Showing posts with label grandparent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grandparent. Show all posts

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Darling Day (With Granddaughter) Memento


First thing this morning I had
a call from my daughter wondering
if I wanted the company of a grumpy little girl today,
and what would a grandma say to such a question but,
'of course! I would love that!'๐Ÿ’“
Just like a change of scenery can work cheerful wonders in us oldies at times,
so too in a child. ๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ’–

Whether discussing crispy-egg-deliciousness, 


or, rules to learn (about mushrooms)


Whether it is pausing besides a glorious sweep of gold wheat seas
To revel in sweet summer bliss,...






It might be choosing the right cup for outdoor tea party for two...


Or floating on a pretend lake to practice for Real-Lake-Come-True


It might be strolling very slowly down a holy garden path
While footfalls slip into the echoes that waft in its aftermath


It might be picking lavender...


 to add to our lemon tea...


Before we sit beneath the arbor while making a memory



Whether discussing crispy-egg-deliciousness, or rules to learn (about mushrooms)
Or how a robin knows exactly where to find a juicy worm
Whether it is pausing besides a glorious sweep of gold wheat seas
To revel in sweet summer bliss, oh, we are making memories

Whether we give it second thought, or not, life rolls through Time and Place
And it is up to us to make the most and best of moment-grace
Because the afternoon is soon a bubble bobbing on the breeze
Bearing away the Little Day where we were making memories

It might be choosing the right cup for outdoor tea party for two
Or floating on a pretend lake to practice for Real-Lake-Come-True
It might be strolling very slowly down a holy garden path
While footfalls slip into the echoes that waft in its aftermath

It might be picking lavender to add to our lemon tea
Before we sit beneath the arbor while making a memory
It might be disregarding chore-lists just to sing a silly song
For little girls and boys are never very little very long

Life is much more than duty's doleful left-foot-right to growing old
Ah look, within our very grasp is a nugget of moment-gold
Then, because we never know when our final fond farewell may be
Let’s try to spend it on a precious, Best-we-could-make memory

© Janet Martin

Serving up some 'thtrawberry-shortcake oil tea'๐Ÿ˜‚
(after a five-star plastic lunch!!)





Monday, July 17, 2023

No Commonplace Charge (is parenting)

Baby is teething and objects loudly to being put down for long...
Mommy is so weary!๐Ÿ™

...with these two to keep her on her toes (and knees) besides!

I am no longer parenting little children but
I am grand-parenting little children 
which makes the messages below very relevant to my season of life as well!

***

To leave children without principles is
not to make them free but it is to render them helpless





We have within our keeping a very precious charge
of innocence soon reaping the harvest of its guards
no commonplace appointing from God, is parenthood
a baby the anointing of wonder, pure and good 

we have within our caring, besides child's sweet delight
the onus of preparing the soul-dier for the fight
no commonplace employment is the call they bestow
far more than mere enjoyment of watching Soul-dier grow  

we have within our reaching (for such a little time)
wide flung windows of teaching far more than nursery rhyme 
no commonplace vocation to all whom God assigns
the careful cultivation of very tender vines

What a priceless investment; the training of a child
how soon the world's resistance tests with lures, lie-defiled
no commonplace endurance, a parent's prayers outpoured
For wisdom and assurance established in God's Word

we have within our asking a very present Aid
Who tenders with love's tasking, commands to be obeyed
For this is no small gracing, a child, innocence-wrought
But a Soul-dier soon facing life, armed with what was taught  

© Janet Martin
Link to all four messages in this series below




Monday, January 23, 2023

To We, Still Growing Older


Accomplishment/achievement happens one challenge/step forward at a time!
 Sometimes challenges take years to fully complete,
 some even a lifetime(such as a life well lived). 
And because nothing ever stays the same for very long the challenge is constant, isn't it?!! 
Listening to two funeral messages/tributes where children and grandchildren
 rose to call their mother and grandmother 'blessed' 
is such an inspiration to we still growing older 
and seeking to honor God in the season we are in!
Because sometimes what in the moment seems quite commonplace
 is in fact composing cherished memories and legacies! 



