Hello world!

Welcome to HappyGram’s blog! Today, I’m trying to decide if grandchildren are a blessing – or – whether all the things I shouldn’t have done as a child are coming back to haunt me. 

In one afternoon they turned our front yard into spooky, haunting grounds. (If they weren’t my grandchildren, I might say ‘trashy’.) A dummy bicyclist and twisted bicycle ran headfirst into our tree. A witch brews worms and other yukkies in the front window as bats swoop overhead. The front door now warns visitors ’do not enter’. A graveyard glows in the night where iris, peony, and hosta usually grow,  and a skeleton in a cage hangs from the gutter. And if that’s not enough - spiders in spider web stuff are everywhere. Oh – and the huge bat hanging from the light. It must be Halloween again!

We’ve had a bit of trouble finding bib overalls for the grandchild who’s decided she wants to be ‘Chuckie’ for Halloween. We searched the thrift store where we usually find whatever we need but no luck today. The problem was solved at WalMart where we found bib ’shorts’ on the clearance rack for only $3.50. Worn over jeans – bib overalls!

The thrift store had a huge supply of prom gowns that could easily have become ‘fairy’ costumes. Since they are too long for most children, the part that gets cut off could be made into wings to complete the costume by twisting and covering wire coat hangers into the wing shape.

Halloween is not ‘my’ holiday. I really don’t like the yuk and gore that seems to be most children’s idea of ‘fun’. I mean, really, why do they prefer blood and gore to heroes and sweet fantasy figures? I’ll be so glad when it’s over!

Last year, we used a lot of corn stalks. After Halloween we made a tepee out of them, put a stack of logs by the ‘door’, and gourds, pumpkins, and bales of hay to complete the scene for Thanksgiving. That was much better.

We have another project going on too. Tomorrow, we have to finish posters and decorate a big box to collect coats for kids and lap blankets for nursing home residents. It’s the kids’ community service project that hopefully is teaching them that indeed we are our brother’s keeper. Or for those who prefer non-faith related words – social responsibility.

This goes with one of my passions – the America’s Promise Alliance report Every Child Every Promise. I’m trying to do a Squidoo lens about the five promises – the five things children need in order to become successful adults. More about that later…