Scenes from Summer 2022

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Scenes from Summer 2022

Welcome back! I hope everyone enjoyed their summer, making memories and more with loved ones.

I was blessed with memorable moments with many a loved one since pressing pause on Grandma’s Briefs for the season.

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Grandma's heroes: Where the boys are

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Grandma's heroes: Where the boys are

Kids across the country—and their parents and teachers, too—are celebrating the end of the most challenging school year ever. From pre-K to college age, students have survived a school experience not a single adult alive has ever had to muddle their way through, thanks to Covid.

Sure, parents and teachers had it rough (often beyond rough) making the schooling work somehow, some way. Yet no one over the age of 30 can fully comprehend how it felt and what it meant—and continues to mean—being a kid of any age enduring the wacked out way the 2020-2021 school year went.

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30 'firsts' only grandparents celebrate

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30 'firsts' only grandparents celebrate

There are numerous firsts in a child's life worth celebrating. The milestones Mom and Dad mark, though, likely aren’t the same ones Grandma and Grandpa celebrate.

Here are 30 firsts in the life of a grandchild that warm a grandparent's heart and warrant a happy dance.

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Rockin' PawDad's party

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Rockin' PawDad's party

The recent weekend in which my family was all together—a relatively uncommon occurrence even in the best of times—featured not only Robert’s baptism, as I previously shared, but a milestone birthday celebration, too. That milestone being Jim’s sixtieth birthday.

The birthday festivities, organized primarily by Megan, revolved around a rockin’ theme as …

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Take me to church: Small steps toward normalcy plus baby Robert’s baptism

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Take me to church: Small steps toward normalcy plus baby Robert’s baptism

Jim and I have attended Holy Cross Lutheran Church for about 35 years. Not every single Sunday during that time but certainly more often than not.

That all changed in March of 2020. For exactly one year we didn’t walk through the doors of church one single Sunday. Or any other day, including my pre-Covid monthly volunteer shift in the food pantry.

Thanks to Covid—and my immunocompromised status thanks to my MS medication—our church attendance was restricted to …

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How to Be Present: a 'First-Time Grandmother's Journal' excerpt

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How to Be Present: a 'First-Time Grandmother's Journal' excerpt

In my book, The First-Time Grandmother’s Journal, I offer writing prompts to help new grandmothers dig deep then capture their thoughts on matters that matter in the months leading up to a first grandchild’s birth and the child’s first year.

I also provide bits of advice to help new grandmas navigate their new role—advice even seasoned grandmas can appreciate and apply—such as the following two-page spread on being present.

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Publication Day ... and giveaway day, too!

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Publication Day ... and giveaway day, too!

Hooray! It’s publication day—and GIVEAWAY day—for my new book, The First-Time Grandmother’s Journal, the work that thankfully kept me busy and focused on something positive during our Covid Summer of 2020.

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Unboxed: The First-Time Grandmother's Journal

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Unboxed: The First-Time Grandmother's Journal

I’ve never been a huge fan of “unboxing” videos. I know, I know. A blogger who promotes products provided free for review probably shouldn’t say such things, as brands do love to see #unboxing promos of their products. They just always feels so “Lookie what I got and you didn’t get one!” to me.

Until now. Now I do have an unboxing video I’m excited to share: the unboxing of my …

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