54 Years Later - Nana Finally Gets Someone Who Resembles Her

Little baby Angie

by Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

Actually, it is 53 years - until my birthday in November. Why am I making myself older than I am???

A tiny baby girl was born 53 years ago. When that girl was married, she had 2 children, a boy and a girl. Neither resembled her. YES. She was there for the birth, so she knows they are hers.

Much later, the boy and girl both married their lifemates and produced wonderful grandchilden. None of which looked even the slightest bit like the Nana. Rather, they looked like mommy or daddy or this cousin or that one, or even aunties and uncles. No one resembled short little Nana.

Until now. Nana giggles and rubs her hands together with glee.

Little Autumn, the youngest princess, coming in at barely 3 months old, finally shows signs of having something in common with the Nana!

Autumn's eyes look like Nana's eyes. A family resemblance - how nice for me!

Little Autumn and her Nana eyes!

This Nana is happy with even the slightest hint of "she has my eyes." I would be fine if she had Papa's height and not my lack. Actually, I am very happy that she is healthy. A slight resemblance is just eye-cing on the cake. Wink, wink.

Yippee for grands.

Do your children resemble you? How about those grands?

Just chatting with my Nana.

New Life

This is my daddy and I'm keeping him.

By Angie Quantrell Angie Quantrell

startled gasp for breath

mama's trimphant labor

wrapping up daddy

 

Haiku by Angie Quantrell

Welcome, Autumn Nahara.
Born April 26 at 10:08 AM.

Another piece of Nana's heart...

Read to Me

"Nana, read this to me."

I was happy to read a stack of 10 books to my 4-year-old granddaughter. This only worked because baby brother was fast asleep. Sister loves books.

Today, sister had another task for Nana. After busily writing on paper, she handed me her story.

"Nana, read this to me."

You can imagine I was a bit challenged. So I asked her to read it to me.

Khloe: I can't read.

Me: What is it about?

Khloe: Uhm, Lava Girl and Shark Boy.

Me: Ok. Once upon a time . . . Lava Girl and Shark Boy went on a picnic. They went swimming. They had a fun time. The end.

Khloe: No, you're not done yet.

Me: They had a flat tire and had to fix it.

Khloe: No.

Me: What else?

Khloe: (whispering to me) They help other people!

Me: Oh! Lava Girl and Shark Boy helped some people who had a flat tire. They helped fix the tire. Then they enjoyed their picnic. The end.

Khloe: (smiles and nods) Ok.

That was only the first story. She had another waiting in the wings. Nana was on call as storyteller.

I am pleased that she loves stories, writing, reading, and words. Literacy begins long before they reach school.

What is your favorite story to read aloud? I'd love to hear.

The Gingerbread Fun - December Traditions

Never fear. Nana had the grands over for a wild and seriously crazy evening of decorating gingerbread cookies. That is not an understatement.

For the past few years, I have decorated gingerbread houses with the grands. But this year, with 3 boys and 1 girl, six years old and younger, I thought gingerbread cookies would be much easier. I was right.

But we still made a big mess, gobbled too many decorations, and spread icing far and wide. One nice thing about decorating cookies instead of houses was that we could eat our work instead of letting it sit around and petrify into cement.

I'm not so sure the parents agreed. But like any good grandparents, we played, made memories, fed them too much sugar, and sent them home.

Here are a few photos from our Gingerbread Party. Notice the series when Gage decides he is GOING to have his plate and cookie (Nana had to decorate his, as he can't eat cookies yet). Of course when we are all watching his actions, Donavyn chooses that moment to look at the camera instead of eating the icing and candy off of his gingerbread boy.

 
Tips:

1. Make the cookies in advance. Definitely. I used giant cookie cutters and made 1 girl and 3 boy cookies. The extra dough was used for normal cookies.

2. Sort candy into individual bowls. That way, each child gets the same things to put on their cookies. Or, I mean, the same amount of sugar to eat.

3. Give each child a cookie sheet as a workspace. Escaping candies and sticky knives stayed right where they needed to be.

4. Forget the fancy icing. Just buy a tub of white icing. It spreads so nice and easy. The icing in the gingerbread house kits is horrible and making a glaze icing that doesn't spread is frustrating.

5. Enlist someone else to take photos. No way could this Nana help everyone, keep Gage from eating stuff, and take photos. Even with assistance, taking pictures of our completed cookies was the hardest part!

6. Have fun! Eventually we will get back to the houses. But for now, keeping it simple makes more sense. And next year, when we have 5, I think I will have to adopt yet another helper for crowd control.

Happy December traditions!

Aged

Children's children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.

~ Proverbs 17:6 (NIV)

I am aged. Like cheese, wine, or moldy haunches of meat.

The gift of grandchildren transforms me into the category of 'aged.'

Does that make you feel old? It does me. Just yesterday I was considering how 52, soon to be 53, is not that old. 53 is a good respectable number. Now 60, that is approaching old and sounds much more mature.

