Dear Reader:

Yesterday I kept Rutledge for part of the day while dad slept getting ready for his night shift and mom met some of her children speech therapy clients. From Walsh and Mollie’s house I left mid-afternoon to go to Mandy and John’s home to keep Eva Cate after school so they could take Jakie to his allergist…his poor skin is so inflamed and the poor little tyke is quite miserable.

Oh, to be needed! It is so important throughout all our lives, but particularly so as we age I believe.  God was so good to keep everybody well through the Race for the Cure Saturday so most of the participating family could attend…so if health issues had to pop up… they did so, after and not before, our annual family care-giving day to others. For that we are all thankful!

When I am eating out and see grandparents eating with their children and grandchildren, as well as, grandparents eating out with their grandchildren alone…it makes my heart happy! It is so important to a child’s early sense of security to understand that extended family….grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. are an essential ingredient in producing self-worth and confidence in future generations’ lives. How very blessed are children who are privy to be a part of a large extended diversified family!

Eva Cate always wants to know about my mother and what she was like, as well as, Poppy and Dee-Dee. She is still confused as to why they are all dead now and curious as to what made them dead. I read somewhere that around seven is when children begin to realize that all our lives end in physical death….so Eva Cate is now in the questioning stage of that eternal truth. It is a tricky one to answer without going into too much detail…but important also.

It helps many times for children and young people to have grandparents they can tell certain problems to that they would not want to tell their parents…no doubt about it…there is something very special about the grandparent-grandchild relationship. And I am just blessed to be a part of that relationship and have my children and grandchildren so close!!!

The nicest thing about extended families is that they just keep extending with time…some go, new ones enter, and life continues. The circle of life.

Yesterday morning Rutledge wasn’t sure which super hero he wanted to be so he changed from Captain America to the Hulk *Life, according to a three-year-old, would make a stand-up comic fall over laughing. But besides being just plain cute, he is also very insightful.  Rutledge’s views on the world should make the political quandary we are in blush. In a nutshell Rutledge thinks we should all be a hero for someone else. He’s got my vote!

I left Rutledge around 3 and headed to John and Mandy’s house to keep Eva Cate after school so John/Mandy could go together to Jakie’s allergist to see if there was something else they can do to help him….even with all food watching, lotions, creams, medicines, poor little Jakie continues to have skin outbreaks that are painful  to him and even more painful as parents and grandparents to watch.

We just keep hoping he will outgrow some of these allergic problems that plague him constantly. He continues to be a real trooper through it all. *I told Mandy I would help Eva Cate with her homework and I was shocked at the amount and depth of work expected in the first grade. I wasn’t prepared for all that…first grade has sure changed a lot. Mixed feelings there????

*Happy Birthday to Mollie and Bekah!! What a lovely day to share a birthday. Love you both very much!

So until tomorrow…”No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of others” Charles Dickens

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh