Goodbye, Grandma

My grandma, my dad’s mom, died last week. By all accounts she lived a good and active life — she just turned 90 and yet played dominoes like a champ when we visited her a few days before Christmas.

But I didn’t lose only a grandmother. She and grandpa, who died almost three years ago, were our closest neighbors growing up. I could see their house from my bedroom window, just across the field a short walk away. (In fact, we would walk across the field to visit when crops weren’t planted.) We visited at least once a week, usually to play cards. I can’t even count the number of card games they taught us, mostly brought back from their winter stays in Arizona.

We’d often take long walks along our rural road and regularly go on vacation with them. (Grandma is the one who taught me the license plate game — listing each state on a piece of paper and checking them off as we found them on the highway or in parking lots throughout vacation.) And as my sister and I grew up, we could count on Grandma knowing when we would leave and arrive back home — she had a perfect view of our driveway from the window above her kitchen sink!

I left Defiance for college more than 20 years ago, but still visited them on my visits back. I’ll always be glad that Grandma got to play dominoes with Edith at Christmastime and taught us a new dice game. I can’t hardly wait to teach both kids how to play 7-Up! My kids won’t have too many memories of my grandparents, but their legacy will continue. 

Week of Birthdays

Who knew so many kids were born in February?

Edith went to a birthday party on Saturday, couldn't go to one she was invited to on Sunday, has another this Wednesday after school and yet another this Saturday. Even Atticus went to a birthday party yesterday!

Luckily we have reached the age that nearly all of the parties they are invited to (including 100 percent of these February parties) are drop off, so a party invitation is pretty much free babysitting for us! And of course the kids have a blast eating, crafting and playing with their friends. It's a win-win.

It's little things like this that make me realize how much the kids are growing. Not to mention that I registered Atticus for kindergarten yesterday!

Lost Week

I’ve frequently referenced my lost months and can recite them pretty accurately — April 2012 when I was pregnant with Edith and September 2014 when I was pregnant with Atticus are the most obvious. I basically spent those months in bed and watching TV when my head wasn’t doubled over a toilet (or at work).

More recently, we had a lost month toward the end of last winter when we all got sick consecutively — not simultaneously, but back-to-back. One of us would be puking or otherwise feel like crap for five days or so. As soon as that person was in the clear for about 12 hours, the next person would start. The winter before that, the kids both had pink eye and passed it to me. It wasn’t exactly all month, but it sure felt like it.

Last week was a lost week, but it could have been much worse. I was exhausted at the beginning of the week, sleeping 11 hours Tuesday night and taking a nap the next afternoon. Paul called off on Wednesday and wasn’t quite back to normal til Friday or Saturday. Atticus had a bad cough most of the week and finally stayed home from school on Friday. Only Edith has been in the clear (although she was sick a few weeks ago, so ...).

Fingers crossed this is the worst of it, but I’m not holding my breath. There’s still a lot of winter to go.