WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR AUGUST 2018

So cute!💗

Good morning all! Happy Tuesday! Wow! Another night of thunderstorms, lightning, and rain! I always sleep really well during this weather (and I did again, last night). Not sure if it is the barometric pressure or what, but I tend to sleep deeper. Right now it is still dark outside, but I can't wait to see how much greener things are getting because of the rain. Boy, did we need it!
Thanks to all for the compliments on my daycare/daycare ideas. I have a compilation of calendars and ideas saved (in paper form and on my computer), some ideas are my own but many I found years ago from magazines like Family Fun and Parent. Pinterest has been a treasure trove of ideas for me. I could get lost on that site, and have gotten sucked in for hours, looking at all of the different learning ideas/ crafts/ etc. Many of my ideas are ideas I got from my years as a girl scout leader/volunteer at daycamps. Years ago, before the internet, I had three summers in a row that I did a "badge" program for my boys. I used my girl scout handbook and planned themes for the week and activities that needed to be done to earn the badge. The boys would get the "actual" badge (sorry Rori, that may have been an abuse of my leader privileges) and they loved it all! So...somewhere in Grand Haven, there are six young man who have earned about a two dozen girl scout badges.
Janet- Oh my OLIVIA! What a doll baby! Look at that blonde hair in ponytails! She has lost that baby look!
Heather- I love the way you described your DDIL! "...iron hand in a velvet glove". That is a great compliment, in my opinion. It seems to be working. Every photo you have shared of your grandchildren they look happy to be with each other and content at where they are at the time! Beautiful kids!
Purl - I remember you, but I can't remember your name; or did you go by Purl? Hope to hear more from you and how you have been during your absence! Welcome back!
Felicia- Great to hear from you, again! Missed you!
Evelyn- Kudos to you for getting exercise in after you have slept in! I am AWFUL at that (which is why I don't sleep in hardly EVER).
Rita - So excited about this new adventure as a host! I can't wait to see photos and hear about the interesting people and adventures you have in Roswell! (insert alien emoji here)
Sue WA- I read your first couple of lines about blueberries and was thinking, "Our blueberries are pretty much done; time for apples!" LOL...One of my favorite fall things to do is to go to the cider mills and pick/buy my apples and watch them make cider. Most of those places around here also have cafe's that serve doughnuts, cider, soup and sandwiches, etc. I try to avoid the food, but I usually end up buying a half dozen doughnuts. This year, I will have to plan a doughnut into my menu as a treat. The orchard closest to me makes the most wonderful cinnamon cake doughnut.

Grandparents- Neither set of grandparents were particularly affectionate. My mother's mother was widowed and had a severe alcohol problem, so no decent relationship there. My father's mother was a good grandmother in the way that she knew her way around a garden, kitchen, canning, foraging in the woods for berries, mushrooms, plants, etc. She also hunted. She was the first woman in Michigan to get a hunting license and shoot an elk! She made the papers for that one! lol BUT...she wasn't a very open, talkative, or affectionate woman. When I became a teenager, we got to know each other a little better and I found out she grew up on a farm, left the farm for the big city and lived her teen/early twenties as a "flapper" when she met and married "the ukelele player in a Hawaiian band" (my grandfather). After marriage, he bought a gas station and ran that, and she was a housewife and began raising her seven kids, started a garden and an orchard, etc. Full circle. I was a little rebellious and I think my adventures in the world reminded her a bit of herself. She told me these things about her as we were in her car. She was in her 70's and drove a little red Gremlin "like a bat out of H*ll". I told her so ,and she laughed at me. That is when her story came out. My own mother was much closer to my father's mother. My paternal grandmother outlived my own parents and I think that loss took a lot out of her. Both of my grandfathers died when I was very young. One from TB and the other from complications due to Alzheimers (but they didn't call it that, at that time).

Well ladies, today we are celebrating Mardi Gras! I have a cd of great Bourbon Street jazz music, plus I will add my collection of Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway music. We usually make our own masks; but we just did that for our Italy craft last week, so I had a few pairs of old sunglasses, so I will have the kids decorate the sunglasses with feathers, ribbons, glitter, etc., I will plug my video camera into the tv and let the kids dance and see themselves on tv, plus everyone gets some mardi gras beads. I am making an easy King Cake for snack. By easy, I mean I am taking a short cut and just using a refrigerated pillsbury cinnamon roll package to make it. Adding the baby after baking.

Well, I have rambled on long enough. The rain has let up momentarily so I will take my trash to the curb and remove the spiders that seem to have moved to my front door area due to the rain.

ttfn xoxoxo KJ (Kelly)