Lots

That’s what I have to share. In fact, too much for what must be a quick to write post but if I wait until I have time to write a longer post, that will probably never come.

I’m so busy these days that I am getting all lost in the busyness and not enjoying the holiday season. I want just a couple of days to myself to wrap gifts and make lists and maybe make some tamales to share with the family. Just a couple of days. It seems I can’t catch my breath these days and when I have time I am just so exhausted that I don’t have the energy to focus on relaxing and enjoying and doing for me.

I hope that changes. I am trying to change it. I am starting the new year with a planner/journal. I haven’t done that in a long, long time. This one is called bullet journaling and it is new to me. I got my Happy Planner (mini) and a few (very few) accessories but I won’t start until the new year. In the meantime I want to figure out what sections I will put in it. Well, I think with bullet journaling they call them “collections” not sections or topics. I know I want to have a collection for tarot, gratitude, kids’ stuff, blogging ideas, and a section for my diabetes related stuff. I need to sit and plan it out and get some more refills, although I am thinking it may be more cost effective to get myself the paper punch and put together my own refills. We’ll see.

Diabetes. Several things. First, I got my A1c results back on Thursday and I am at a 7.1 which is super! 7.0 is target range for diabetics so I am excited to have made it to that number. And my insulin is working better now that I have learned to concentrate on the carbs I consume in relation to the insulin I inject. AND a big bonus: I finally got my one on one with the dietitian this past week and she asked me if I would be willing to try something different. It seems she has read a lot of articles that show that taking 1000 to 1200 grams of alpha lupeic acid can lower blood glucose, help with weight loss, AND help the pain from nerve damage. I said I would try it. The pain from the nerve damage is getting worse and if there is a chance that this will help, I will take it. The neat thing is that I only started taking it on Friday night and already it is having an affect on my glucose levels which means less insulin that I need to take which also means less weight gain (yes, insulin makes you gain weight). I had been gaining ten pounds  a month and that has to stop! I think this really might work! Yay!

There’s cute kiddo stuff to tell you about but I have to run again. I think we’re going to a Christmas program in just a bit and I’m not ready!

I hope you are all having a great holiday season and stopping, or at least pausing long enough, to enjoy it!

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This Is Where…

…my time goes:

Just as I think I am going to start something or take a short nap, it never fails, I get a text from my daughter to go rock the baby to sleep or hold her so she can get word done. And off I go because I never learned to pronounce the most difficult word in many languages — “no.”  Sometimes I don’t eat because I am over there. Like tonight. She asked me over just after five. I was supposed to eat between six and seven. (Because my insulin lasts about four and a half hours and I have to eat shortly after that so I can take the insulin again before my blood sugar sky rockets.) I thought I would just need to rock her to sleep and then come home. When I got there, she told me that Anderson tried to do a somersault and landed on the pack ‘n play with all his weight and broke it. They use the pack ‘n play as the baby’s bed because a crib doesn’t fit in her bedroom. So she was asking in all of her free groups on Facebook if anyone had an extra one she could have or even borrow. And that also meant that when Maya fell asleep in my arms, she had to stay in my arms because her bed was broken.

She was lucky enough to find one to keep in one of the groups so off she went to pick it up and to the grocery store to get the rent money order because she’s going to be out of town until late Sunday and she can’t trust her husband to get the money order and follow through with turning it in. And all that while I was sitting on the couch with a sleeping baby in my arms.

The baby woke up and cried and fussed because she’s working on cutting another tooth and I think she missed her mama, too. When they got back, Spencer didn’t want me to leave. He does this thing where he wraps his arms around my legs so I won’t leave and looks up at me and says “pease Nana pease, don’t go, pease.” How can I say no to that? By then it was nine and I still had not eaten or taken my insulin so I told Spencer I could stay a little longer if his mommy had food for me because I was three hours late eating and taking my medicine. Spencer got a chair and pulled it to the freezer to look for food for me! So I stayed just about another hour. I ate there then played with Spencer (no school on Fridays at Head Start so he got to stay up late) for a little bit then came home.

And I am exhausted. I am supposed to do some writing so I don’t fall behind on my NaNoWriMo project (and I will most likely fall behind this weekend because I am helping Chris out with kids while Tina is out of town) and I was supposed to write this blog post. I got that done but I don’t think I will have the energy to do any writing on my NaNoWriMo project. Maybe if I go to sleep now I will wake up early tomorrow?

Anyway, if Maya was such a cutie pie, awake or asleep, it wouldn’t be so difficult to say that unpronouncable word! Darn, just my luck to have the cutest little granddaughter!

 

 

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My Bonnie Body

I have kids music CDs in my car.  They are on all the time, except when I realize that they’re on and there are no kids in the car!  Then I take them out and put in Rod Stewart or The Beatles or The Beach Boys (because let’s face it, you can take the girl out of California but you can’t take California out of the girl!) or one of my Tex Mex CDs.