Titus 2:3-5(NKJV)
But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine:
 2 that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience;
 the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers,
 not given to much wine, teachers of good things— 
4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands,
 to love their children, 5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, 
good, obedient to their own husbands, 
that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

Photo shared with their Daddy's permission๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ’–


When we have no other engagements Sunday Supper at Gramma's & Grandpa's house 
has become a highlight for both the young and old!
Last night Grandsonny went exploring in the room that used to belong to Uncle Matt
and he appeared beaming broadly, with a treasure he unearthed!
Hockey Card Collection!




To we still growing older there is much still left to learn
As we begin to shoulder wisdom we have yet to earn
As we begin to fill the shoes not worn by youthful dreams
But with meek awareness of dues that sager ken esteems
As we begin to weather ways, we once thought quite far-flung
While we were living in the days that seemed forever young

To we still growing older because death is held at bay
Where time seems to grow bolder as swift seasons fall away
We start to sense anew the age-old way staid tick-tock works
As we begin to do the things that once drew winks and smirks
But we excused with kindness because, ‘they are old, you see;
Who knows, with youth behind us what kind of ‘old’ we will be?!’

To we of slowing footsteps there is much to take in stride
As Time begins to show us that it is not on our side
And soon we too will join the ranks of neither young nor old
Or rich or poor; then give God thanks as His mercies unfold
The sacred charge of setting a careful example for
Young men and women whetting raring appetites for more

To we still growing older, (where the Done none can undo
For no one can unsolder the door that each day runs through)
We reassess the beauties of an unsealed legacy
And the blessing of duties that befit maturity
Of kinder, truer patience as we bear in prayerful mind
The precious generation that is following behind

© Janet Martin

Eph.5:15
  Be very careful, then, how you live—
not as unwise but as wise,

Thursday, December 8, 2022

Book of Now or Where No Today is Commonplace (because of God's grace)


Now is a sequence of little love-letters
unfolding and folding in sacred synchronicity!


My granddaughter's grin yesterday as her mommy surprised her
 with an unexpected visit (aka break for momma) to gramma's house

This morning's poem was penned amidst much Now unfolding, such as
a frustrated and discouraged daughter asking for prayers 
for wisdom and patience as she parents, 
especially a three year old daughter whose endless curiosity and energy
 results in the most unpredictable episodes.
Yesterday said grand daughter watched ever-so-closely as gramma put in her contact lenses. 
This morning while her mommy was busy with baby brother 
she decided to try to clean mommy's contacts!! 
Last week after her mommy glazed some meatloaf for supper, and
was helping Big Brother with some reading,
this opened a window of opportunity
to slather leftover glaze on the stove burner!
Other recent episodes, often harmless but patience trying...
let's see how much toilet paper fits in a drain.
let's get out all my summer clothes because the snow melted!!!
let's use mom's real taco -seasoning in my toy kitchen while I'm cooking!
(and this gal moves faster than the Tasmanian devil in the old bugs bunny cartoons๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚)
These episodes are most often followed with a very penitent little girl saying
 "I'm thorry, mommy for'...
and then its hard for mommy to stay cross for very long after๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ’“

Dear mommies and daddies, don't give up.
After prayer-folded hands, a loving and firm hand 
is the best thing you can give your children!
(Dear older moms and dads, 
let's remember to pray faithfully for younger parents!
because, do you remember the unrelenting challenge 
of parenting little children?!!)
Let's pray they may have the wisdom, the patience
 and the courage to do the hard parenting!

Every stage of Now, no matter how old we are 
seems to run rife with life's challenges/lessons!
By God's goodness and mercy aka grace, we go...


Lessons learned through laughter and tears
Tune tides soon turned to yesteryears
How swift sterling sunrises set
The stage unfurling folds of ‘yet’
Where gold and gray-spun Granting sweeps
Each new today to Bygone’s deeps
With Now, the ink that pulses through
What first we think and then we do
Until we ford that final rift
To meet the Lord who gave life’s gift
Where time’s tatters of touching lie
In stilled splatters where ink drops dry

…in a love letter God will read
Prompting us to pay better heed
To what deed writes before we bow
And God recites our Book of Now
…where, pray above all He will see
The acquittal of Calvary
That began, with Now’s earnest try
Eternity’s thank-you reply
Where no today is commonplace
In hope’s hooray, because of grace
As step by step and prayer by prayer
God folds away time’s sacred stair

© Janet Martin


some 'nows' are as sweet as maple cream fudge, (see recipe below)
being sampled here...

others, not!



