Posting can be a challenge when you care for an 8 month old 4 days a week. I remember caring for a baby was a lot easier when I was in my 20's than in my 50's.
I have spent this past week catching up on housework. It is hard sometimes to clean my house as I start to make a list of all the things that need to be repaired, painted or replaced and I tend to get side tracked. I think I will start to call myself "building manager."
On Saturday it took me 6 hours to deep clean my living room, entryway, hallway and dining room. Our old house has the original old narrow wooden floors. They aren't sealed. The previous owners put in an in house vacuum system so I use it to vacuum the hard wood floors, but with a dog those floors quickly look furry after a couple of days. So, it was time to not only vacuum but to get down on the floor and clean them.
My mom used to spray her dust mop with a light spritz of soapy water. Then she would dust mop the floor and the dust would cling to the mop. Again, it was a light spritz and she didn't soak the mop. On Saturday I took a cloth and spritzed it with a mist of water and cleaned the baseboards and did the same to my hard wood floors. In a couple of weeks when I have more time I will mop the floors with Murphy's wood oil soap. I also used a separate cloth spritzed with soapy water to wipe down my old upright piano (that I painted a shiny black a few years back).
Dusting, mopping, vacuuming area rugs and working on the hard wood floors, cleaning cob webs off the ceiling and putting clutter away and taking trash out wore me out. But the result was that after 6 hours I had 4 thoroughly clean areas in my down stairs. These rooms are the ones that are most visible from the front door.
Today I vacuumed again (that darn dog fur) and deep cleaned the downstairs bathroom. I don't watch my grandson on Wednesdays, as I need a day off. Tomorrow I can straighten up the den and downstairs bedroom. This is easily done with Ryan playing in the room that I am quickly working on. On Friday my son and his wife have the day off so Ryan won't be at my house and I will spend the day deep cleaning my kitchen.
The end result is that by Friday evening my entire downstairs will have been deep cleaned within a period of one week. Then the challenge will be to keep it up, which I should be able to do by devoting an hour a day to cleaning.
When Ryan is at my house I do a little housework, mostly laundry and some pick up. I can't do much with a little guy crawling around and I find that my day is spent caring for him, playing with him and catching moments of housework when he is napping.
This weekend I plan to tackle the upstairs but I know that it will take two weekends to clean out closets and deep clean. I find that once things are in good order, I want to maintain that order no matter what. It's just getting there and once you do get there, you feel like the queen of your home.
Which brings me to grand mothering. As I stated I watch Ryan Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday each week. He arrives at 6:30 a.m. and goes home when my son is done teaching for the day. This depends on students staying after school for help, which I think is an awesome thing that he does. So Ryan could be at my house until 4:30 some nights.
I am finding that I am not the normal grandmother. Most grandmothers do not watch their grandchildren as I do. One person told me that no way would she ever be doing what I am doing as she had already raised her children. It's not for everyone and I understand it. However, I am a bit old fashioned and I feel that families need to support each other as much as possible. I also like the idea of Ryan being watched by family members as much as possible.
Childcare is expensive but that is not my primary motivation to watch Ryan. I want Ryan to grow up knowing that he is loved not only by his parents, but by extended family. I also want my son and his wife to have the kind of support that my husband and I never had.
When we were raising our two sons, we did not have parents to help us out. My parents lived in New York and my husband's parents at one time were living in California. Family lived far away and we only had each other. We never had the luxury of grandparents caring for our children a day a week or even when we wanted to go to a movie. We were used to it as it was our normal, but it was difficult many times.
Yes I don't get a lot done many times when I am watching Ryan but I wouldn't trade the time I spend with him. I know that I am helping to raise a confident and happy little boy and when it comes down to it, that is the most important thing I can do right now.
One other thing about grandmothering, when I am caring for Ryan I know my role as his grandmother. If I think he is getting sick, I text his mother about this and let her make the decision if she needs to make a doctor's appointment or if he needs some Tylenol, I know my place. I am on the support team; my son and his wife are the parents and Ryan's primary care givers.
The only way for grandmothering to work is to recognize that you know your place. You have raised your children, but when you become a grandmother you get a second chance to have a powerful impact on a little baby's life.
