Thursday, September 19, 2024
Thanks so much for stopping by!
During the past month, we stepped away from the blogging world
as we each took time to relax, to travel a bit
and to spend special times with loved ones!
And now… we’re back and excited to be here!
We missed our blogging community!
If you have followed us at all,
you know that we are Laura and Laurie, two Grands - grandmas -
who love spending time with our growing families,
and, most especially,
our grandchildren, better known here as our Littles!
❤ ❤ ❤
Some of you will recall that we started this blog almost two years ago, in November of 2022. As recently retired kindergarten teachers and newbie grandparents, we quickly realized that while we missed teaching, our passion for learning and keeping our creative juices flowing remained and only continued to grow! We set out to find ways to share with each other while using our past experiences and skills in our new roles as Grands. That’s how our vision for “Our Grand Lives” was born - two non-techie retired kindergarten teachers writing a blog! If interested, you can find out more about how we got started here and more about the two of us and our friendship here.
Our goal in writing this blog has always been to share what we’ve found meaningful, fun and eye opening along the way - especially with our Littles (our grandchildren) but also with our Middles (our own grown children). We love sharing ideas that are realistic for Grands like us (and for us that means easy, quick and inexpensive)! On occasion we also use this platform to document and share happenings in our own Grand lives! And, of course, we’re always looking for new ideas and new tidbits of wisdom from you all!
That brings us to today’s post…
We thought we’d begin this new season of Our Grand Lives
by catching you up on a few of the Grand moments
(and maybe one or two not so grand ones) from the past few weeks!
Then Laurie will share a recent GRAND Tip with us all.
We’ll wrap up this post with a brief look at what’s ahead this fall at OGL!
As some of you may recall, my summer break took an unexpected turn
when I tested positive for Covid!
Soon after our Cousin Weekend at the lake in early August
Hubby tested positive and Daughter J reported that our Little P had a bad cold, too…
OH OH!!!
A week went by and I thought I’d escaped it once again
but, after four years, this darn virus finally got me!
While, it was a fairly mild case (thank goodness),
my first week of summer vacay was instead filled with lots of congestion, a nasty cough,
binge watching TV and several boxes of Kleenex used!
When I felt better, was symptom free and tested negative
Daughter A and I headed off on a road trip -
an extra long weekend to visit some pretty special people near Madison!
The two of us provided reinforcement for Daughter J and her Littles
while my Hubby stayed home to make sure the summer gardens stayed hydrated!
I was one happy Mama/Bacco!
Five days with ALL four of my girls!!!
I was ready for every snuggle that was headed my way!!!
We ate outside at a nearby restaurant and shared a yummy dinner…
LIttle P thought it all looked delicious, too!
We enjoyed ice-cream near the banks of a river
while people watching and listening to live music…
Surprise! LIttle P loved the music, too!
And... we loved watching Little P, too!
We had a picnic lunch and played at the playground…
We read and painted, we got wet and we gardened…
We do love our tomatoes!
Oh my goodness! We had a GRAND time!
When Daughter A and I returned home a few days later,
I was POOPED!
The next few weeks were filled with some small home projects,
coffee dates with friends and then blessed time at our happy place -
the lake!
We enjoyed some picture perfect days
and the most glorious sunsets!
Then, in early September, we had a wonderful weekend of celebrations!
A lovely wedding with friends!
Hubby’s birthday, complete with a serenade from Little L!
And, the highlight of the weekend…. Little P’s baptism!
What a blessed day that was!
In fact, it was SO special that we plan to devote a future post to this topic,
so stay tuned!
My August/September was filled with family, friends and beautiful Minnesota weather!
Hubby and I headed up to Grand View Lodge in Nisswa, Minnesota for five days
with our Middles and Littles.
It’s a beautiful resort where we have spent many summer, fall, and spring days.
There is SO much to do!
At Little D’s request we spent a lot of time in the pool,
but we also got some walks, beach time, golfing and spa time in, too!
