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.