July 20, 2021

Safe entertaining tips for grandparents in a COVID-19 world

July 20, 2021/ Lisa Carpenter

Depending on where you live, restrictions on social gatherings may become less strict in the coming weeks and months. However, many experts caution that care should still be exercised when groups of people gather.

After an extended period without social contact, it’s only natural to crave some interaction …

May 31, 2021

Summer break 2021

May 31, 2021/ Lisa Carpenter

Summer is (unofficially) here!

Considering all Covid stole from us during Summer 2020 and every minute and month since, I plan to take full advantage of loosening restrictions and the more peaceful, easy feeling surrounding being out and about—whether alone or with friends or family—for Summer 2021. Meaning, I will spend as little time as possible at the computer, as little time as possible publishing posts on Grandma’s Briefs.

May 21, 2021

Grandma's heroes: Where the boys are

May 21, 2021/ Lisa Carpenter

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.

April 16, 2021

Here and now: It's been a while ...

April 16, 2021/ Lisa Carpenter

My life, here and now …

On my mind:

Gratitude for my second shot of Moderna. Jim and I are both now fully vaccinated. Yay!

March 11, 2021

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

March 11, 2021/ Lisa Carpenter

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 …

November 18, 2020

Brayden, T1D, and a warning for grandmas

November 18, 2020/ Lisa Carpenter

It’s taken me more than a month to figure out how to share this news. It’s serious and breaks my heart, yet I don’t want to come across as despaired. I hope to warn others but wish to not seem alarmist. And I want to share the challenge confronting my oldest grandson and his parents every single day forever going forward without suggesting I have any doubt they’re up to it.

My daughter, Megan, is so up to it, in fact, that she provided me the perfect tool by which I can share the news without racking my brain for the right words, right sentiment. That tool being the video below.

See, my grandson Brayden, the active and healthy 12 year old who first made me a grandma, who …

October 16, 2020

Streamin' and screamin': My top 10 scariest films

October 16, 2020/ Lisa Carpenter

‘Tis the scary season—and no, I’m not talking about Covid and our political climate (though those are downright frightening, for sure).

No, I’m talking about Halloween time.

As folks peruse streaming services for scary stuff to watch in celebration of the season, I’d like to offer a few films that forever scarred, I mean memorably scared me, on the off-chance others may wish to be similarly scarred, I mean, scared.

September 11, 2020

Summer 2020: What I didn't tell you

September 11, 2020/ Lisa Carpenter

July 25, 2020, marked the eleven year anniversary of Grandma’s Briefs. During many summers, I’ve taken a break from blogging from Memorial Day through Labor Day, to allow me time to enjoy summer fun without being obligated to publish anything.

This past summer, I chose not to take a break. I figured that with Covid restrictions and all, I’d have little to do and lots of time to write about the little I might do and see and ponder.

July 23, 2020

On my big sister

July 23, 2020/ Lisa Carpenter

My big sister Becky (Rebecca to many) and her husband, Rick, visited me on May 28 ... despite minimal Covid restrictions in place at the time. We all felt safe about it; they’re pretty much part of our “pod.”

Becky brought me some homemade cookies that had relatively recently become a favorite of her kids and grandkids. She also brought me a jar of yeast. I’ve been baking bread nearly every single week for years, and the Covid craziness made it impossible to find yeast. But Becky found …