LOL. Do you remember when people in their 30's were old in our young teenager eyes? No? Me, neither.

Truly, only old people accidently hit publish instead of save and throw out an incomplete post without any photos or edits. Sigh. Said the grandmother sitting at her computer blogging.

Aside from the fact that I, a grandparent, am aged, I am also crowned. My children's children are the crown of blessing deposited on my head.

And, oh, is my crown large and beautiful!

I choose to feel special and prized, just like that old cheese and wine. Prized and valued and claimed.

After all, I have a crown, gloriously brilliant with bright shiny faces, bubbling lips, gleeful hearts, and heartfelt hugs.

I am a grandparent.

The Help

Meet the help.

Stats: 2 year-old male
Experience: Negligible
Status: Volunteer
Job assignment: Laundry assistant
Recruited by: Head cook, housekeeper, and bottle washer

Sometimes help is required. Today was such a day. Recruiting was simple, as above mentioned volunteer adores time spent opening and closing doors.

 

The dryer has a door that opens and closes. It also has a lint trap that can be taken out, cleaned, and replaced.

Success rate: 100 % (per number of items folded, er, rolled and piled on top)

Comments: Supervisor says recruit shows much promise. With proper training and years of experience, volunteer will be able to exhibit superior laundry folding skills.

Tip: Train the help early. The younger, the better.

Poll: What jobs have you trained your volunteers to do? How young did you start the training program? Success rate?

Wacky Wednesday ~ The Old Woman's Shoe

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.

She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.

Forget the broth and whippings and putting to bed. The old woman decided to redecorate.

Now that the old woman lives in a fancy high-heeled pump, there is no room for children. They've all moved out.

Summer Fun & Beat the Heat ~ Kids in Water

Nothing beats the summer heat like a wading pool and sensory table filled with cold water. Ok, maybe a deeper pool would help those standing over 3 feet tall.

Splashing,

Drying,

Wading,

Posing,

Pouring,

Drinking,

Lounging...

Water. It's the deal.

I once exclaimed to a child, "Hey, what's the deal?" when said child was doing something questionable.

Pause.

"What's a deal?"

Water is the real deal for the summer. Get some.

What To Do AFTER a Writer's Conference

Last week I spent four days at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association annual conference. It was truly a time of learning and making connections. Not only did writers attend a variety of sessions, we were also able to pitch (picture speed dating, except the conversation is about writing projects and the two parties are author and agent or editor) potential projects to many agents and editors that were present. Let's not forget the special evening events with guest panels (how about J.A. Jance? Robert Dugoni? and more), dinners, desserts, and an award ceremony.

To put it bluntly, we ran from sun up to sun down. Exhaustion was my traveling companion on the way home. But it was worth every single second.

What does one do after such a fantastic outing?

~ Zucchini and yellow squash. Yes, you read that correctly. Dear old hubby did not eat a single one. Or so appearances would seem. He had harvested 3 super huge squash and I found an additional 13. Thirteen could be a good number, but not when considering what to do with that many squash. New house rule: If you visit, you take at least one squash when you leave.

~ Raspberries. Again, an attempt was made to pick the laden canes. The full bowl rested untouched in the fridge. After my attack on the killer canes, I added another colander full - all to be washed, picked over, and put in the freezer.

~ Laundry. Even one person can make a huge mess in a week. I did. I am still unable to find certain undergarments. I hope they did not stay for a longer visit at the hotel.

~ Green beans. Can you tell the garden needed me while I was gone? Tomorrow I will tackle the wax and green beans.

~ Unpacking. Again, how much mess can a single traveler make? Plenty.

~ Paperwork. This is a very important step following a conference of any type. I made so many great connections with other writers. I need to sort out all of the business cards and make contact on social media with my colleagues. I also need to check out information that I collected about businesses that provide assistance to writers.

~ Synopsis and query. At the conference, I pitched one of my picture books. The agent I spoke with was interested in reading my manuscript, so now I need to write a synopsis. And a query letter. And then I need to submit my work to her. Praying this has a great ending!

~ See my grandbabies. What? You didn't think I had forgotten them, did you? Only a week, and all of them have shot up taller.

Yawn. I am slowly catching up with jobs, even sleep. I missed you!

I'm off to write a synopsis and query letter.

Welcome, Little One ~ Baby Gage Makes His Appearance

Welcome, Baby Gage!

Last stop before the hospital...

William Gage Aucutt was born at 12:37 PM on Friday, June 12, 2015, to a happy mama and proud daddy. Not to mention ecstatic brother, sister, nanas, papas, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Mama preferred rocking during labor.

Mama and Baby Gage Burrito. The long wait is over.

Happy Nana with grand number 4. "This is Nana, Baby Gage, NANA." (Never too early to start teaching them my name.)

Daddy and his third little munchkin.

Baby Gage was 21 inches long at birth.

We were all shocked at his weight - 9# 1.4 oz. Daddy was closest on our labor room poll.

Excited and somewhat dazed brother and sister.