No App to Replace Your Lap
Grandma Diane’s Story Time With Elsie and Eli
What with COVID-19 and our social distancing as well as being pretty much confined to our homes, all of my school visits have been canceled until this virus lifts. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later. In the meantime, my grandkids came up with the idea to create “Story Time With Grandma Diane”. Every day (M-F) on my Facebook page at 11:00 a.m., I read a favorite children’s book. Homeschoolers can now listen in giving their caregivers a little time for a cup of coffee or a little breather. We started doing this on Monday, March 23 and will continue until the kids are back in school. Tomorrow I’ll be reading my own Life in the Neck New Friends as a special request of my great-niece Lily Lindemann in Oshkosh. Tune in and enjoy the story along with the rest of us. If you have your own copy, you can follow along as we read. Hope you listen in.
No App To Replace Your Lap
Gratitude is the Best Attitude
Gratitude Defined:
Gratitude is thankful appreciation for favors received. Webster’s
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home. a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Beattie
In this time of great fear and difficulty with the COVID-19 virus hanging over our heads, with schools closed, social distancing, and many many of us working from home experiencing being quarantined for perhaps the first time in our lives, we as a nation and as communities would do well to think about what we do have instead of what we do not have. For most of us, our daily needs at this point are being met. We have homes, food on the table, and clothes to wear. Most of us can walk and talk, see the beauty that surrounds us, listen to music that stirs our souls and makes our feet want to boogie. We have family and friends to love and be loved by in return. Focusing on our abundance rather than the lack in our lives helps us experience the sense of fulfillment which is gratitude at work. This fulfillment creates in us the desire to share what we have with others. What better time than now for us to reach out in love and thanksgiving to the community in which we live? What can YOU do to bring some happiness and joy into the lives of those around you?
No App to Replace Your Lap
Just thinking . . .
Covid-19 has forced us to stay home and spend more time together as a family. Schools are closed, parents are working from home, sports have been canceled (professional as well as school and community programs). So what’s a person to do?
Social media is full of advice for and from all of us. As I’m thinking about all of this, what comes to mind is that list of things I wanted to do when I retired. Read, write children’s books, clean the pantry, and the list goes on!
Now having two grandchildren home from school everyday for the unforeseeable future, my thinking has turned to them and to how can I help the “boredom” that they seem to be complaining about so much as time passes. I trust that if I put my mind to it, I can come up with a plan that may turn this time together into an opportunity to grow in learning, understanding and love.
Children need and want structure. It helps them feel safe and in control - they know what to do and when to do it - even though they will argue about it. So to provide structure we need to first talk about the “have to dos” and the “want to dos” and then make room for both in our daily schedule.
So that’s my job for today - working together to make our daily schedule. This could be exciting. I’ll let you know what happens . . .
To be continued . . .
50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration Canceled Due to COVID - 19
March 21, 1970 Butch & Diane Davies
As Butch and I were busy planning our wedding fifty years ago, we never took into consideration that the world would be suffering a pandemic of Coronavirus when it came time to celebrate our 50th Anniversary. Who Knew? Right?
Our party on March 21st has been canceled. It has been fun in the planning – going through old pictures and old memories – putting together a slide show for your viewing enjoyment – never to be seen. Oh well !?!?!?
So instead of celebrating with all you on Saturday as planned, we will be sitting home on the couch watching nothing on TV and eating macaroni and cheese. Send happy celebratory thoughts our way and envision the fun we could be having together.
Jeannie Ann’s Grandma Has Breast Cancer Trailer
By Diane Davies
Illustrated by CA Nobens
Davies 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration Canceled due to
COVID - 19
As Butch and I were busy planning our wedding fifty years ago, we never took into consideration that the world would be suffering a pandemic of Coronavirus when it came time to celebrate our 50th Anniversary. Who Knew? Right?
Our party on March 21st has been canceled. It has been fun in the planning – going through old pictures and old memories – putting together a slide show for your viewing enjoyment – never to be seen. Oh well !?!?!?
So instead of celebrating with all you on Saturday as planned, we will be sitting home on the couch watching nothing on TV and eating macaroni and cheese. Send happy celebratory thoughts our way and envision the fun we could be having together.
Jeannie Ann’s Grandma Has Breast Cancer
By Diane Davies
Illustrated by CA Nobens
Nineteen COVID-19 Lessons
Nineteen COVID-19 Lessons. By Diane Davies.
Nineteen COVID-19 Lessons
By Diane Davies
How quickly a country can shut down.
Fear certainly is a great motivator.
How fast the art of cooking is remembered/learned.
Parents having quality time to spend with their children.
Children having quality time to spend with their parents.
Husbands and wives becoming reacquainted.
Remembering how to communicate face to face.
Parents understanding more about how learning works.
Parents understanding more about how teachers work.
New and creative ways of using technology to stay in touch with relatives and friends.
How to sew a face mask to protect yourself and others.
Children using their imagination to play new games they created on their own.
Remembering how to reach out to others in love and friendship and doing it.
Learning about what lonely feels like.
Finally, some family time to eat meals together.
Remembering/Learning how to pray.
Learning how to do distance learning, worship, prayer, friendship.
New and resourceful ways of using our brains to be innovative, productive, inventive, and artistic.
Remembering how to “Be Still and Know That I Am God!” Psalm 46:10
Sent in by viewers:
Learning a new hobby you’ve wanted to try, but no time. Like knitting, crochet, rock painting, gardening, photography etc. . . -MY
Picking up and actually reading that book you bought for “someday I’ll read this when I have time.” -MY
Wife and husband working together in the kitchen and trying new items to cook. -BF
Playing cards with my family in TN via online. It’s become a family time and thing for us to do together even when we are so far apart. -JB
Dropping a handwritten note in the mail, the old-fashioned way. Pausing to appreciate so many things we took for granted just a few weeks ago. -LV
Remembering how to deep clean a house and then having time to do it. -KJ
Teaching kids how to dust and vacuum. -KJ
The MVPs of this world are not the sports heros and movie stars bu the family, friends, and caregivers that put their lives at risk for us. -DD
It’s okay to crack a beer at 9 a.m. -MK
How to blow ring bubbles in the pool. -NP
Thanks to my readers for these additions! You are the best!
