Speaking of All Things Bright & Beautiful...

...our 5 1/2 month old granddaughter, Alice Anabelle!

A New & Joyful Season

Grandchildren are a grandparent's link to the future,

and grandparents are the child's link to the past.

~ Author Unknown

Something wonderful – transformational, in fact – is happening soon: I am becoming a grandmother!  Our first grandchild, a granddaughter, is due in mid-May.

Despite the fact that some friends and acquaintances have hinted that perhaps I should feel wistful or even sad that I will now be fully considered an “older woman,” I have NO ill-feelings whatsoever about this next stage in my life. To me, this is a totally joyful and long-welcomed event – a great blessing and gift bestowed upon our family.

Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing old.

~ Mary H. Waldrip

I consider our granddaughter’s birth as the advent of a new generation of our family – connecting all of our families’ past and future generations across time.  I look forward to sharing with our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter gifts of time, patience, love, laughter, wisdom, experience, and memories; developing and growing with them all; and walking along side with them in whatever ways I can be of service.

Everyone needs to have access both to grandparents and grandchildren

in order to be a full human being.

~ Margaret Mead

Interestingly, I have discovered, I am considered an older grandmother; since I am nearly 14 years older than the current average grandmother age of 47!  It is amazing to me to realize that when I was born, my own two wonderful grandmas were 3 and 7 years younger than my current age.

A childhood filled with wonderful memories of time spent with grandma

is a better inheritance than a bank account.

~ Adair Lara

Cassandra's Maternal Grandma

Cassandra with her Paternal Grandma

Yet, this ”boomer’ grandma will NOT be, as Adair Lara in The Granny Diaries defines, “the stereotype…of a comforting human antique trailing a faint smell of lavender and strewn with cookie crumbs”!   I have every intention of following in the footsteps of my dear friends and youngest sister who are savvy, strong, healthy, active, involved and well-loved Nanas, Granbies, Nonnies, Namas, Mamaws, and Grandmas and to whom I have been listening intently!  I realize that I have lots to learn; so, my dear readers, please feel free to dispense your sage grandparenting advice to this eager new Grandma…

[She] is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season.

Psalm 1:3

Marty Norman, in her book, Generation G, has inspired me by aptly comparing this season in life’s cycle to autumn:

“Fall is a good time.

I like to think that, like the fall season, I dance with light, that I reflect and radiate that which I have come to be and believe. I want to be a crisp breath of fresh air to those who are weary from the heat of summer…I pray that as my sun sets, I reflect the clouds about me and shine with all the colors of the rainbow. I like to think that although my leaves are falling, I am dealing with their loss with grace and integrity. I pray my hopes and dreams will germinate and fertilize next year’s growth.

I like that I am fall. I want to take advantage of the opportunity placed before me to prepare for winter, but I also desire to breathe life upon the coming spring. I look forward to time with my grandchildren…whispering with them quietly in the night…telling stories…building make-believe houses…listening laughing and sharing as only a grandmother can do.”

Being a grandmother is the best.

I believe it is the only thing in life that is not overrated.

~ Marty Norman