth closed that first time, I had become Riley's partner in crime. Riley attended a Christian Preschool and they have a nice collection of playground equipment for the children to play on. One piece of playground equipment is a wooden ark. I don't recall if I mentioned this before, but during this school year, Riley and one of his friends took crayons out for play time in their pockets and proceeded to color the ark. Of course he did get in trouble for what he had done. To this day I have wondered if he told his teacher that "Gummaw told him he should do that!"

Grandma by any other name will always be Grandma, and I wouldn't trade being a Grandma for anything else in the world.

Wishing you a day of blessings. ~Jo

To All Of The Grandma's

THE COMPUTER SWALLOWED GRANDMA

Yes, honestly its true!
She pressed 'control' and 'enter'
And disappeared from view.
It devoured her completely,
The thought just makes me squirm.
She must have caught a virus
Or been eaten by a worm.
I've searched through the recycle bin
And files of every kind;
I've even used the Internet,
But nothing did I find.
In desperation, I asked Jeeves
My searches to refine.
The reply from him was negative,
Not a thing was found 'online.'
So, if inside your 'Inbox,'
My Grandma you should see,
Please 'Copy,''Scan' and 'Paste' her
And send her back to me.


This is a tribute to all the Grandmas who have been fearless and . . . .
learned to use the Computer.....
They are the greatest!!!

When the television is on I pretty much mentally tune out most of the commercials that come on. I do this mainly because if they aren't just plain annoying, then they are insulting my intellegence by using 20 something year old actresses to try and sell the public on some sort of facial cream that will return that youthful look to your face. There are some commercials that I find beneficial though. Recently they have been advertising a new diabetic medication called Januvia. They gave a web site as well as a phone number to call to get further information. I went to the Januvia web site and was impressed with what I read. They have quite a few useful tools that you might like to try out, as well as a lot of good recipes. I have an appointment for Diabetic Boot Camp on Friday, so I thought I might discuss this new drug with Dr. Lee and see what she thinks. I'll let you know what I find out.

May your day be filled with blessings. ~Jo

Memories Of Grandma

As I was writing my post yesterday my mind kept drifting back to my days as a child and the time I spent with my grandmother. I loved spending time with her because she always made me feel as if I was special. Believe me that was a big deal to a little girl that was one of the youngest of many grandchildren. One of my favorite aunts used to tell me that so many of the grown ups didn't know what they were missing out on by not spending time with me, but that was just the way it was. She said that by the time I came along there had already been so many babies born into the family that any new ones were nothing to take notice of.

When I was growing up, Grandma lived in a little cottage on a hillside in Southern Ohio just down the path from one of her son's and his family. She raised chickens, gardened, canned, quilted and watched TV. She cooked with a wood burning cook stove and heated with a wood burning stove as well. Any time we came to visit was reason enough to dress a couple of chickens and fry them up for supper. To this day, I have yet to taste fried chicken that could even compare to Grandma's.

I jumped at any opportunity I had to stay with her. Once while I was there visiting for a week she decided that she would teach me how to quilt. How important did I feel when she told me what we were going to do! We started with a pattern template and some fabric. I sat for what seemed like hours tracing that template onto the fabric while Grandma cut the pieces and stacked them into a basket. Of course she wasn't just going to turn me loose on the sewing machine with these pieces of fabric. She brought out paper and drew lines on them, then she drew circles on some and some were decorated with triangles and squares. She opened up her treadle sewing machine (that is peddle power for the younger generation) and took the thread out of the needle. After showing me the basics of operation she turned me loose sewing those pieces of paper with the empty needle. I was in heaven! It was when I mastered stitching on the lines that she threaded the needle and let me actually stitch the real deal together.

I was recently thinking about when we went to visit her at Christmas time as I was growing up and couldn't remember ever getting an individual Christmas gift from her. Her income was very limited and she did have ten children and as I mentioned before many grandchildren. Still Christmas did not pass without giving something of herself to each of her children and their families. It was the same gift every year and I looked forward to it just as much as anything Santa might leave under the tree. Every year at Christmas time, Grandma would bake an apple stack cake. One of those traditions that I have come to dearly miss over the years since her death. Grandma was the only person I have ever known of that made that cake. Several years ago, I was talking with a coworker during our lunch break and we were discussing grandmas and cooking, etc. She mentioned a cake that her grandma had made at Christmas time. As Cheryl described it, I knew it could be none other than that same cake recipe because I had watched Grandma make it many times. She told me that when her grandma had died after her belongings had been pretty well picked over, the grandchildren were allowed to go in and take one thing of hers. She took a kitchen calendar that had hung on the wall for years as she was growing up. On that calendar she found the apple stack cake recipe jotted down on the back of the last page. Cheryl shared that recipe with me and I still have it tucked away in my recipe box. I think perhaps this will be the year that I bring that recipe out and bake it for my family.

I loved my Grandma so very much and still recall what a bright spot she put into my years as a child. She was everything a Grandma should be. My mother was that kind of Grandma to her grandchildren and great grandchildren. I only hope that I can be the sort of grandmother that my grandchildren will remember years after I am gone and be thankful for memories that I have left behind.

Merry Christmas Grandma and thank you for the warm memories!