The various grandkids get to go shopping with me on a somewhat rotational basis.  This past week it was Adeline's turn to go.  She is very much her own little person, and that came through loud and clear in our several conversations throughout the day.

Some years ago I had Kathleen with me and we drove past the purple castle that Doniphan is graced with.  As we gazed at it, I said to Kathleen, "When my ship comes in, how about if we go to Europe and explore all the castles we can find?"  She was thrilled with the idea and our imaginations ran wild.

As Adeline and I drove past the Doniphan Purple Castle yesterday, I tried that same tack with her.  "Adeline, when my ship comes in, wouldn't it be fun to go to England and Ireland and Scotland and Germany and see all the castles that we can!"

Dead silence for about 5 seconds (and 5 seconds can be a lot of silence from a 6 year old).  Then, "Do you mean you and me, Grandma?"  "Yes," I replied.  More seconds of silence followed that little exchange.  Then came this from her, "Well, could you just go and take a lot of pictures?  I don't want to go without dad and mom.  And, I already decided I never want to fly in an airplane."

A bit later we were in the parking lot at Menard's and saw a person with a handicap working there.  I pointed them out to her so that we could talk about how we treat people, no matter who they are.  After about my first or second sentence she said, "Grandma, please stop, I never want to talk about this again."  

Finally, I was putting on a Fernando Ortega CD to listen to, but before the music started, I began singing the first song.  "Grandma, please stop, if I listen to you sing it first, it will ruin it for me."

In a world of innuendos and indirect statments, such honesty is refreshing!

The Imps

 Andrew to me the other day, "Grandma, I just spit on your shoe." (And yes, sure enough, he did.  A nice little pool of spit was just sitting there on my shoe.)

Adeline to Grandpa Kent as he was carrying her on a hike through the woods, "Where we are, Grandpa?"

Andrew and Adeline tonight at our New Year's Eve get-together...dancing on the table, uprooting the aloe plant, dis-leafing the parsley, in the tub washing their feet together...regular little imps.  Just missing their third partner in crime, Chappell.  

 

A few nights ago several of our grandchildren were here long after dark.  It is just that time of year that the glow worms start to appear.  I love their magical, fairy-like, quick wisp of a glow that fades back into the deep dark of the night.  (For the uninitiated, glow worms are the common name of the larval stage of several beetles and even flies...in this case they are the larva of fireflys).  You only see them in September and October (or at least that is the only time I have ever seen them) after the weather begins to cool down a bit.  

So, the children were running around in the dark, some with flashlights and some without, when one of them noticed a glow worm.  Soon, they had brought me a plastic cup with a lid, and every few minutes, one would run up with another glow worm to add to those collected in the cup.  Now, if you look at the picture above, you will see what a glow worm looks like.  Really, they are a bit creepy, but that didn't phase the children.  Even the girls, Kathleen, Elsie, Opal, and Adeline were gleefully catching them and depositing them into the cup.  What a wonderful time they all had.

Later, as I was driving Joel's kids home, I told them about all the fun I had as a city kid visiting Fernnook and running around after dark with my cousins.  Kathleen said to me, "Grandma, do you ever wish you were still a kid?"

That was an easy one for me.  I loved my childhood, but I truly do believe that maturity is worth more than all that has gone before it.  I do miss people from earlier times.  I miss my mother.  I miss Grandma Opal.  How I wish I could play one more game of High Five with them and laugh until we were silly.  But, I don't want to go back to those good old days; rather, I want to somehow pull them into these new good days.

Well, I couldn't really explain all of that to Kathleen, so I just said, "No, honey, I wouldn't want to go back to being a kid.  If I did that, I wouldn't have you precious grandchildren that I love so much.  Honey, these are the good news days, and I love them!"

Life became more complicated this year in a good way.  Adding three
new babies to the mix has kept us all hopping, especially since the
youngest of the three has CF and has had to be hospitalized several
times.

It has been hard to pay enough attention to the details to find things
to write about.  But, the fog is beginning to thin a bit for me, and there
are sparkles of sunshine popping through again.  If that doesn't make
sense to you, not to worry.  I just said it because I like the way it
sounds.

