Friday, August 24, 2018

the one and only granny camp this year


The boy is 21, working full time, and living his adult life; the twins, 20, are in college in different cities, both took classes during the summer, and are now starting their second year of college.

So, a week ago today I arrived home from the class in Austin about 8 PM and found I had a message from my youngest grandgirl asking if she could come for her visit the next day and could she bring a friend and so of course, yes, the last possible week before school starts. Robin, now 17 and starting her senior year in high school, spent the earlier part of the summer traveling with a group of Jewish teens to Poland and Israel and then had to wait til the bathroom/house was finished.

Her friend Bethany wanted to learn how to sew so off we went on Sunday to get a pattern and fabric and since the Walmart had a limited selection yes, I know, I shopped at the heinous Walmart but the alternative was an hour's driving time to go into Rosenberg and back and shop at the heinous Hobby Lobby and we were short on time she settled on shorts and spent the rest of the day laying out the pattern and cutting the fabric while Robin worked on pinning a new hem on a cut off t-shirt.



The girls wanted to make a pie and since peaches are now gone they settled on apple. I've never made an apple pie in my life. I peeled and cored the apples and Robin sliced them up while Bethany finished cutting out the fabric for the second pair of shorts and then the two girls did the rest.





Bethany is a jigsaw puzzle fan and so they spent the rest of the day engrossed in a 1,000 piece puzzle.


Tuesday, since my sewing machine has gone from balky to not working at all, we went over to my sister's house and used her machine. I walked Bethany through the first pair of shorts reading the instructions and explaining things and demonstrating and doing a few of the tricky parts while she did most the sewing on the first pair of shorts and Robin read and visited with her great aunt.



The girls finished the first puzzle sometime Tuesday night and then started a second 1,000 piece puzzle Wednesday morning. 


Then we did the shops around the square 




and after lunch Robin got her first driving lesson, driving back and forth behind the Walmart and then around the circumference of the entire parking lot over and over and then I took over til we got to the long county road where we switched again and she drove us back to the house.


I tried to teach her how to drive last year but she wasn't interested.

Thursday it was back to my sister's house to stitch up the second pair of shorts which Bethany did by herself. I sat in the room with her to answer questions but she didn't need much help. 


Robin drove us there and back both times (we came home for lunch) on real roads with real traffic (such as it is in this little town) and stop signs and stop lights, creeping along Robin, try going a little faster but she did real well.


They worked on the second puzzle until my daughter came early evening to pick them up and then it was dumped back in the box.





16 comments:

  1. Oh, what a sweet Granny Camp! Those good girls. And Robin was a lovely friend to ask if Bethany could come too. What are people going to do when there are no grannies who know how to sew and make pies? Home Ec is gone of course. But I suppose everyone will just look up stuff on Youtube. This is one way to do it but it's certainly not ideal.

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  2. yay for granny camp. It's a lovely thing that your grands appreciate that you still "do" things and want to learn. Happy for you my friend. Oma Linda

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  3. You always do the coolest stuff. Seems like yesterday that those kids were all still at home. Also, you have a sister in town which is pretty great.

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    1. she's the main reason we bought out here since she was already here and I had an powerful urge to be near her. several years after we bought and the first year we really spent most our time out here, her husband died from metastatic lung cancer.

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  4. Such ordinary things, and yet to them in some ways as unusual as learning to ride bareback.

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  5. The grands will never go away, you know. The girls may know how to sew a bit, but there's the rest of living they'll be, minimally, calling you about.

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  6. Such a wonderful post, and such a wonderful 'granny camp.' My grandparents all were gone by the time I reached high school, so I didn't have the chance for this kind of contact. They were wonderful to me when I was a kid, but it would have been fun to have this kind of more adult relationship with them.

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  7. I love this, sewing, jig saw puzzles and baking, can I come?

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  8. They sound like old fashioned teens. I love that.

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  9. Given Hobby Lobby's heinous positions on most issues, I think Walmart is the lesser of the evils. Those are cute shorts!

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  10. What a wonderful, busy few days you all had. Granddaughter time is most precious and you have to enjoy it when they are still willing to give you time.

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  11. Looks too fun, I wondered what you had been doing

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  12. Thank you Ellen, I had such a good time with y'all. I even dreamed about sewing! Your Yoga pays off big time- so much energy!!

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    1. I spent Friday doing NOTHING! so much for energy.

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  13. What a wonderful and busy time! The girls seem to have had a lovely and productive time at granny camp! The best.

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  14. The next time I come to Texas I'm going to granny camp! I want you to teach me crafty things & I want to stay up late working jigsaw puzzles & also have a sugar rush from pie.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.