The next few days . . .

It’s getting busy around our house.  My Summer Retirement Internship came at a wonderful time to be hanging out at home.

The ‘Chippy game” as my granddaughter calls the championship fast-pitch softball game, is this afternoon after school.  GN’s team plays at the home field of the opposing team, but there will be a coin toss for the home-field advantage.  It’s going to be a tough game, but I told her two things: “The game begins on even ground with the score at 0-0.”  and “The game doesn’t end until the final out, so don’t end it mentally any sooner.”

Immediately after the game, we head back to GN’s school for the Athletic Banquet.  Graduating eighth-graders who have participated in more than one sport and maintained a 3.0 GPA or better will be recognized for their academic achievement as well as their participation in sports.  GN should fall into this group.

Tomorrow morning we head to school bright and early for the Student of the Month breakfast.  GN’s science teacher told her that she wanted to nominate her for her work in science, but the mathematics teacher nominated her first.  Yea on both counts!

Friday morning we attend the baccalaureate service and reception for the graduating class and their families.  The service is held as part of the school day so the Kindergarten through seventh-grade classes can attend.

Next Monday, Goodnight gets to go to an amusement park all day as a final outing with her class.

Next Tuesday is GN’s graduation ceremony and reception.  We came to an agreement on her shoes.  I know she’s not a baby and wouldn’t have wanted to send her across the stage in flip-flops or mary-janes . . . but I wasn’t ready to see her in six-inch heels either.  We found heels of a reasonable height and she seems to be walking in them just fine.  Not to leave any stone-unturned, however, the girls get to have their own graduation rehearsal this morning so they can practice walking up the steps in their heels.  My heartfelt thanks to the teacher who is doing this.  I wish I could be a bug on the wall, but there is grace and dignity in keeping it to themselves.

In between all the other activities, my mother and I play cards, wash the dishes together, weed the garden, take walks and naps, enjoy simple lunches at my dining room table, or simple lunches as we are out and about. 

It was dreary and dark yesterday.  We visited a small fine arts gallery in the morning and then I took Gr8 to a movie in the afternoon.

In the evenings, the three of us sit at the dining room table and play cards or other table games.  It’s good for all of us:  my mother is with family, my granddaughter gets to experience my mother’s wisdom and patience, and I get to enjoy them both!

As for the remainder of my Summer Retirement Internship – Part 1, we are pushing the repeat button on some of the above paragraphs.

Must scoot!  The Chevro-sleigh needs some gas so we can get to that big softball game.

Autobiography is Finished!!!

It’s been an interesting way to spend my Summer Retirement Internship – Part 1: helping my granddaughter with her autobiography project for her Literature class.  To tell the truth, it’s been even better with my mother visiting us.

I’ve been pulling out  boxes of photos (pre-flash drive era) and sorting through them  with the other two generations in the house.  Goodnight had to tell me which ones she needed to go with the text she wrote and the rest of the pix were just fun to look at.  They brought back memories that led to conversations that were much better than turning on the television.

The completed project is due today and after I snapped the photo below, I drove GN to school.  She’s a little worse for wear this morning.  She was up until 11:00 putting on the final touches.

I tried to maintain a hand-off approach to the project.  I wanted to be able to see what GN’s life looks like from her perspective.  She asked me to read her text and offer editing suggestions.

The most glaring thing I noticed as I read my granddaughter’s words were the exclamation marks she used in nearly every other sentence.  I made a note to have a discussion with her about punctuation, but as I got further into her autobiography, I changed my mind.

She is young.  She is graduating from her middle school and moving on to high school.  She’s excited.  Most of what she wrote about was exciting to her because she chose the highlights, which, for better or worse, really are the exclamation points to her life.  “I got to go to the Super Bowl!”  “I was allowed to kayak alone in a lake in Canada!”  “Gram gave me ten dollars to spend at the candy store!”  “Four days later, my mom was dead!”

I chose to nix my planned punctuation discussion and did not edit out those dramatic marks.

As I turned to the last page of my granddaughter’s autobiography, I wondered how she would end it.  She did it with grace beyond her years:

I have lived . . . and will live most of my life without my mother.  It isn’t how life should normally go, but growing up ‘not normal’ is my normal and if that’s how it has to be, then like my great-grandmother always says, “So be it.”

 So be it.~

 

 

 

 

About the Rhubarb . . .

I had  phone conversation with my Gr8 last evening.  I told her what I had done with my rhubarb.

She told me that her dad, my grandfather, had actually sent the plants to her after Mom and dad were married.  They were cuttings from her childhood home.  They’ve been doing well all these years.  I’ve read that a plant can be productive for up to fifteen years, but Gr8 has been away from home a few more years than that . . .   There were a couple of times when they looked like they were petering out, but, we dug up the crowns, divided them, then replanted them.  That’s how I got mine, too.  Her crop this year is really robust.

Mother also told me that yesterday was her father’s birthday.  I never knew that date.  Grandpa had passed away before I was born.  “He would be 130.”

But . . . who knew I was going to need some new stemware?  I might need to purchase a larger glass for the Rhubarb Daiquiri.  Thank you Grandfather, (what would you have wanted us to call you?) for the rhubarb and for my mother.  A toast to you on the anniversary of your birth.  I’m very fond of your youngest child and your daughter’s children, grandchildren, and great-granddaughter are taking good care of her.

Summer Retirement Intership 2012 – Part 1 . . . so far.

I can feel the ‘ahh’. 

I chose the patio umbrella for my reading.  It’s a little nippy out there this morning, but that’s why I knit.  I just throw on something cozy enough to read out there in the early morning chill.  It works.

I cut some of the peonies, added some bleeding heart stems for fill and it spiffed up the view from the kitchen.

Of course, I believe in leaving some peonies on the bush so I have something to look at out the living room window.

Today, I have a date . . . with the Corleone Family.  I make no apologies for never having seen any of the Godfather movies.  They are rated ‘R’ and as a single parent and now single gram raising a child, I’ve always been too tired to stay up and watch movies after Angel or Goodnight went to bed.  Seems like a Retirement Internship, while GN is at school is a good time to spend the day with Brando, Pacino, et al.  I really liked Talia Shire in the Rocky movies, so I’m looking forward to seeing her play Connie Corleone.

As you can see in the photo below, I have my Retirement Internship supplies handy.  The blue and white scarf in progress is not a late Super Scarf, but it is part of a very large promise I made to myself when I went to Indianapolis for the Super Bowl.  More on that promise at another time.