Counting my Blessings

Grandchildren are the best medicine for a day going south. That's the direction we were headed when I heard my granddaughter say she saw smoke coming from my car. Overheating again? Not today! Please Lord, not today. We'd just made a plan for our time together and the bacon for my grandson's special request mac and cheese were lying on the seat beside me. Yep, there it is, the smoke coming out from under the hood and the flashing light on the dashboard.

I'm trying to be positive and thanking God we just decided NOT to decorate the two nice pumpkins they just brought from the mountains. “We'll have to really think about how we want to decorate them. Let's just wait until next week,” my grandson had just finished saying. We'd made a plan and we were on our way. But the best laid plans of grandchildren and their Neenie can sometime go awry. Sometimes just going with the flow of things can bring the nicest surprises.

Did I mention I had a severe headache? I was seriously hoping the quarter tablet of the strong medicine I'd taken would allow me to both get through the crisis and enjoy the time we were together. A half hour later, after one very nice young woman brought me two bottles of water to cool down the sizzling under the hood and a very nice man allowed my grandson to watch him load it up with antifreeze, we were on our way home.

I'm just saying “Thank you” at this point that the first stop at the Fire Extinguisher service ( very appropriate at the moment) and the second stop at Car Quest were within a mile of my home. What a relief to pull into the driveway, walk past the two pumpkins and into the house where we all slipped off our shoes and into our cozy mode. I was thankful again when I realized I'd already made part of our dinner. I knew I could enlist the help of my grandgirl to help with the rest of the meal.

What could turn a day north quicker than small hands helping make a yummy pot of mac and cheese? Comfort food to comfort the soul and arms around you tight sure can help you forget for a time the pounding in your head. Dinner was done and grandgirl off to her new gymnastics class while the getting too big grandboy stayed behind to keep me company.

More tight hugs and more I love yous than I can count. But the fun had only begun. He pulled out a top and we talked about the days when kids played with things like tops, pick up sticks, marbles and jack rocks. It didn't take long before my camera was snapping and we were laughing OUT LOUD together. Hand puppet animals and clearly silly and ridiculous fun made me forget the throbbing in my temples. The joy on his face became a sort of amnesia as I forgot the smoking car and the leak I'll surely have to have repaired come tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 



I stopped counting how many times my grandson said, “that was so much fun” as he headed reluctantly to the car to leave, but I won't stop counting my blessings. Grandchildren bring blessing to even the most difficult days.