Both Spencer and Anderson love to have the music on.  Spencer starts dancing in his carseat.  Anderson enjoys the music too.  He lip synchs to the songs.  Sometimes he’ll sing with it but that’s more rare.  I’ve noticed in the last two or three weeks though, that Anderson is now singing along.  I think he was waiting to learn all of the words before actually singing.  He did that when I first put Raffi CDs in a couple of years ago.  So he learned the words to this Kids’ Music CD and started singing along…at the top of his lungs…on the way to school.  I was listening to him sing, smiling as I drove him to school then I heard what he was singing.  He was substituting the word “body”  for “bonnie”.  Instead of singing:

My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me…

he was singing…

My body lies over the ocean
My body lies over the sea
My body lies over the ocean
Oh, bring back my body to me…

Then he goes on and makes up words saying something about “thank you for bringing my body back to me”!

I cracked up.  He was having such a good time.  I am not correcting him.  It’s too cute.

Now he has moved on to Michael Row the Boat Ashore and shouts out “Hallelujah”  everytime the word appears in the song!j

I love “four years old”.

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Thoughts of Anderson

Those of you that have been reading my blog for awhile might remember that four years ago, when my first grandson was born, I was in the delivery room with his mom and dad and I cut the umbilical cord.  I was the first one of us to get a picture of him and the first one that he peed on!  He and I have had a special bond between us.  I see him every day.  He comes over to my house every day, not because he has to be babysat but because he asks to “go to Nana’s house”.  I can never say no so he’s over here every day.  A while back I was jotting down some thoughts that came to mind about Anderson (my grandson) and this is what came up:

Anderson

His little hand in mine

his total trust

his head on my shoulder

daily visits from which he never wants to go home

he says he wants to live with Nana forever and ever

His giggle when I tickle him

his cry when he has to go home

his bright eyes when I show up to pick him up

I never get tired of him, even when I am dead tired

Somehow with him, my energy knows no bounds

and my love for him grows with each moment

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Things Kids Say

As a mom and a grandmom, I know what most of us know, kids say the darndest things!  I will hear a child say something and I tell myself that I have to remember it.  Of course, I don’t.  I forget things quickly; quicker now as I age.  Recently, while shopping for a different book (one I will tell you about in another post) I spotted one that had me call someone for help to get down off of the top shelf so I could see it.  Yes, I am short.  I can’t reach things on top shelves!

Once I had the book in hand, I opened it to find that it was, in essence, a blank book for recording what grandkids say.  The title is My Quotable Grandkid and it is made by Chronicle Books.  I loved the idea of having a special place to record all the little gems that my grandsons say (well, only one of the two talks right now but I’m sure the other will start yaking any time now).  I had to have it.

So now, I record, or try to remember to record, a lot of the cutesy things or the smart things or even the sad things that my grandson says.  Like this one:

June 26, 2014

Anderson asked for a sleep over at Nana’s house so I said that was fine.  I went over to get him and helped him get dressed and get a pj.  He had picked out one of his Batman tshirts.  When I was strapping him into his carseat, he said, “Nana, you got a Batman shirt at home?”  I answered that I did.  He said, “When we get to your house, can you put your Batman shirt on, Nana?” There was a short pause the he added, “So we can be twins.”   Of course, when I got home with him, I went straight to the bedroom and looked through drawers and found my Batman shirt and put it on.  I came out to the living room where he was sitting on the couch watching a video.  He looked up and saw my shirt and smiled saying, “Yay nana, now we are twins.”  And he pulled me down to sit next to him on the couch.

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Pockets

In  my pocket, I usually carry only my keys but that has changed.

When my grandson, Anderson, began to walk last year, I started teaching him to put his hands in his pockets and once he mastered that, I began to hide little treats in his pockets.  He loves raisins so I buy the tiny little boxes of raisins that are just the right size for a size 2 pocket.  I put them in his pocket and wait for him to find them.  Sometimes, instead of raisins, I put a small dinosaur or a fist sized car in his pocket.  Sometimes it’s his pants pocket, sometimes it’s the pocket of his hoodie or the pocket of his jacket.  I love to watch his face when he finds his treats.  He gets that “wow” surprised look then a huge smile as he pulls his surprise out and holds it up for me to see!

Lately, I’ve been hiding treats for him in my purse and in my coat pockets.  When he looks, he finds a small plastic bag of cheez its or animal crackers in my purse.  Or it might be a toy figure or a sticker in my pocket.  At first, my daughter didn’t like the idea of him looking in my purse but he only does it with me.  He knows it’s a special thing his Nana does for him so he only searches my pockets and my purse for treats.  I love it when he finds them.  Pure joy.

It has gotten to the point where I make sure there’s something hiding for him when I go see him and if I leave and remember that there’s nothing in my pocket or purse, I come back home to get a little treat for him.  I don’t want to disappoint him.

Pockets aren’t just for hands.  They aren’t just for keys.  Pockets can be full of fun and surprises!

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