April 10, 2017

Easter goodies

April 10, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

Easter goodies!

I have at least a few of my family's traditional recipes for nearly every holiday posted in my Grandma's Briefs Recipe Box. Not for Easter, though. I suppose it's because our traditional breakfast is the Easter eggs we colored a few days before along with blueberry muffins and sausage or bacon. Easter dinner has always been, like most folks, ham and the typical ham accompaniments. No recipes needed.

That said, I do have a couple non-edible Easter goodies on my blog. Goodies I've shared in the past, but the time is right to do so again. That would be these:

March 31, 2017

Puzzles for grandmothers and others: Sudoku & Crossword puzzles on Grandma's Briefs

March 31, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

Sometimes grandmothers and others need to take a break from playing games with the grands and play a few on their own. Games for grownups. Games such as sudoku and crosswords.

Now you can right here, right now, right on Grandma's Briefs. Without installing an app, creating an account, or selling your soul personal information to advertisers.

sudoku and crossword puzzles

Grandma's Briefs now has a Puzzles page featuring regularly updated sudoku and crossword puzzles for you to play on your computer, your phone, your device of most any sort. For free. For fun.

The Puzzles tab is at...

March 03, 2017

On waterfalls and wildlife

March 03, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

backyard waterfall

One of my favorite features of my backyard is broken. Our waterfall, which Jim — primary caretaker of the falls — likes to keep running through each and every season (despite it freezing for the most part during winter seasons), hasn't been running for several seasons now.

Because it's broken. Has a leak. Somewhere. Somehow.

Jim and I plan to spend much of Saturday figuring out the where and the how — and the what we need to do to fix it.

Taking apart the waterfall and putting it all back together again will surely be a pain in the butt. We don't look forward to it.

We do, though, look forward to once again having water streaming and splashing. We miss the sound, the peace, the tranquility of the special spot just off our patio.

Despite our reluctance to remove and replace liners and rocks and such, the special spot needs to be fixed. Not only to fulfill our...

January 25, 2017

From the archives: Four for Valentine's Day

January 25, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

The annual day o' love lurks right around the corner and Cupid will soon be sprinkling hearts and flowery fun far and wide.

Following are four of my previously published posts to peruse, a collection of sweet and silly sorts of stuff focused on ensuring grandkids feel the love — and laughter — this Valentine's Day.

valentine's day activities

Click each graphic to see the full post featuring lovey-dovey ...

January 18, 2017

5 reasons I like to play games with my grandkids

January 18, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

My grandmothers never played games with me. My daughters' grandmothers never played games with them, either.

Considering the grandmas who came before me, the ones from whom I most learned what grandmothering looks like, I'm unsure how I became a game-playing grandma. But I am.

And I love it. Here's why:

I enjoy watching them learn.
Kids learn so much from playing games. They improve motor skills and ...

October 24, 2016

Simple skeletons

October 24, 2016/ Lisa Carpenter

We're officially one week away from Halloween, and I haven't put up or out or on one single holiday decoration. With all the truly scary stuff going on in our country and beyond right now, it seems rather silly to add some faux frights to the mix. And especially silly — well, especially a waste of time, to be honest — when the chances of grandkids of mine arriving at my door for a quick trick-or-treat or visit of any sort during Halloween season are zilch, nada, zero.

September 28, 2016

From the archives: Four for fall

September 28, 2016/ Lisa Carpenter

Having blogged for more than seven years, I have oodles of goodies stored away in the Grandma's Briefs archive, goodies that rarely see the light of day because they go way, way back. At least seven years or so.

Today seems a perfect day to pull out some of those well-seasoned posts, a few of my favorite fall-themed features you just might have missed.

fall recipes and fun