Much more mellow color now--perhaps purple

Alison and Zuzu in Grandma Whitney's Cool Porch Swing

The Blues are gone.  They have been replaced by the beautiful visages of my grandchildren, who are in Kitsap County this week, visiting with their Mama.  Mama's parents live in Kingston on a terrific piece of property that is just right for grandkids.  I spent the whole day there on Friday and will spend more time there, in addition to a Penney's photoshoot tomorrow and an all day visit at our house on Friday.  We have a nice piece of property, too, but it doesn't include a swing and toys with wheels and a little kid picnic table.  However, we have thousands of river rocks and lots of sidewalk and a great big concrete driveway that will appeal to the 3 year old, Alison.  She can fill buckets with rocks and ride her wheeled vehicle around and around the house and she can pull weeds with me if she feels like it.  We'll have a great time.  I think we might make chocolate chip cookies, too.  I'd like to make and eat some and I bet Alison will, too.  Zuzu, on the other hand, being only nine months old will probably crawl around on the wooden floors and dust them for me.  Mama is not so sure she will take an afternoon nap, but she is such a happy little one that it won't matter much as long as the source of her milk supply is at hand.

I believe the last post was written shortly before last Friday and I was not feeling so good about life that day.  But Friday changed all that.  It is incredible to me that 6 hours spent with two grandchildren can be so relaxing, enervating, better than a massage, better than 3 glasses of wine, better than a week's vacation.  I'd like to know how that works, because I could make a fortune bottling whatever it is that those kids have that can make somebody who is blue turn color so completely!  I was so changed by that day that I slept straight through the night for two nights in a row, unheard of lately with my old mind worrying the situation with my Mom and brother.

What did we do in those 6 hours?  We built a town with a Mama Elephant and a Baby Elephant and Eeyore and a ball that was actually a tower from which the Baby Elephant could see his/her Mama.  Alison decided that a piece of cloth needed to be placed on the ball so that Baby didn't fall off.  We discussed the Pretty Rock Soup that Ali made for me many, many times when I was visiting her in Wisconsin in December.  She explained to me that the Pretty Rocks have to be upstairs now because they are too little and if Zuzu got them she would might put them in her mouth, which would not be good.  We had lunch--pb and js all around and banana bread with pineapple in it make by Grandma Whitney and some blueberries that Ali helped her other Grandma pick.  We sat on the early morning sunlight on the front porch while Ali helped her Grandpa Whitney wash his truck and move his motorhome and some other Grandpa duties.  Mama and I took pictures of Ali and Zuzu in the way cool single person porch swing--single adult person but not too small for two granddaughters.  We helped Zuzu stay away from the magazines she likes to chew on and watched her crawl and destroy Ali's town.  We toured the yard and looked at all the pretty late summer flowers blooming.  We listened to Ali try to take a nap while both grandmas and Mama and Zuzu were still in the living room (impossible!).

That's what we did.  Now how in the world can that change an outlook?  I don't know, but it did, and it's lasted--Paxil doesn't even work that well!  I haven't seen the kids since Friday but I've talked to Mama and all is well.  Ali finally took a nap that day, after I left.  They've been to Poulsbo and had the smiley face cookies and some donuts at Sluy's or the other bakery, threw some rocks in the bay and today another grandpa is coming to visit.  Tomorrow are the pictures,  and Friday I get to see them again,  a refill of the amazing grandchild elixir!