Sat on the swing early this morning. Pleasant and cool. The summertime hotness arrived shortly. Had a sweet guest today. We ate our breakfast in the lady den. After breakfast we took a walk with Penelope. My niece rode her scooter pretending to be a parrot named Amber. Penelope led the way, sniffing crazily. My niece wanted me to use a leash with her, too, so we hooked P’s pink leash on the back of her T-shirt and away we went laughing the whole walk. She’s such a charming little girl and fun to spend time with. She’s the same age as my granddaughter. We’ve got to have a spend the night play date with her soon.

Children are so much fun when you’re older. You can be goofy and make them smile and laugh with little effort. We laughed all day, took a walk, played video games, watched hilarious bird videos, ate popsicles, and listened to our repertoire of silly songs. Never a dull moment! Got to hit the bed early tonight. I’m pooped and I’m going tomorrow to visit the grands for a few days. I’ll be playing badminton, pool, Scrabble, card games and board games, trampoline jumping (not really, too old for that), playhouse playing, etc. Fun full days of grandmothering!

I remember soon after Rosie died I went to Wally World and I was standing in the check out line watching the mother in front of me talk hateful to her little girl. Twenty years later I can still hear her hateful tone of voice. Made me sick to know a child was hearing such language full of venom spewing from her mother’s mouth. I was thinking, my daughter is dead. You have a beautiful little girl and are wounding her with such harsh words. It was really hard for me to not say anything. Chief always said children don’t ask to come here, we bring them here. If we bring them here they should be loved and nurtured. So many ways to prevent pregnancy in our world now. If you don’t want them give them to someone who has hopes and dreams of having a family.

I love the innocence of children just learning their way in the world. They say some of the funniest things in the most serious way. Stew had a teacher in the third grade that told the class one day, “I’m tired. I feel a hundred years old.” Stew quickly piped up, “You don’t look a day over 80!” His teacher was young enough to laugh about his remark. For years, every time we ran into each other in town she’d always laugh and remind me of what he said.

Went swimming at baby brother’s last Sunday. His grandson was intrigued with my swimming suit. Asked me twice if I had on a bathing suit. “Are you sure that’s a bathing suit,” he said. My shorts and T-shirt suit confused him. I told him this was my grandmother suit. Told him I could pump gas or run in and buy an ice cream cone in this suit. He’ll never see his slim grandmother in one of these suits!

Rosie was notorious for walking next door to visit Chief’s sister Sylvia and she’d say, “Daddy said not to tell you this.” And she’d give RaRa every little detail! I told one of my grandsons to count to ten before he lost his temper with his little sister. He seriously remarked, “Ten is not enough!” Once years ago we were having to work late and had all three children at the office with us. Our boss, “Boss Lady,” came to see us that night and said, “Wish I could do something to help y’all!” Didn’t even know Stew was listening and he casually says, “You could give Daddy a raise!” I just acted like I didn’t hear him and I hope she didn’t either!

I think my grandchildren don’t realize I’m 21 years younger than Grandaddy. He was 86 when he died. Guess in their minds I’m 86, too. They’ve asked me twice if TV was around when I was little. I told the grand boys I was going to brag on them to my band director after their concerts. The youngest one says, sounding astonished, “He’s still alive?” Priceless!

Children are gifts from God, blessings to a family. Children love us unconditionally and bring joy to our lives. They make us laugh with their honesty and love of life. Children say what they think in all seriousness. To me, children are symbols of the love between partners. Raising a child in todays world is tough. Parents have to juggle work and parenting. Extended family often lives away and can’t help with every day tasks. Past generations relied on advice from family when raising their children but now modern technology is giving information on raising children. You can probably find a YouTube video on any subject of child rearing. And I’m not sure that’s a good thing. And I will not discuss how social media is influencing and harming our children. It’s really a sad situation.

Let’s just pray for all our children and grandchildren. Pray for good health and much happiness. Life is so, so short. Children are grown and gone and raising their own in the blink of an eye.

“Parenthood is the easiest thing in the world to have an opinion about, but the hardest thing in the world to do,” — Matt Walsh