Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

It’s been a crazy month. I’ve spoken at events or on podcasts about a dozen times through the month. And we’ve gotten out about 2500 hard copies of the new Digging Deep book this month. We’ve ordered 400 more and there’s no telling how many free copies have been downloaded. (If you are waiting on a DD book, I’ll let you know the moment they are ready and we will ship out post haste!) Keep inviting. The catch-up is still very do-able! 

And this month I’ve celebrated big with three grandkids who have turned 6, 8 and 10 years old. 

I wanted to tell you about the little retreat that Maggie (the six-year-old) and I had together at the beginning of the month to celebrate (a little late) her August birthday. She’s finally gotten old enough to go short distances with me overnight and so we went about 35 minutes from her house to Chickasaw State Park. I rented a cabin for two nights and we had the time of our lives. It was her birthday, but I am absolutely positive the gift was more for me than for her. There was so much needed laughter. There was tea time at Besso’s coffee shop. There was swimming, just the two of us alone) in a big lake in the warm sunshine. There was deep discussion about God. There was exploration and playground time and owls and brownie baking and marsh-mallow roasting and hiking and falling asleep to the rhythm of her sweet breathing as her head lay on my shoulder. 

And there were tips to remember, for this Mammy, in case I get to do this wonderful thing again: 

1. Grandchildren can’t be spoiled by good grandparents. If your granddaughter wants you to take her to the FHU college cafeteria (on Labor Day, no less, when the food is even sub-standard to what it is when all the students are there)  and you think you had enough Gano food in the time you were in school there to last three lifetimes, you go there, and you tell her all about her great-great grandfather’s’ time in school there, her grandparents’ days as students, your own time in school there and her parents’’ time in school there and how her mother wore a big lion’s costume and revved up the game-day crowd as the university mascot.  Then, if she wants to linger at the snake’s terrarium in the office at the state park and examine the snake’s skin on top, you do that, too, even though you’d rather lie down on a bed of ten-penny nails or ride through the desert on a limping camel.
2. Be careful what you say and do at all times, for lots of reasons. But one of the reasons is that the lady in line behind you, in a random western Tennessee Dollar General, while you are asking if the cashier knows where you can find some fishing worms…that lady might be the mom of your neighbor in Gurley, Alabama. Before you leave the store, you may feel like you need to hug this random woman, because you are almost kin (and you ARE kin in the Lord.) And the big guy with the long dreadlocks, who is the cashier very politely tells you that he doesn’t know where they sell any worms, “…but, Ma’am, if you can just turn over a big rock that looks like it’s been layin’ there for a long time…” He thought I did not know how to dig worms. (In fairness, I did ask if he knew where I could FIND some.) Getting in the car, Maggie said “So that lady is your friend?” She is, now.
3. Foster a love between siblings in your grandchildren. Maggie wants one night of the retreat all to herself, but, the second night she can’t wait to show her brother all the stuff she’s explored….”Buddy, we’ll show you everything in here. We know where it all is. You will love it. I’ll show you our cabin and you can sleep in your own room.  She was wrong about that last part. 
4. Kids are absorbing and learning and making judgements all the time. Maggie ascertains that a manmade beach at the lake “is almost as good as the real beach, but not quite.” Ellis wants to know, with every move of the Praying Mantis,  “Is he praying yet?” The kids wanted me to ask Siri what a Praying Mantis eats and we found out that he can eat worms and bugs, except for ants, and he also eats smaller Praying Mantises. (Click here for the Mantis chase! IMG_3904) So, with this new discovery and capture, we really did go to a graveyard and dig worms for our new pet. But, alas. when we got home, Mama thought he’d be happier in the wild. We had to set him free, after only one big worm meal.  Also, in the learning and exploring category… before you spend an hour looking for a lost item (like your Apple watch) ask Ellis, who’s three. He knows.  In fact, he has it on his person. (…and, also, I needed about 2837287 pages of blank paper, so Ellis could draw waterspouts, cabooses, and Pac-man characters, over and over.) 
5. It’s really hard to find Gluten-free ingredients in Henderson, TN. (But, at last, we did.)
6. Kids love Chik-Fila. They want to go there for supper, so you drive all the way to the nearest one, which is two minutes from their house in the next town over. You think about going by to check in with the parents, since there’s no cell service in your cabin and you left your phone there.  But no. The kids wanted to come all this way to Chik-Fila, but they really do NOT want to go home.
7. Roasting marshmallows in a fireplace in August makes the cabin a little toasty, but it’s worth it.

I highly recommend the one-on-one retreat with any grandchild turning six. It was one of the favorite gifts I’ve ever given myself for my grandchild’s birthday!  

Okay, I’m not really sure that good grandparents  can’t spoil their grandchildren. That’s just a theory. But I’m going with it. If it’s wrong, they have other responsible adults who can worry about it.