(Above, Miss Mischief's Baby Brother who seems to take up a LOT of mommy-time๐Ÿ’ž๐Ÿ’—)

Here is an annual Christmas treat favourite from my childhood;
Maple Cream Fudge recipe...



Proverbs 19:20
Listen to counsel and accept discipline,
 that you may be wise the rest of your days.

Friday, June 17, 2022

Thoughts About Tots (and their Teachers)


A row of  little shoes, 
Father's Day on Sunday,


...and late last night, tripping over Edison who shouted into the quiet kitchen,
'Hi, I'm Edison, let's sing along with Alphabet Pal!
are all part of what inspired this poem.
By the way, thanks to Edison and other alphabet-repeating gizmos
 Tots can belt out the abc's long before they go to school!
Imagine if we drilled them in eternal things the way we do the temporal...

Deut.11:18-21
Remember God’s Words
18Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds;
 tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
  19Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home
 and when you walk along the road, 
when you lie down and when you get up. 
20Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates, 
21so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, 
your days and those of your children may be multiplied 
in the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; 
instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

It takes a village of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles,
 teachers, neighbors, childcare providers, etc.
to raise a child, but to train up a child in the way they should go (Prov.22:6
is mostly up to parents (*and grandparents)!

Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, 
so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen,
 and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. 
*Teach them to your children and grandchildren.



They trust us not to lead them into ways they should not go
They look to us to teach them so much that they want to know
This is no small or simple charge that follows you and I
These tots, so full of innocence and never-ending ‘why’

This is no brief commission we can annul when we choose
Once donned we cannot nonchalantly kick off parent-shoes
Tots are not little long; the stars they are trying to reach
Reflected in their eager eyes, see far more than we teach

The agelessness of truth is a beacon that does not dim
It is no shifting shadow that adapts to wish and whim
The manual for moms and dads is pure and undeterred
The sound and supreme counsel and instruction in God’s Word

To grasp astronomy, ecology, geologic worth/girth
Begins with knowing Who created the heavens and earth
The One who designed galaxies and rolling seas and bugs
Creates each little child we shower with kisses and hugs

The abc’s and one-two-threes are important to learn
But better far than shiny stars these tender triumphs earn
Is the sacred retelling of the One who made us all
No nursery rhyme is He who sees all creatures great and small

Children grow up so fast; Past echoes with the strange replay
Of scenes, that in a child’s childhood, we think, are far away
The feet outgrowing shoes, the boo-boos on elbows and knees
Soon fade into the fond, fine fabric work of memories

Children trust us to lead them; oh, forbid we teach a lie
To tots, so full of innocence and never-ending ‘why’
Who look to us to tell about so much they want to know
Tis no small charge to teach them about God who loves them/us so

© Janet Martin

Teaching children is a moment-ous charge
Small choices can make a big difference!
For instance, what books we choose to read to them.


Yesterday was HOT! 
A great opportunity to enjoy the shade with books
while a child delighted and astounded me with her
intuitive innocence!!


I forgot about photos till we were leaving to tackle other important tasks
on her to-do list; like trike๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ’–



Wednesday, January 5, 2022

The Lily-Garb of Innocence...


Last night we celebrated Grand-sonny's 5th birthday!
We have been blessed with five swift years of cute,
curly-headed curiosity and sweetness,
and once again as I marvel at the way
moments meld into years before we know it,
it sure makes me want to make the most of here and now!




Eager little sister, watching on the sidelines, suddenly leaned in with a hefty 
(greatly unappreciated) huff to snuff the final stubborn candles
 (you can imagine the response from Big Brother)
while we adults heartily assured him that his huff got there before hers. ๐Ÿ˜…


Checking out the next Lego project
(the ice-cream truck)
 Reminiscent of sweet summer days



Childhood’s pure garb of precious, carefree innocence is brief
Soon human nature starts to test sweet darlings with its grief
As moments mete the tide that ebbs and flows, composing Time
Across four-season shorelines rolls the rhythm of its rhyme

Ahoy, the joy of boyhood bliss must soon become a man
We who shower their cheeks with kisses should do all we can
To train and equip hearts and hands for childhood’s aftermath
As morn imparts momentous sands pouring to life’s footpath

To make the most of here and now is all that we can do
To waken senses to the ‘wow’ of Today, always new
To take our thankful place in the embrace of common task
And trust God for the grace that He will give us if we ask

The lily garb of innocence we all wore in our youth
Is handed down to those who trust us to teach them the truth
Then pray we look to He who is the Way, the Truth and Life
Before the Child must leave sweet play to face time’s tides of strife

© Janet Martin

Deut.11:18-20
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; 
tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
20Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates,…

Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, 
bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.


