Today was a wondrous fall day with a blustery wind creating whirl winds of leaves that travelled down the street. I love watching the leaves dancing in the wind. My water oak is covering my yard with its brown and yellow ballerinas. Gonna have to rake the leaves, soon. The wind chimes were pounding out heavy metal symphonies all afternoon. I love it. A flock of raspberry dipped purple finches and a lone grackle visited the feeders today. The grackles are handsome black birds, iridescent blue/black heads with long black tails. They have bright golden yellow eyes and long thin bills. He was alone thank goodness. They usually travel in huge flocks.

The sky was a creamy vanilla all day. Occasionally a few rain clouds would appear and then just as quickly fade back into the vanilla ice cream sky. Rain is forecasted for tonight so I did a little porch rain dancing before I came in for the night hoping to help it along. My yard didn’t see any rain in October and hasn’t had any since November began. The pansies are standing tall, long stemmed, praying for the life giving rains.

I’m packing for a visit to see the grandchildren for a few days. Haven’t seen them since the middle of September so I’m pretty excited. Looking forward to the band concert tomorrow night and then the football game Friday night. My oldest grandson plays mellophone in the high school marching band and I love watching their half time show, brings back so many wonderful band memories to my mind. While I’m gone I’m going to print some blogs from my archives. Don’t want to miss a moment with the children. If I get inspired I’ll write but I plan on running things from my archives so I don’t have to worry about finding time to create something.

When I grew up my grandmothers lived here in Roanoke. Never had a granddaddy, they had died years before I was born. My grandmothers were kind and loving. I always wanted to “go visit” grandparents like some of my friends did. I never realized how blessed I was to have two grandmothers close by where I could visit anytime I wanted. And I was always jealous when my grandmother Lane, “Big Ma,” left us to visit my cousins in Alexander City.

Biblical scripture says that grandchildren are blessings from God. Proverbs 17:6 says, “Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their parents.” God designed grandparents to fill so many different roles — teachers, role models, surrogate parents when needed, mentors, even playmates. But maybe our greatest role is to live a Christian life and become a disciple of God in our relationship with our grandchildren.

Deuteronomy 4:9 instructs us to teach God’s commandants to our children and their children. “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”

The greatest gift we can give our grandchildren is to pass our faith and heritage to them, teaching them about God and sharing our spiritual experiences.

“Grandchildren fill a space in your heart that you never knew was empty.” – Unknown