Showing posts with label Grandparenting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grandparenting. Show all posts
November 06, 2013
June 24, 2013
I Love Being a Grandma
It is almost indescribable as to the love I have for my grandson, Ryan. If I don't get to see him, I go through withdrawal and tell people that I need my "Ryan time." Yesterday my son and wife asked me if I could watch him as they were going out of town for the afternoon. They didn't have to ask me twice. Ryan was with me for about 8 hours in which I fed him, diapered him, rocked him to sleep and played with him on the floor. I love to see how he can roll on his side, smile at me and interact. He will be four months old this week.
He was born when I was in the midst of being treated for depression. On the very day he was born I had asked God to give me a small miracle of hope that day. I didn't know that at that very time he was being born. Ryan was the best medicine for bringing me out of my depression. I can hardly wait for the day when he actually calls me grandma.
There is nothing like this time in my life. I love it.
June 09, 2013
Love being a Grandma
This is a picture of me holding our grandson, Ryan, when he was born on February 27th. I have the privilege of watching him a few times a week. He has stolen my heart and he is such a joy.
My husband loves to read the newspaper to Ryan when he is home for lunch.
When I haven't seen Ryan for a while I start to think "Hey, I need some Ryan time." Tomorrow I will get my "Ryan Time" as he gets to spend the day at our house.
There is nothing like being a Grandma.
May 12, 2013
Life is Beautiful
These days have been spent watching my grandson in the morning and spending afternoons walking my dog, obedience training, working out and sewing. Everyday I feel better and better because of the drug therapy that I am receiving. Fortunately my doctor sees my quite often to make sure that the medicine I have been prescribed is working.
The hardest part of all of this is that I have suffered from anxiety since January and I have had to re-learn what is normal anxiety versus abnormal. But, with May comes sunshine which is medicine in and of itself and I am feeling better each day and more like I used to feel.
The other hard part of this is that I have not felt at all like I have been as frugal as I could be. When you don't feel well, you don't feel like making up a proper grocery list and such, but since it is just the two of us now, we are doing fine with what I have spent on groceries and eating out. Yes, eating out. The reason: the side effects of the medications have suppressed my appetite to the point that I have lost a tremendous amount of weight. In January I weighed 148 lbs. This morning I weighed 132 lbs. My thought is that with everything that I have been through there should be one positive thing that comes out of this. I have to be careful though because with no appetite, I need to make sure that what I eat is good, wholesome and healthy food.
I want to keep the weight off if at all possible so I am walking my grandson in a stroller a few miles a day and continuing to workout at Curves. The result is that I can keep most of the weight off and the endorphins are also great medicine. However, and I can't stress this enough, it would be easy for me to resort to an eating disorder if I am not careful. I am being careful as I don't need to lose anymore weight. My goal is to run a 5K perhaps this summer or in the fall. I have always wanted to do that as my husband and sons have run, my daughter in law runs and I have never done it. But if I don't feel like running a 5K there are always those 1 mile walks you can participate in.
Now I am busy getting ready for the busyness of summer. Thankfully I am able to look forward to the future. We need to paint our house this year. It has to be done. But I am having great difficulty with the colors of the house. Ten years ago we painted our Victorian house in a true color scheme. Three shades of gold, three shades of green and 1 color of rust. At my age I need to fine a simpler color scheme of 3 colors.
BUT - wait, wait, there is more.
We have made a decision to put in a vinyl privacy fence in our back yard. Yes, that picket fence that I painted some 2 or was it 3 years ago, is rotting and we have come to the point that we need to make our lives easier if we continue to live in our house through retirement. Saving up for this fence has been difficult while putting a child through college, but we have managed to do it. However, the main reason for this purchase is just what it says: privacy. We live on a corner lot so our backyard is right next to the sidewalk that everyone walks by and looks in. Our dog, Molly, runs the fence and people have been teasing her. We are tired of it, so tomorrow I will visit with the City engineer to show our plans for where we will be placing the fence - about two feet in our yard from where the picket fence is and we will only be fencing in the back yard and not the side yards. . In this way, the fence will be further away from the sidewalk (4 feet) and I can finally plant flowers in that area and in the side yards since they will be fenced off from our dog.
The other reason for the fence is that we are looking ahead to when our 3 month old grandson is walking and we can go outside and have the privacy that we need.
The vinyl fence is white. My house color scheme of golds, greens and rust will kind of funny next to a white fence so I have been busy trying to compile a yellow color scheme with some white accents.
We have new neighbors that moved in next door to us in late December and when the husband saw us in the backyard measuring where the new fence was going in, he asked if his kids had been bothering us. We assured him that no they hadn't but that this was in our 5 year plan of home improvements. There kids are nice.