Deuteronomy 4:9
Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, 
so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen,
 and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live.
 Teach them to your children and grandchildren.

Deuteronomy 6:7
And you shall teach them diligently to your children
and speak of them when you sit at home 
and when you walk along the road, 
when you lie down and when you get up.

Psalm 78:4
We will not hide them from their children, 
but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD 
and His might, and the wonders He has performed.

Psalm 78:6
that the coming generation would know them--
even children yet to be born--
to arise and tell their own children
Train up a child in the way he should go, 
and when he is old he will not depart from it











Wednesday, December 15, 2021

The Great Undoing...



Child-caring inevitably has some very hairy moments!
right? moms and all other child caregivers๐Ÿ˜…
And now and then in those wearying moments we are
tempted to say 'I can't do this!!!"
but then along come those moments that just melt our hearts
as joy trickles from our eyes in sweet surprise!
A reminder that in all of life, with the high comes the low and vise-versa!

When my grandaughter's 'pleath?' is accommodated with yes 
she is as sweet as sweet could possibly ever imagine being!
but if 'ple-e-e-ath' ith anthsered with 'no' the thweet thmile can turn upthide-down in a wink
and rather astonishing unpleasantness can ensue๐Ÿ˜‚
I uthed the lithp(lisp) becauthe right she steals my heart with hers.
Yesterday, except for one incident that partly inspired this train of thought,
it was pure sweetness๐Ÿ’–๐Ÿ’–๐Ÿ’–

Helping gramma with the dishes...
(and wearing an apron that I wore when I was her size...)

Teatime on the deck in mid-December!!
(she prefers pouring it to drinking it)๐Ÿ˜‚

Trying to find 'auntie' Matt's shirts on the clothes line... 
(yes, she calls him auntie Matt)๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜…


The tapestry that moments weave achieves its work of art
By intertwining joy and grief from looms within the heart
Where subtle shuttles whir and bind time’s threads of gray and gold
Into a picture designed for retrospect to behold
Where we begin to learn, in warp and weft of lows and highs
That grin and groan and twist, turn into Beauty’s sweet surprise

...as startled senses waken to time’s ever-changing sway
Yesterday overtaken by the colours of today
Bidding us, with each gifted fray to always keep in mind
Swift, swift the tendrils of today with past are intertwined
And, never in life’s kiss and cuss should we forget The Whole
The shuttle that weaves This undoes the shroud around the soul

© Janet Martin

Delighted with a whole 'new angle' on playing house


Saturday, September 19, 2020

These Little Ones

Remember the Sears Christmas Wish Book? 

Oh, the excitement/longing that turning those pages would bring to children's hearts?!!

For my grandson the Living Waters Catalogue seems to stir the same kind of response!

Get this!! the day after they got it his best friend came to his house to play; 

(someone he has not seen very much due to the times we re in (COVID-19)

Well, he informed his friend he couldn't play until he was done 'looking at my new maganazine'!

This week he asked a little girl playing at the park

"wanna come to my house? I have a new maganazine' (his way of saying magazine)๐Ÿ˜‚

And this catalogue is stress free! 

no need to worry that they might be exposed to something negative!


It's so important to guard their little hearts

and nourish their minds with upbuilding things!


Train up a child in the way he should go,
[a]And when he is old he will not depart from it.

Prov.22:6


Yesterday...


This morning...


last week...



Sometimes I wonder as I watch you 

Run and laugh and play 

What your pretty, sturdy hearts 

Will dare to dream someday 

 

I wonder what will dash and cheer you 

Comfort or dismay 

Will you trust the Lord to hear you 

When you kneel and pray 

 

What will shape you, hurt you, heal you 

Through days dark or fair 

Will you trust the One wo keeps you 

In His loving care? 

 

Sometimes I wonder as I watch you 

Innocent, carefree 

Watching those who watch and teach you 

Who you’ll grow to be 

 

© Janet Martin 



Sometimes I wonder as I watch you 

Run and laugh and play 

What your pretty, sturdy hearts 

Will dare to dream someday ...