The Produce Aisle

Last week was rough. Exactly 4 months from losing my Grandma, my Grandpa passed away. Thankfully, I was able to head up as soon as I found out and be with my family and help out. We all knew it was coming, but the man had beaten the odds for so long that it was still unexpected. He was a great man and a wonderful grandpa. I can say this because I'm the girl grandchild. Not as much was expected of me. I made sure this past week that I didn't have time to dwell on it and to keep pressing forward with whatever I could do to help. See I don't like to cry in front of people. It's a weird thing to some people, but it's who I am. So we'd be sitting in the kitchen of my Grandparents' farm talking about things and those unwanted tears would brim to the surface only to be blinked in oblivion. I do give myself permission to cry when it works for me. Two of the qualities or flaws (depending on who you ask) that my Grandpa passed to me was stubbornness and being a control freak.

Okay enough about my emotional constipation. You're probably wondering what the heck the title of this post means. Ahh, you thought I didn't have a plan . . . Today was the first day that I've been alone since Grandpa died (not including the 3-1/2 hours spent in a car to get there). I went to the bank and then to the grocery store. When you first walk into the grocery store, the produce is there. I'm doing fine, grab my cart, grab some bananas and then head to the veggie aisle. As I'm picking up green beans, tears rush forward as the image of my Grandma's kitchen and her showing me how to snap off the ends floods my mind. People really shouldn't get weepy buying veggies, but I'm blinking away tears as my gaze falls on the husks of corn. Can you guess who showed my how to shuck corn. My memories of my Grandparents rest in that farm. It's who they were to me. From painting a chair for Grandpa in the barn while he worked in his shop with the traditional country music station blaring in my ear to the cookies in Grandma's cookie jar to milking goats while Grandpa milked the cows. Afternoon naps with Grandpa on Sunday in the recliners. Setting the table for Grandma. To later always making sure before I left to give them a kiss and hug and tell them I love them just in case next time they wouldn't be there.

I will always be grateful for getting to see them one last time before they left this world and getting that chance to remind them that I love them. If you see me getting choked up in the produce aisle, just give me a moment and it too will pass.

A Girl and Her Car

I have a Honda Fit. I'm a girl who has never been particularly interested in cars. Note I haven't gotten that interested over the years either. So if you own a Honda Fit and see me getting into mine please don't ask me how I like it. It's starting to creep me out. First a man hollers across the grocery store parking lot "How do you like your Fit?" I smile thinly and say it's fine. Then today I come out of Target and a man sitting in a white Fit right next to mine. I load in my stuff and then take the cart to the corral. As I'm walking back across, he's started his car and pulls out. I wait and he rolls down his passenger window to yell, "How do you like the Fit?"

Now come on, people. You're making me really quite freaked out. What is it with older men and their Honda Fits wanting to see if I like my car. I'm driving it and it's not broken, so yeah, I like it. Am I going to gush ecstatically over it? Probably not. Is it going to make me want to talk to you? Really, no! Is it going to make me want to run to the nearest police officer? Umm . . . yeah. It's a car, you've got one too, good for you. Now leave me alone.

{This does not apply to people I know and talk to. Or someone interested in buying a Fit. Just creepy Fit owners who want their own purchase approved by someone else :) }

School Daze

Yeah, I know I've used that before, get used to it. I'm getting old and set in my ways. Lady Jane and Little Man are back in school and loving it. Wait until the real work starts next week. Lady Jane is making friends and Little Man is planning his birthday party. The cats and I are adjusting to the less frantic pace of life without the kids home. Next week we start gymnastics again and need to sign up for another round of swimming. We've decided to forgo ballet this year and maybe pick it up next year when we won't have swimming lessons. Both kids decided they wanted to do Soccer as well and since league play is free with our membership, why not. We'll settle into a routine fairly shortly here. Yay, school!

The Box

So Little Man had a rough Kindergarten year with some methods of punishment we were not all together happy with. "The Box" being one of these. Well, Little Man has been "scaring" Lady Jane with "the box". I wish I could go back to those stressful times and stand up to the administration and the teacher and say hell no to the box. Little Man is an odd case but to have permanently marked in his brain that not "getting" the rules means you end up in a box* really sucks.

*The box was a desk surrounded by walls to keep him from distracting other students. Not unlike a cubicle.

Still if I were a stay at home mom at the time, I feel we could have dealt with the situation better. Who knew that three years later we would be easing the fears of his younger sibling with regards to "the box". She's also worried that she won't make any friends and especially a friend like F (England).

This and That and the Other

The kids and I spent two weeks up at my parents' farm. We had a good time. Little Man and Lady Jane got to play with their cousins. My niece is 8 and my nephew is 6, so the kids are all close in age. One snag was Little Man had a DS and so did my niece and nephew. You've never seen a more miserable 5 year old than Lady Jane when everyone was playing except her. Guilt and a promise from Little Man to front some of the cost made me buy Lady Jane a used DS. Makes for a much happier Lady Jane. When Phil and I decided to get Little Man a DS for Xmas in 2006 and Lady Jane a Leapster, it was for our trip to England and Lady Jane was only 3. She loved her Leapster and didn't feel jipped. But she's older now, so...

On the money issue, anyone else go school clothes shopping yet? Oh, my God! That's an easy way to drop a few hundred dollars. The mall was scary. I kept having flash backs to junior high. Vests, tunics and leggings, and even ties. I had to nix some clothes as I couldn't dress my child in things I would have worn 20 some years ago. She'll be cute though and well dressed. She's my little skinny mini and so is Little Man. Little Man is a 5 percenter in both height and weight. I'm pushing him to eat more since the doctor was a little concerned about his weight increase over the past year. Or rather lack thereof. He gained just not in correspondance with how he'd been gaining.

Blah, blah, blah. Kids go back to school soon and I'm sure I'll have lots to talk about then.