One other thing that has been interesting is that since we have gone to being Empty Nesters I have enjoyed the fact that we can eat whenever we want to eat supper, we can eat sandwiches if we want and we can finally have fish - something both my boys do not like.
So, that is what is going on in my life. Sorry I haven't posted much lately, but I have deliberately waited the 6 to 7 weeks it takes for my anti-depressant to kick in. I am loving life again and ready to get back into my normal, daily routine of getting up, feeling positive about my life, my relationship with my family and God and ready to get projects done.
The hardest part of all of this is that I have suffered from anxiety since January and I have had to re-learn what is normal anxiety versus abnormal. But, with May comes sunshine which is medicine in and of itself and I am feeling better each day and more like I used to feel.
The other hard part of this is that I have not felt at all like I have been as frugal as I could be. When you don't feel well, you don't feel like making up a proper grocery list and such, but since it is just the two of us now, we are doing fine with what I have spent on groceries and eating out. Yes, eating out. The reason: the side effects of the medications have suppressed my appetite to the point that I have lost a tremendous amount of weight. In January I weighed 148 lbs. This morning I weighed 132 lbs. My thought is that with everything that I have been through there should be one positive thing that comes out of this. I have to be careful though because with no appetite, I need to make sure that what I eat is good, wholesome and healthy food.
I want to keep the weight off if at all possible so I am walking my grandson in a stroller a few miles a day and continuing to workout at Curves. The result is that I can keep most of the weight off and the endorphins are also great medicine. However, and I can't stress this enough, it would be easy for me to resort to an eating disorder if I am not careful. I am being careful as I don't need to lose anymore weight. My goal is to run a 5K perhaps this summer or in the fall. I have always wanted to do that as my husband and sons have run, my daughter in law runs and I have never done it. But if I don't feel like running a 5K there are always those 1 mile walks you can participate in.
Now I am busy getting ready for the busyness of summer. Thankfully I am able to look forward to the future. We need to paint our house this year. It has to be done. But I am having great difficulty with the colors of the house. Ten years ago we painted our Victorian house in a true color scheme. Three shades of gold, three shades of green and 1 color of rust. At my age I need to fine a simpler color scheme of 3 colors.
BUT - wait, wait, there is more.
We have made a decision to put in a vinyl privacy fence in our back yard. Yes, that picket fence that I painted some 2 or was it 3 years ago, is rotting and we have come to the point that we need to make our lives easier if we continue to live in our house through retirement. Saving up for this fence has been difficult while putting a child through college, but we have managed to do it. However, the main reason for this purchase is just what it says: privacy. We live on a corner lot so our backyard is right next to the sidewalk that everyone walks by and looks in. Our dog, Molly, runs the fence and people have been teasing her. We are tired of it, so tomorrow I will visit with the City engineer to show our plans for where we will be placing the fence - about two feet in our yard from where the picket fence is and we will only be fencing in the back yard and not the side yards. . In this way, the fence will be further away from the sidewalk (4 feet) and I can finally plant flowers in that area and in the side yards since they will be fenced off from our dog.
The other reason for the fence is that we are looking ahead to when our 3 month old grandson is walking and we can go outside and have the privacy that we need.
The vinyl fence is white. My house color scheme of golds, greens and rust will kind of funny next to a white fence so I have been busy trying to compile a yellow color scheme with some white accents.
We have new neighbors that moved in next door to us in late December and when the husband saw us in the backyard measuring where the new fence was going in, he asked if his kids had been bothering us. We assured him that no they hadn't but that this was in our 5 year plan of home improvements. There kids are nice.
One other thing that has been interesting is that since we have gone to being Empty Nesters I have enjoyed the fact that we can eat whenever we want to eat supper, we can eat sandwiches if we want and we can finally have fish - something both my boys do not like.
So, that is what is going on in my life. Sorry I haven't posted much lately, but I have deliberately waited the 6 to 7 weeks it takes for my anti-depressant to kick in. I am loving life again and ready to get back into my normal, daily routine of getting up, feeling positive about my life, my relationship with my family and God and ready to get projects done.
March 06, 2013
My little grandson, Ryan
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I am so over the top blessed with a little grandson, Ryan Michael. The look on my face shows it all. To those of you who have entered this phase of your life as a grandparent, you understand what it is like to feel "Over the Moon" with love.
I am off today to Des Moines to do so baby shopping. I have a Kohl's gift card I have been saving for a long time and they are having some really great sales - bargains, bargains, bargains are what I will be looking for today.
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