It won't be long now

The season is almost over for some and about to begin for others. My raspberries will be ready to pick soon - hopefully the grandsons will come over and pick them. My satsuma's will be ready to pick soon too.
I have already put turnips in the freezer and just planted a new crop. I also planted more potatoes. My okra was slow to produce but I have put some in the freezer - could use more so hopefully it will continue to produce until the first freeze.
I am hoping since I just planted my plums, satsumas, blueberries, and strawberries this year that next year they will provide me with all the fruits and berries I could want.
It won't be long now...

The grandboys see Taylor Swift

I was at the kids recently and my youngest grandson kept pointing out the window and my daughter-in-law kept asking him "do you see Taylor Swift"? Well, I was being entertained by the oldest grandson and didn't ask "What?????"
I was talking to my son this past week and he said they had a squirrel in their yard with a white tuft at the end of it's tail and was able to pick it out from the other squirrels because of it tail. My son said my oldest grandson had named it "Taylor Swift" and whenever he saw that particular squirrel, he would point and say, "there's Taylor Swift".
My grandson is a very big country music fan.
His favorite song now is Toes by the Zack Brown Band - goes around singing the chorus. If you are unfamiliar with the tune, you can google it.
Life is Good Today.

Fun Time - Bath Time

My grandsons find fun in just about everything - don't you wish you still had that ability?

Here they are at bath time - the oldest makes a game of removing his clothing - mom thought his shirt was stuck on his head and the whole time, he had the tag in his mouth.

The youngest always has a hugh smile on his face - you can't tell by looking at him but he was at the dr that morning with a sinsus infection.

Having fun with the grandboys keeps me young.

A Grandson's photography

My oldest grandson loves to take pictures with my camera. For a 3 year old he's pretty good. His view is somewhat different (he's of course lower to the ground at his age) so everything usually has an up angle. Unless of course it's on his eye-level.

The Perils of being Nona

I love spending time with my grandsons. Last Sunday I met them for dinner at one of my favorite seafood restaurants. There was live music on the deck and we all had a wonderful time. However, there was a evil presence among us and I was unaware. I sat with my grandsons, occasionally offering tidbits of shrimp to one while the other gorged on crackers. I got hugs and kisses, cuddles and snuggles as we sat outside in the late afternoon. It was a carefree Sunday afternoon.

Tuesday morning, the evil presence made it's self known to me - I had caught a virus from my grandsons. Suffered all week - ran fever, stuffy nose, cough, congestion! It was awful. My son and daughter-in-law was suffering right along with me - yes, they caught it too.

Today, a week later, I am actually feeling better. I can breathe, my ears are unstopped and I can hear. My nose will suffer a while longer as it heals from the many uses of tissue. I am sure in another weeks time I will have forgotten all about this episode and gone back for more snuggles and kisses from the boys.

Being Nona is worth a few days of being uncomfortable.

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

I am always looking for hidden treasure in my garden. This morning I was looking at the satsuma's on my tree and found what I thought was fresh bird droppings and was going to brush it off- except that it looked like it had eyes. After closer inspection, it turned out to be a caterpillar. Well, of course, I got my camera and took photos. I googled it and found it to be the caterpillar of the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly. I remember watching several in my yard a few weeks ago. I can hardly wait for nature to take it's course and this ugly little creature to become the beautiful butterfly.

Just goes to show, never judge a book by it's cover.

Isn't God amazing?

Time Out - No Thank You.

My 3yr old grandson was at Mom's Day Out a few weeks back and when asked by his teacher to come into the circle to learn the words to a song, he replied "no thank you, I don't want to". His teacher told him he was not making good choices and to please come into the circle. He replied "no thank you I will stay here, I don't want to learn the words". His teacher informed him he would have to go to "time-out". He said "ok, I take my time-out in my room and I will take time-out when I get home." He found out there was time-out at school too.

My daughter-in-law said the teacher was impressed with his good manners but had to struggle not to laugh.

aah! Respite

I work for Alabama Pre/Post Adoption Connections - a program of Children's Aid Society out of Birmingham, AL. APAC works with adoptive and foster families offering services such as family support groups, library resources relating to adoption and foster care including parenting, health related issues, grief and loss, children's resources on foster care and adoption and many other adoption/foster care related issues. Each year we offer a camp for 100+ adopted children and at least once a year each region has a respite event for their counties. Yesterday, APAC Region III had it's "back to school" respite event for adoptive families in the Mobile area for 4 hours. We had 20+ children attend. We had a snack and coloring pages while parents were registering, then we moved to coloring wooden cutouts for our mural/art wall. The children chose an item, colored it and glued it to our mural. They then worked on weaving, more coloring pages, crafts with door hangers, bookmarks & stickers, jewelery making, face painting and one group of girls sang for us the entire time. We ended the event with pizza and cookies.

The children left with lots of "projects" and the parents had the opportunity to do that last minute school shopping, catch up on household chores, or just take a much needed nap.

Parents returned with thanks and appreciation for the much needed time and the kids left with fun things to take home.

Overall, it was a very exciting, fun-filled event for all.

We are much appreciative of the assistance of our children's group therapists, volunteers from RSVP (Retired Seniors Volunteer Program) and others who volunteered their time to these families - thank you. We couldn't have done it without you.

APAC Region III will have it's Baldwin County respite later in the month.

To find out more about APAC or Children's Aid Society go to http://www.childrensaid.org/

My first quilt - for my daughter-in-law

When I mentioned to my daughter-in-law that I was going to attempt to quilt, her only comment was "I get the first quilt you make". Well, my son and daughter-in-law had been married for about 7 years and I took this into consideration when I picked out material to piece my first quilt. At the time I did not own a sewing machine so every stitch is lovingly done by hand. I started out small but she seemed pleased by my efforts. I have made numerous quilts for her family since.

This one will always be special to me because 1) it was my first quilting attempt 2) it was all done by hand and 3) my daughter-in-law wanted it - sight unseen and I knew she would love it regardless.

She is a special lady.

Quilts for my Grandsons

As I have mentioned, I dabble in quilting. It is a hobby and I am not a master quilter. However, they are items that hopefully my great-grandchildren can enjoy. These are a few of the quilts I have made for my grandsons.

I love having my grandsons cuddle up with one of Nona's quilts.