One of the things I cherished the most was spending meals and evenings
talking for hours with our Middles!
Love those Littles dearly,
but getting to spend time with our adult children without interruptions
is priceless!!!
❤️ Grands having a grand time at Grand View Lodge! ❤️
Back home I continued to take care of my Littles one day a week.
We played and read books and played and visited playgrounds
and played and went on walks!
We kept busy!
There’s nothing like a messy house that says
“Watch your step! Grandkids play here!!”
The day after Labor Day, I headed back to school for the first week of classes!
I had offered to volunteer in a dear friend’s kindergarten room
at my old school for the week!
Every kindergarten teacher can use an extra set of hands that first week,
and I was happy to help out..
Laura and I were able to connect a few times this summer
with a good friend from our former church.
Brenda is also a grandma so don’t be surprised
if she joins us for a future post as our first Guest Grand!
INTERESTING FACT:
Brenda and I taught Laura’s oldest daughter (and both of our sons) in Sunday School
from Kindergarten to 6th grade!
😍
Our Sunday School Class, circa 1998
Laura’s Daughter J and my son are highlighted!
I’m not sure if your family is like my family, but when we get together there are a lot of empty or half-filled drink cans sitting around. Then there’s me walking around going, “Who’s is this?” and throwing out more and more beverages.
Our Middles love sparkling water so we bought a couple of cases to bring with us to Grand View Lodge. I was tired of wasting beverages so I decided to come up with a way for people to mark their cans. Before we left, I went to Amazon and purchased a large pack of colored hair twisties,
I made a simple chart with our pictures and Little D picked out a color for each person in our family. I taped them on the chart.
When we arrived at our cabin, I hung the chart in the kitchen with a bin of matching twisties. You were only allowed 2 - you lost them, you were done!!
Even Little P got a color for her baby bottle!
Of course, her big sister chose brown twisties for her!!
My Middles gave me a hard time, but it worked! If someone forgot to use their twistie, he/she was called out by others! SUCCESS! We went home with more unused water than we ever have! This system works great for any bottles, too!
While we’ve both had a wonderful time away from this space
we are equally excited to gear up for the season ahead and all it brings!
We plan to post each Thursday during the school year
with an occasional Monday post thrown in from time to time!
Be sure to come back next Thursday
when Laura shares highlights from LIttle P’s baptism,
including the beautiful grazing table Daughter J envisioned!
Soon after, as October begins, our focus will turn
to ways we can celebrate the fall season with loved ones!
We’ve got Bushels of Fun activities, Boo Bash updates,
Trick or Treat ideas, and Gobble, Gobble goodies
to name just a few of the topics we’ve got in store for you on OUR GRAND LIVES!
For those of you who may not know,
(Our social media links are located at the top of each post!)
Check us out there as we often share new content.
Feel free to tag us, too!
We love connecting with and learning from each other!
One more thing…
please consider subscribing to our OGL site so you don’t miss a thing!
As we said, we’re excited to be back,
creating memories together!
💗 We are delighted to join the following link up parties and blog hops! 💗
MONTHLY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
You certainly had a lovely family filled time. Little P's smiling face says it all. Great idea re the hair twistie too. Thanks for linking up with us. Jo at andanyways...
What a fun blog! As a retired educator, parent, grandparent, and blogger, I think we have lots in common. Check out by blog at https://bamauthor.me
I really enjoy reading about your life as Grandmas and seeing your lovely family photos. Thanks for joining us for #WBOYC and all the best for October!!
Debbie from debs-world.com
We all need time away from blogging and I realised that over the last few years. I'm sorry that Laura had COVID but the rest of the month looks like so much fun with family and especially grandchildren. Welcome back and thanks so much for sharing with us a #WBOYC? Have a wonderful October. Sue from Women Living Well After 50
Hi, Larua and Laurie - Thank you for linking up with us at #WBOYC and sharing your beautiful grands with us. The smiles in this post are all so uplifting! Donna