March 28, 2019

Springtime treat: Bird Nest No-Bake Cookies

March 28, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

Several years ago, I shared here how to make Bird Nest Cookies. Considering spring has finally arrived, I figured it’s high time to share the scrumptious springtime treat once more.

Hence, this kinda, sorta rerun of Springtime fun: Bird Nest Cookies, which published April 30, 2013, back when Brayden and Camden were itsy bitsy boys—my only grandboys at that point—who loved to bake (or create no-bake) goodies with Gramma.

March 25, 2019

How to be a Dad!

March 25, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

How to be a Dad!

I just love this quote from Ryan Reynolds. Especially as it so perfectly fits the scary, stressful hours and days after Benjamin’s birth.

March 22, 2019

Flashback: Sink, swim, or hold on!

March 22, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

Dear readers: This flashback feature originally appeared on Grandma’s Briefs March 4, 2010. Update: I’m still holding on “with a steel-plated grip because I have no other option.” How about you? Thank you for reading my rerun.

Back in the '80s, before the real estate market crash that marked the end of that decade, I worked for a mortgage company. Business was good, and we were rewarded well by the company's owner.

One of the bigger rewards we once received was a day offwork ... and on the owner's boat. On a day we should be processing loans, the entire office (it was a small office) would get to don bathing suits and hang out at the reservoir, on a boat, sipping beer in the sunshine.

I didn't want to go. I really did not want to go.

I didn't want to go because despite having been born in Minnesota…

March 18, 2019

Live boldly!

March 18, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

Live boldly!

A special quote o’ the day featuring my favorite Declan o’ the day!

Plus…

GRAND Social No. 344 link party for grandparents

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. Err, social that never ends. Thanks to you.

Link up, share, be social!

Cheers!

March 14, 2019

Dublin over: St. Patrick's Day jokes for kids (A #TBT feature)

March 14, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

Dear readers: This #TBT feature originally appeared on Grandma’s Briefs March 15, 2017. Thank you for reading—and chucklin’ over—my corny collection.

Time for another round of seasonal silly stuff for kids and their keepers, be they grandmothers or others. This go-round the subject is St. Patrick and his special day.

March 08, 2019

Flashback: 10 signs of aging gracefully

March 08, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

Dear readers: This piece on the secret to aging gracefully originally appeared on Grandma’s Briefs on March 24, 2013. Six years later, the signs still resonate with me. I hope they do with you, too. Thank you for reading my rerun.

When it comes to aging gracefully, forget the face creams, hair colors and exercises — the physical manifestations others see as we rack up the years. Instead, I prefer to focus on a different kind of trait that others see, one I think trumps the physical when considering how gracefully others are aging and how gracefully I'm aging myself.

That trait? It's attitude. For, as age is just…

March 06, 2019

Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Month: My MS and me

March 06, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

March is Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Month. Though I have MS, I don’t write much about it because, frankly, it’s long been just part of who I am, not what defines me. There are far more informative bloggers when it comes to all things MS—my dear friend Cathy of An Empowered Spirit foremost in my mind—so I typically stick with grandma-focused sorts of stuff.

Yet, with MS becoming a bigger (sometimes overwhelmingly so) focus of my life in the time since last year’s MS Awareness Month, I figured I’d spend at least one post sharing the relatively recent changes to my MS and me. Perhaps doing so will put…

March 04, 2019

How Benjamin rolls!

March 04, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

How Benjamin rolls!

Saturday was Jim’s birthday, and Brianna and Patrick arranged a family gathering at a new burger spot in town in recognition of burgers being Jim’s forever favorite food.

It was great to have all our local immediate family in attendance.

Kudos to Tyler for managing to get a shot that included everyone at the table!

While we were all gathered together to celebrate Jim, we soon were raucously regaling Benjamin for a milestone move made right before our eyes.

February 27, 2019

Stag party at Grandma's

February 27, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

Most evenings, just before dusk, our deer neighbors make a pre-dinner visit just across the street from our house. Deer as in doe a deer, female deer, that nibble and nosh on the grainy goodies our human next-door neighbor—right or wrong—puts out for the local wild ones.

Sometimes it’s two or three does, sometimes more, sometimes their little ones, too. Occasionally a buck butts his way into the fray, but it’s typically all gals as the guys seem to favor a supper spot farther up the street.

One snowy afternoon last week, though, it was the big boys who stopped by.

February 25, 2019

'I'm your caption, I'm your caption!' Plus, GRAND Social No. 341 link party for grandparents

February 25, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

‘I’m your caption, I’m your caption!’

In last week’s GRAND Social, I asked for caption suggestions for a funny photo of my sweet Benjamin. I also posted the pic to social media and asked for captions from folks there.

I gotta tell ya, I sure got some smile-worthy suggestions! Some silly, and some sweet.

Here—as I promised last week and with apologies to Grand Funk Railroad for the blog headline above (yeah, yeah, yeah)—are two of my favorite captions. One appeals to the Denver Broncos fan in me, the other the wishful-thinking grandma in me.