A week or so ago, Bill and family were here working on their new
place and the grandies were all running in and out (despite the cold and
wet weather).  I had a plate on the counter that had biscuits leftover from
breakfast and a piece of bacon or two.  Every few seconds, one of the
grandies would say, "Granma, can I have a biscuit?"  Then they would
grab one and run out.  I was reminded of the days when my own boys
would go down to G'ma Opal's, walk in the front door, say hi to G'ma,
go into the kitchen, open the microwave, and take out a biscuit or two
and a piece of bacon or hog jowl.  Then as they munched on that, they
would go out the back door and take off to do whatever was in their
devious little mind at the time.

It has been a stormy and balmy February day today.  This evening was
drippy and foggy.  Kathleen, Colyn, Peeta, and Judah spent the afternoon
with me, and I took them home after dinner.  When Kathleen stepped out
of the car, she paused to listen, and then said, "Granma, you know what is
my favorite night-time sound?  It is the frogs."

The peepers were going at it hammer and tong.  Lovely, lovely, February
when the peepers are peeping.  A nice promise of springtime to come.

And, that wasn't the only sign today of the coming of spring.  I heard and then
saw a flock of geese heading north.  Oh yes, geese, go to those frozen spots
in Canada and remind them that Spring is on its way.

Kid Vignettes:

The other day I cooked bacon and pancakes for breakfast for Colyn, Peeta,
and Judah.  After eating, Peeta asked if he could have another piece of bacon.
He grabbed one off the plate and held it upright in his little fist.  Judah ran to
him and swiped the bacon, breaking it off where it protruded from Peeta's fist,
and stuffed it into his own mouth before Peeta had any idea what was happening.

He stood there with the most dumbfounded look on his face.  I am not sure he
really ever knew where that bacon disappeared to.

For as long as she has been able to talk, Elsie has wanted her ears pierced.  Finally
her daddy told her she could when she turned 6.  Well, 6 just came a week or so
ago, and as promised, the ears are pierced.  This is the picture she wanted her
cousin Kathleen to see to prove she had done it.

An interesting conversation happened recently between those two cousins as they
were jumping on the trampoline.  I was near enough to overhear it, and must say,
I went away chuckling.

(Not absolutely word for word...but close)
Kathleen:  I am going to be an eye doctor when I grow up and work in my eye
doctor's office.  Do you want to be an eye doctor when you grow up and work
with me in my office?

Elsie:  Oh, yes! (Don't think she's ever been to an eye doctor.)

Kathleen: Are you going to get married?...Because I am never going to get married.
Being married is icky.

Around that same time the girls were in the climbing tree and one of them yelled at me,
"Grandma, we decided to let the boys be in our gang.  Now it is not just us girls, the
boys can be in it too."

Now that's a much friendlier arrangement, don't you think?  It keeps Colyn, especially,
from being left out.

Bill called the other day to talk with Kent.  As they were chatting, Kent heard the phone
beep and knew someone was trying to get through.  He put Bill on hold and toggled
to the other caller.  It was Opal!  She was calling on her mom's cell while Bill was
on the landline.  Now that 'twas funny!  She wanted to talk to Grandma.  So, I
called her back after Kent and Bill finished their conversation.

We traveled with Peter and Judah to Natalie's brother's wedding last week.
We volunteered to take the boys so that Natalie could stretch her poor legs
out in the back of the van.  It was a lovely wedding, but some funny things
happened along the way.

Peter, on the drive down, kept saying, "I don't see Georgia, I just don't see
Georgia."  We kept assuring him that, indeed, we were headed to Georgia
and would be there soon.  When we finally got to the airbnb place that we
had booked, he got out of the car and said with great distress in his voice,
"This ISN'T Georgia!"

That was when we realized that Grandma Joan and Grandpa Peter's house is
Georgia in that boy's mind.  Of course it is.  Every time they get in the van
and head to Georgia they go straight to the Gagliardi's house.

Peter also told me several times while they were with us that, "I do not like
pertatoes Grandma."

Judah just said over and over, "Go, go, go, go, et's go!"

But, I have to tell a funny on myself also.  When we sat down at the reception, we
were across from Natalie's uncle and his girlfriend, whom we had never met.  They
were lovely people.  We were just getting acquainted when I reached for my cup of
water and took a large swig of Italian dressing instead.  The dressing was in the same
type of cup as the drinks.  My eyes popped wide open, and I quickly set down the
cup of dressing.  Mike (the uncle) out of embarrassment for me picked it up and placed
it in front of his girlfriend, Jennifer.  She obviously didn't want anything to do with it,
after I had taken a swig from it, so she just shoved it aside.  Then we all chuckled and
settled down to enjoy the rest of the evening.

I watched these two (Kathleen, Colyn) and little Judah today while
Natalie went to the doctor.  Peeta went with her.  He's been a little
clingy lately.

This picture wasn't from today, but was from several months ago, at
the beginning of spring.

Today was sprinkler weather.

They had a busy, imaginative day.

First, Kathleen informed me they were green gum-ball lizards.  These
type of lizards live in gum-ball (sweetgum) trees and eat green gum-
balls and green gum-ball leaves.  They looked more like possums as
they hung upside down from the lowest branches.

Then Colyn was able to climb the 2nd climbing tree all by himself for
the first time.  We have a little climbing tree they have been using for
a few years, but I told them they could begin to climb the maple in the
backyard whenever they could get into it by themselves.  Kathleen has
been able to for some time, but today was Colyn's first.

Then they came inside and played a long time.  They called each other
up from one pretend house to the other.

Colyn--Kathleen would you like to go to the jungle with me?

Kathleen--Sure!

Colyn--Well, I can't leave yet because I forgot to brush my teeth and
there is dirty laundry to fold.

Then, when they went back outside to play in the sprinkler, they were
wallowing in a puddle.  "Grandma, we're wet, gooey frogs.  Do you know
why they are called that?  Because they're wet and gooey."

I forgot to mention in the last Up and Down the Gravel that Uncle Jim broke
his foot last week.  He's off to Pocahontas tomorrow to have it examined
by a bone doctor.  He's hoping to get a boot and not a cast.

It has been a season of busyness.  It has been a season of sickness.
These two combined have made it a season of bloglessness.

Kent had a bad case of the flu.  (Emily...aka Sparkle Pop has
had her second bad case of the flu, followed by a stomach bug,
and now followed by a secondary bacterial infection.  Poor baby,
she just cannot get well.)  But, Kent's case of the flu meant that
I got to play farmer a bit more than usual.  It was sorta fun to go
out mucking in the mud (and other stuff) while moving the cows
in and out of their hay pen.  It was sorta fun to be the main wood
loader.  But it wasn't fun having a sick husband. 

Papa Bob purchased a wood splitter.  It initially had some issues,
but now is fixed, and he gave Billy and Tyler a demonstration the
other day.  They were most suitably impressed.

We had a birthday party planned for Mike and Bill, but Kent's
flu made us put it off for a week.  It did come off though, complete
with shepherd's pie, cheeseburger in paradise soup, the last of the
frozen peaches from last summer, and German chocolate cake.
Mike and Bill are safely launched now to enjoy another year of
life.

There have been lots of comings and goings in Fernnook over
the past few weeks.  Bill and Stacey and the kids were down for
several days last week.  It was cousinopia. 

One of the days was gloriously warm and sunny...one of those
special 75-80 degree February in Missouri days.  We took advantage
of it by getting the mule and piling the 6 oldest grandkids in it and
going for an adventure ride.  The highlight of the ride is always
going over the log that crosses one of the paths.  The kids love,
just absolutely love, going over that log.  Their second favorite
part is eating marienda in the old barn.

You can see what a great time Wilbur had.  Wilbur's little brother
is coming in May.  Tyler and Jenn's Adeline Shirley is coming in
April.  And...a new little creation by Joel and Natalie is due in
September. 

Somehow, I don't think life will be getting slower and simpler for
us anytime soon.

A spotted salamander was found by Tyler while digging a hole for
a fence post.  The little guy had been happily sleeping the cold
weather away.

Kathleen, Colyn, and Peeta enjoyed him immensely.  They so take
after their Daddy (and their Mommy).  Don't worry, he is again enjoying
his winter hibernation.

Yesterday the spider lily was bravely facing the chill October nights.
Today it is jazzing up the living room.  One of the grandkids, one who
looked suspiciously like Peeta, couldn't resist picking it.  That kid!
Gotta love him!

And, in more grandkid news, Kathleen followed two days ago in the
footsteps of Elsie.  Several months ago Elsie was happily cutting paper
in her room when she decided to give herself a haircut...a very severe
haircut.  It was drastic and quite disturbing to her mom and dad (and a
shock to all that saw her.)  Welllll, Tuesday Kathleen cut her hair,
and Natalie said, "I feel like I have triplets now.  Kathleen, Colyn,
and Peeta look so much alike!"