What do you do with the SAD?

I saw the notice in the paper this morning-"3 year old. Died at home.  More details later."
"How sad." I thought.

Then I listened to the message on my recorder.  Pastor John was calling to tell me that this event occured to a friend of a friend.  The young moms at church know this family.  One chilld is best friends with the older sister. How sad!

I made some calls.  Michelle is sad for her friend and anxious about her own children.  How can we be even more careful?  The little boy was supposed to be napping.  His bed is one of those molded plastic cars with a roof over the bed.  He climbed on top and looked out the window.  He slipped and was caught in the cord hanging from the window covering.  We have all heard these terrilble stories.  We think it is such a rare occurance, we usually don't give it much thought.  Now what do we do with those fears?  Michelle told me to hug my grandchildren.  She was hugging her children.

Next I called Ana. This call was harder. She said she had encouraged her daughter to leave a love message on the cell phone.  What does one five year-old say to another?  "I'm sad that your brother died?"  Parents assure children that Jesus is taking care of Daniel now, but most children only understand the care given to them by those they can see.  What do we do with this SAD?

Ana said she could only hug her friend when she stopped by after the meeting to make funeral arrangements.  There are few words of comfort one can share with grieving parents.  What do you do with the guilt?  Tragic accidents are just that-tragic and accidental. 

I will revisit this when I know more.  The funeral is Tuesday. I will offer to sit with Ana.  Sometimes showing up and hugging are the only things to be done.  The SAD is still here.

New Year's Resolution

I am resolving to post to this blog once a week in 2010! 

I will end 2009 with a post that has been swirling around in my head for several months.

When the daylight savings time change occurs, it is suggested that people check the batteries in the smoke detectors to insure they are working properly.  My husband, Ed, is very conscientious about home maintainance.  He decided it was time to replace the entire unit and start fresh with new ones. 

It was much later that night (10 p.m.) when our neighbor knocked on our door to report that our garage was sounding an alarm.  We looked confused and Sam suggested that the sound was probably coming from our trash can.  I have to tell you that it is a joy to claw through coffee grounds, egg shells, soggy muck in search for any number (8, eventually) screaching alarms.  Who knew that they would erupt in song when they reached a certain temperature?

There were the first easy victories.  The units were found and the batteries were removed.  The clamor continued.  We dug deeper into the bag until all were found (we thought).  At least the bag was inside the garage when it began to wail at 11 p.m.  A final search located the last noisy pest and we went to bed.

The morale of the story is to remove batteries from all items before discarding.  I understand it is suggested that people actually recycle those pesky things.  We will try to be better neighbors in 2010.

Regarding Coffee

This morning my first sip of coffee was especially satisfying.  I'm not sure why.  It did, however, give me an idea for this sharing.  Nancy has been on my back to write again.
I grew up in a coffee-drinking family, but did not begin my personal journey until my sophomore year in college.  I think I believed I would automatically be more grown up if I were a coffee drinker.  The first attempts were rocky.  The coffee was dispensed from a five gallon vat in the cafeteria.  I found that I needed to add a half cup of hot water to make it pallatable.  I persisted and proudly went home at Christmas and requested coffee.  No one commented on my maturity.
I developed a habit that was not interuppted by pregnancy.  We didn't see a problem in those days.  I was grateful for my children and sacrificed for them in many ways, but giving up coffee was not one of them.  They both managed to graduate from college in spite of that caffene poisioning.
I did have to admit that caffene is an addiction on our camping trip to Yellowstone.  I had such a headache the morning we had no coffee that I made the family drive many miles to purchase our replacement camping coffee pot.  We never left home without it again.
For some reason I took to adding cream to my coffee a number of years ago.  I really enjoyed the little tubs delivered to my table by helpful waitresses.  I made sure we had half and half at home.  It was fun to try different flavors.  All of this came to a screaming halt when my doctor demanded that I loose weight this January.  It is amazing what can be sacrificed when necessary.
I am not a coffee snob and I can prove it.  This morning a child approached me on the playground proudly sharing his "seed".  I recognized it as a dirt clod.  I was appropriately interested but not thrilled when he decided to drop it in my coffee sitting on the bench.  I drank it anyway.  Some of you may remember the phrase, "good to the last drop".  Indeed.

First Attempt

I've been thinking I should do this for a long time.  I so enjoy reading other blogs (Nancy, Tom, Alice) and keeping up with them through the process.  My stories may be infrequent, but hopefully, entertaining.

 I so enjoy simple everyday activities with the grandboys.  Yesterday, I went to preschool with Owen and determined that he is in a very nice place.  The parent communication system is enviable.  All of my parents do not come at the end of the morning so I can't do a morning re-cap.  It was very helpful. Nancy and I were able to ask great questions all afternoon based on the parent feedback.

I spent an hour with Joel in Safeway while Nancy was at the gym.  He babbled, and danced and attracted a great deal of attention.  His glasses are comment-magnets.  People respond well when told that the glasses are helping and probably will enable him to avoid surgery.  He knows he is cute and plays shy when strangers approach.  I had the best time.  I enjoyed chatting with him, singing to entertain him and just having one-on-one time. That is what grandmothers do best.  The other grandparents in the store got it.

Today we went to the Calvert County fair.  Owen said the best ride was the school bus.  We'll see if he sticks to that when he sees my pictures.  The shots may remind him of the other fun.  He enjoyed the moon bounce, train and worm.  The spinning dragon that he rode with Nancy-not so much. It was "too fast".

There was a small enclosure near one of the exhibit buildings that was set up to let small children do farm chores.  There were real ears of corn to pick from felt covered pipe "cornstalks".  The plush chickens sat on terra cotta eggs.  The apples tied to the plastic ficus tree were ripe and ready to harvest in the pint baskets the children were issued as they entered the enclosure. Joel knew exactly what to do with the garden spades in the potting soil sandbox--wreck havoc.  Great entertainment.

I'm not sure how this should be ended.  Am I writing a note to friends?  It doesn't feel like dear diary, but some days it might.  Oh well-so long for now.