so…Going.  and it's Good.  Moving along.  Feeling easy.  And all the while there are many separate parallel thought threads.  About how if it were just my own kids,  i would be doing next to nothing other than washing sheets and pillow cases,  thinking about what to feed them.  Otherwise,  all my daily living Stuff could just be pushed aside a little,  like just enough room to set a plate.

So what makes this different?  ok…it's How It Is With An Old Nana.  First,  of course there is my son's Woman, Heather.   I am her husband type person's Mother.  So there's that, right away.  She knows stories.  He tells her the stories.  She knows that i am more than a little "layed back".  That i always was.  Heather is orderly and has concerns. So.  To make it comfortable for her.  This is important.  But the most important to me about this first burst of family is the Giana.  Giana Lily who i wanted named Alluvial Fan but got vetoed.  Soon she will be three years old.  I only saw her when she was less than a year old.  So we are new to each other although son stops at my photograph on the way down the stairs and tells Her stories.  I see her on Facebook.  So we know something of each other.  Something.

They live in Colorado.  They go camping in the mountains.  But still,  Giana is a girly girl i think?  Maybe not.  We'll find out.

 

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The Shelf.  Top two have been cleared for Visiting.  Bottom one  still has my stuff.  

The turtle basket.

 

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i looked at Walmart,  the only store in town,  hoping for a bag of little plastic animals.  But not.  i guess bags of little plastic animals are lost in space now.  But there WAS a princess and her Friends.  Ok.

 

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She has a very nice dress.  I looked and it can come off…velcro….but she would be naked then.  If i were a Good Old Nana,  i might drive self nuts making her a pair of shorts and a Ttop.  But i'm not that kind of Old Nana so……….

When Giana and i go out…which to me is the Whole Point of the visit,….when Giana and i go Out to Build a World under the Old Apricot tree,  build mountains and bridges and huts and lakes with the hose,  when we BUILD A WORLD,  the princess will need to wear her nice dress.  OR go naked.  it will be up to Giana.  If she wears her dress,  it will become all muddy.  We can wash it and hang it to dry?  or not.  We can take the Princess with us when we feed the Goats.  I have a little pouch Giana can wear for that.  The princess can be in it as well as some peanuts. 

As i write this stuff,  i am so Smiling.  I love kids.  I love their minds.  I love finding out what they think and what they SAY and the oh so excellent way they SAY stuff…their choice of words…..I SMILE….

it's the weekend of my son's birthday,  her dad.  I was going to make my crashed pound cake but then though not…Giana and i will banish him and her mother to somewhere else and we will create

Banana  Splits.  These,  she can do as she will.  They will be her Creations.  So.  OK and more OK.

 

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After she's gone,  both top two shelves will be for Julian (7) and Destiny (8).  For THEIR stuff.  They are Makers.  Alyssia has caused this in them.  They MAKE stuff.  As i go here,  i think of things we might Make.  I got the Inktense Pencils for them.  There is collage stuff.  and of course,  there's tons of Cloth.  Julian i kind of know.  He's been here off and on.  Destiny i have yet to meet.  We will LEARN eachother as it goes.  But i will be ready.  This is Important.  They are very much into coming to where the Goats are.  They know that their Nana there in California will bring these Goats there.  But this does not dim at all the Thing of the Goats.  Destiny has been with Alyssia for a year now and is hungry for Family.  Hungry.  I will see what she wants  and do my best to FEED her soul.

 

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the table is Clean.  Here we will eat together,  like at Dana's , but different.  Here we will eat what we make to feed ourselves together.  Everyone works.

 

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since there is no guest room,  this wall shelf/counter is emptied.  Here the stuff in their back packs can go.  To make it as easy as it can be.  All the baskets of scraps have been moved for this.  A ritual in its own way.

 

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Last evening.  Sheets on the clothesline.  Tonight it is 

Still.

