The Grandparents’ Blog

When the man in your life retires, you both talk about it and plan it. How you both look forward to retirement, hoping you will have time to travel, read, cross-stitch, walk, spend more time with the grand-children and enjoying the garden. He can start on that list of jobs he said he would do for weeks, months or maybe even years. No more alarm clocks, being able to sleep in, wake when your body wakes you…..

Well at least one of these dreams comes true – the last one.

The real truth is that when my husband came home one day, he said “The company is retiring me early!” Five years before we planned, that comes as a shock!!!! Reality hits us, he is going to be home 24×7. At last! Great, no it is not great!

I said to my husband, “Now that you are retired, I want to retire too.” The look on his face was surprise! But his answer was “Yes, yes”.

Then a few minutes later came “But who is going to cook, wash up, clean the house, and to look after me!”

Read the rest of “The Wife’s View” »

My grandson Mitch is currently concerned about our local wildlife and wanted to add an article on protecting the barn owls in our area.

His drawing reflects his enthusiasm, although the “special effects” may be a bit OTT!

He may add more to this next visit!

My grandfather was a soldier in WWI and my father and uncles were all in the British army in WWII.  So why did my brother and I join the Navy? There are family ties with the sea.  Grandfather was a fisherman sailing from the Durham fishing ports for a while. There were other ancestors from that area who also sailed. For certain, a great, great, grandfather was a Swedish sea captain who married into the family. (I am sure they all told the girls they were captains!) However, I believe both my brother and I were hooked on the sea by our first sea crossing when we emigrated with our parents to Canada aboard the RMS Franconia.

Read the rest of “Grandpa’s Seafaring History!” »

Using the Internet to stay close to family and friends at home and abroad

How do you raise your children and grandchildren to enjoy the full benefits of the extended family, if grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends are scattered around the world? This is a problem I have lived with first hand!

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I recently submitted this article as a guest contributor to the Grandparents TLC Blog authored by Shayne Packer.  The aim of his excellent blog is aptly stated on his site – “ We offer advice, ideas, and tips in three areas we call TLC: Technology, Loving, and Connecting. We show you technology that can help increase your love for your grandchildren by connecting with them in fun new ways. We review cool technologies such as websites, services, and gadgets. We teach with “how to” articles and video tutorials. Our approach is to make things as easy as possible, step by step.”

To read the full copy of my article, please visit GrandparentsTLC.com/blog/

Like 1,356,728 other grandmas, this one is into card making!

Pity it wasn’t Texas holdem or Black jack or something.  However, she spends a few pounds (or twice as many bucks) on supplies each month and disappears into the card room for longer periods than grandpa spends on the PC (I swear). 

The end result is more than a few very pretty and carefully crafted cards. Some are sold , some are given to family and the tax man will never be envious.  It is a great hobby and I invite everyone who visits this blog site to look at a small sample of her current cards in the Gallery!