December 09, 2019

Winner Wonderland!

December 09, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

Winner Wonderland

Long, long ago — back in 1992, to be precise — Jim and I and our three daughters recorded on a behomoth camcorder a Christmas program for Jim’s dad and stepmom, the girls’ long-distance grandparents. The special show recorded in our living room featured several songs, most of them lip-synced, by Brianna, Megan, and Andrea individually as well as as a group, plus a finale in which Jim and I appeared.

November 21, 2019

Second serving: 15 more Thanksgiving jokes for kids

November 21, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

When it comes to Turkey Day, corny jokes make a tasty appetizer for kids of all ages, as my 20 Thanksgiving jokes for kids post proves. So just in time for this year’s feast and fun with little ones (and big ones, too), I offer up a second serving of similarly silly stuff to giggle about as you gather together.

November 18, 2019

Awesome app

November 18, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

Awesome app!

You may have noticed I’m a sucker for quotes, evidence being here and here and other spots on my site. So it should come as no surprise I’m a sucker for this awesome (free) app I found not long ago called Bible Lens.

Bible Lens automagically chooses appropriate Bible verses to match up with photos in your camera roll and creates inspirational graphics for you to share with others … or to …

November 14, 2019

Grandma success!

November 14, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

As a grandma, you know you’re onto something when after engaging in an activity with a grandkiddo, he or she says, “We should do this every time!”

Well, I believe I’m onto something as Declan, my five-year-old long-distance grandson, declared exactly that during a recent FaceTime visit he and I had.

My success revolved around …

November 04, 2019

Message from Mom

November 04, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

Message from Mom

Despite my penchant for getting rid of things when Jim and I moved to a smaller home last summer, I must admit to a semi-hoarder habit of holding on to things when it comes to my iPhone. Though I delete email from my phone regularly since it all comes through on my computer too, I do have on my phone old text messages and voicemails. Many from a year ago and more.

Today I’m especially appreciative of my semi-hoarder status when it comes to such things.

Today marks one year since my …

October 28, 2019

Sharing scary stories!

October 28, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

Sharing scary stories!

I’ve been blogging for more than 10 years now and have seen a lot of changes in what works and what doesn’t for the medium. One thing I’ve noticed lately, perhaps you have too, is that it seems like more content is being shared beyond blogs than on the actual blogs. Meaning, social media channels have become the primary place for posting, blogs secondary. Which is the opposite of the earlier days of blogging…

Plus…

GRAND Social No. 364 link party for grandparents

October 25, 2019

Grand fun: A Bearizona visit with Arizona boys

October 25, 2019/ Lisa Carpenter

Hard to believe it’s been nearly a month since Jim and I visited our grandsons (and daughter and son-in-law) in Arizona.

Hard to believe, too, that I’ve not shared the stories of all we did (other than make bracelets) during that visit. But with Benjamin’s milestones to mark soon after our return — such as his first haircut and his first birthday — details on our desert visit to see Brayden, Camden, and Declan were put on the back burner.

With temps hovering just below freezing and a snowy scene outside my windows as I write this, today seems an especially ideal day to recap one particularly grand fun-in-the-sun outing we had our grandsons at the outset of autumn. That being the day we spent at Bearizona Drive-Thru Wildlife Park, located about an hour south of the Grand Canyon.