A Week With Grandchildren

I am really far behind on what I want my blog to be doing for me.  I have been seeing lots of articles on being a Latter-day Saint/Mormon and blogging.  Evidently a whole group of women and maybe some men, read "Young Mormon Mother" blogs.  That was a funny one.  Do they secretly wish they had that kind of life?  Whatever that kind of life means.  There was also one comment on Facebook about being a married person and needing to blog because one is a married person.

Maybe I should be asking people who blog why they blog and when and etc. 

In Mormon Times there was an article from a woman who has worked for 10 years creating a blog about non-traditional Mormon women.  Once again, whatever non-traditional means. (One would think it means: Working outside the home, not a quilter, no homemaking skills, no children, business owner, not married, etc?  It would help if I looked at the blog to get the answer, hummmm?)

In that article there was a reference regarding Elder John Carmack's grandmother and her continuing education after leaving school at the end of her 8th grade year.  She journaled furiously, wrote books, etc, etc.  Maybe that is what I hope to get out of blogging....a continuing education for myself.

Enough of the serious stuff. Here's a portion of my continuing education and I am going to blog about it!

A Week with Grandchildren

On March 3, 2011 at a dreadfully early hour, Bob dropped me off at the Southwest Airlines door to board a plane to spend a little over a week tending some of my grandchildren.  They are ages 9 down to 2 years old.  Four of them.

In my luggage was enough yarn to choke a horse and keeping me happily crocheting for a month, my kindle with lots of classics to expand my reading levels, a couple of DVDs and exercise clothes.  I checked two bags because on Southwest you can still do that with no extra charges.  

In 30 minutes or so a few people started showing up.  And lo and behold a sister from my stake also showed up.  I waved and she sat down to chat until they called our flight.  She was heading off to a 80th birthday party and a funeral.  When I confessed that I was going to tend grandchildren she actually EXCLAIMED,  "Oh MY!!  I will PRAY for you!!"  Then she told me that when she is working at the temple one of the topics is how hard it is to tend grandchildren and how children do not understand the difficulty.  She also confided that for the last four days she had two teenage grandchildren in her home and it was all that she could do to get dinner on the table.  It was all so exhausting.  

Since this was coming from a woman who had spent her career in education I thought that maybe my fears were a little founded.  

My youngest child is 25 years old soon to be 26.  I have managed to avoid changing messy diapers for the whole 9+ years and 15 grandchildren born in our family.  Now I was looking at a 2 year old who was willing but too short to be potty trained.  There was also a 9 year old pre-teen, a 7 year old, and a ROWDY 6 year old.  Not to mention a 6 month old puppy.  

Oh, Dear!

Outcome:  I was exhausted when I finally made it home 9 days later.  The following week contained going back to bed once Bob left for work and naps!  In fact, I could barely function in Church the next day and.... I teach Sunbeams who really gave me a run for my money.

My yarn, kindle, DVDs, and exercise clothes never saw the light of day during those 9 days.

I realized that I was out of practice as a mother of young children and could do a much better job as a Grammie.

One out-of-practice grandma vs 4 lively grandchildren gives the children an unfair advantage.

The dog is very cute but he scared me to death when he escaped and ran in the street!  How could I lose the dog and maybe even worse?

And the there is this....

I loved, loved, loved being with my grandchildren.  It was wonderful to get to know them better and to see their individual personalities shining through.  

I was able to see and visit with 9 others while there.  

My one daughter who lives in town came to "visit" with me and gave me moral support while I was "the mom."  Thank you!

My daughter-in-law who also lives there kindly asked us if we wanted to come spend one evening swimming while their family had a mini-vacation at a Residence Inn.  (Approved by the hotel.) Thank you also!

              Side note:  One of the mini-vacation grandchildren tried to drown himself and I             was responsible for all 10 grandchildren who were present for an hour.  It seemed like and hour or more. I kept counting 10 heads in the pool every minute or so.  I had them all while my daughter-in-law tried to find a store with rice so she could perhaps save her brand new iPhone which had been soaked in chlorine water when she jumped in the water to save her son.  The sacrifice was worth saving a handsome blond grandson. (The rice didn't work, but the store gave her a new one for free!!)  

I was able to allow my daughter and her husband to go on a cruise for their 10th anniversary.  Thank you to  me!

I was able to get to know my grandchildren better.  Sigh.

I was able to appreciate that I am the Grammie and not the parent.  I did that job all ready.

Well, they say "you will never know until you try it."


And I tried it!!