The Week I Had

As anyone who is following my posts on Facebook and Twitter probably knows, I've spent the past week in Missouri. Actually, I've spent the past two weeks here and have one more to go. My daughter is in Texas, helping prepare for and attending a friend's wedding as her Maid of Honor, and I'm here with my grandkids, getting them up and ready for school, helping with homework, dealing with the social anxieties that come with being a kid, and making sure they get to bed on time.

No complaints here. It's glorious work. I love, love, love spending time with my precious granddaughters and learning about what makes them happy and what makes them sad, watching the turn from babies to little girls and now watching the oldest morph into a young lady. I love being a daily part of their worlds. Since we now live so far apart, I miss it more than I can say.

But I'm not going to lie, I'm worn out. Keeping up with kids who still have a full tank of energy at all times is challenging.

We went to a parade last weekend, followed by a shrimp boil. We've taken walks with the dog and walks to find fall leaves for a school assignment. We've played four-square so the girls could practice and I could prove that four-square existed way back when I was a girl.

I spent yesterday with the oldest grand-girl and her school class on a field trip at a local corn maze. Those kids raced from a corn box (like a sandbox but filled with dried kernals of corn) to a 40-foot slide to a volleyball court, to a bouncy house, to a "hay" ride, to the corn maze without breaking stride. They could barely sit still long enough to eat lunch before launching themselves back into the fray.

They followed the corn maze adventure with time at a local university where they got to see a "ginormous" snake, a turtle, a few other exotic creatures, along with some other very cool things. And they followed that up with a dance. And they were up and at it this morning as if yesterday just created more energy for them.

I'm still trying to find enough oomph to look at the pictures I took.

Exhausted? Yes. Absolutely. But also filled with gratitude for the week I had and grateful, too, that I have one more action-packed week before I go home to my quiet existence in Florida. I'll be glad to get back to my own bed, but as for the rest, I'm going to miss it. But I don't want to dwell on that. I want to remain grateful for the chance to be here and enjoy every moment of the time I have left!

A Story to Make You Smile

photo by Jasper van der Meij

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm tired of bad news. There's far too much of it out there to suit me. It's not that I want to hide my head in the sand and pretend that everything is sunshine and lollipops, but there's so much awful stuff, senseless junk and ridiculousness going on in the world sometimes I think I'm drowning in it. I'm feeling the need for something to lift my spirits.

Yesterday, my daughter told me about an article she saw on Facebook about a cat that saved the life of an abandoned baby in Russia. The story warned my heart, so I decided to share it with you in case you haven't seen it yet. You can see the whole thing here ... but in case you don't want to click through and see the story for yourself, let me sum up:

It seems that residents of an apartment building in Obninsk, Russia found a baby boy less than 12 weeks old inside a box that was meant for a cat that routinely hung out near the building. One of the residents heard what she thought was loud meowing and thought the cat might be in danger from a predator. She raced outside to save it and found the baby. The cat had curled up next to the baby to keep it warm.

This is a cat, but not the cat in the story

The baby was taken to the hospital, but the poor cat was clearly distressed. She followed responders to the ambulance and meowed in distress when they took the baby away. Apparently, she sat on the curb for a couple of hours, waiting for the baby to come back. Residents of the apartment building are now showering the cat with extra TLC and treating it like a hero -- which is only right.

So there you have it, your Friday Feel-Good. I hope it makes you smile.



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