 

 

 

 

 

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22 responses to “parallel threads”

  1. me-ml Avatar
    me-ml

    Grace, you are a most excellent woman!
    The telling here is so full of cherish, such care and thought. So enormously beautiful.. brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart. most fragrant blessings back to you – XO

    Like

  2. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Omygod you are SO SO ready…everything you laid out just swell and makes me wish I were a child again (not really)but just so DELIGHTFUL!
    wowie WOW. I’m emailing you “The Little Prince” and you just might want to share it…I posted it at Face book but here comes an email.
    Good night you great G-MA!

    Like

  3. julie Avatar

    This is so Tender, Grace. And so completely invisible to the hordes that are coming! i missed something in the family tree–who is Destiny?

    Like

  4. Deb G Avatar

    So welcoming…

    Like

  5. Liz A Avatar

    Such care-full thought …

    Like

  6. grace Avatar

    the lineage is too complex to try to tell here, but her
    mother was Unavailable and she was living with an older
    sister…this all in Alyssia’s complex extended family
    on the paternal side in Michigan. It wasn’t working with
    the sister so Alyssia went to get her. It’s been a year
    now and All is Well.

    Like

  7. grace Avatar

    marylou…it’s Something, these kids…

    Like

  8. grace Avatar

    i saw that in a movie theater when it came out. We just
    will have the computer screen here, no TV set so i don’t
    know about how comfortable it could be…our chairs lined
    up…maybe

    Like

  9. grace Avatar

    next time Julian and Destiny will be able to fly on
    their own…imagine That!

    Like

  10. sue Avatar

    beautiful woman.. have fun..
    your grandkids are very lucky to have you as a nana.

    Like

  11. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    Oh how blessed to be so filled with love and anticipation …

    Like

  12. grace Avatar

    they give me my nana~ness

    Like

  13. grace Avatar

    it is. it’s Great.

    Like

  14. grace Avatar

    it’s the conversations i love

    Like

  15. Martine Bos Avatar

    How beautiful, your rituals of making room for them.
    I love your stories and how you are going to feed their little souls………..
    They will remember….when they’re grown up, this is so important to them what you are doing..

    Like

  16. grace Avatar

    while i’ve been doing all this, i’m thinking about how
    i’d like All of it to be a mindfull kind of Ritual….how
    i’d like to go slow through the days, remembering that
    the Point of it all is to somehow impart the things that
    matter to me. All the kids have strong worlds….the older
    two go to a great Montessori school in California and live
    in a town with a LOT happening. The little one goes to
    a uhhh, fancy day care and her mom and dad take her
    many places.
    But what i have to offer here is the fact that’s it’s Not Much
    but also is a lot. That Not Much can be a lot and can be Good.
    It’s all reminding me of why i made this choice those years ago, what i was wanting to learn myself. So…this is good. It’s
    already teaching me.

    Like

  17. yvette Avatar

    grace…..how how
    love for now

    Like

  18. Dana Avatar

    I love your shiny bare table waiting to welcome your family around itself…. food for the heart as well as the body. You remind me of my grandmother who loved making things and always made room for me.

    Like

  19. dee Avatar

    so much loving preparation! I hope it will be fun and easeful for all. On another note: my younger son, who is not returning home this summer and maybe doesn’t even think of this place as ‘home’ anymore, lucked into tickets to see the Dalai Lama last week. I texted him to say, “did you know he’s coming to CU?” and he said, “yeah, I’m going”. When asked how it was, I got the usual text: “It was good.” Needless to say, I miss the days of colored pens and building and inhabiting imaginary worlds and all that commentary!

    Like

  20. grace Avatar

    “it was good”. It’s taken me YEARS and YEARS to understand him,
    the Dalai Lama. Because it is almost TOO SIMPLE. We listen and think…THINK… ok so and…..
    but it is beyond simple, as he says. It takes YEARS to understand that. I love that he went.
    and Dee…those sons of yours…most likely will “give their seed” and soon enough you may have those days of colored pens and building and inhabiting. Love the gap in space now. It very well may disappear.

    Like

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