Thanks for the Tea, Earl Grey

Albert Henry George Grey, former private secretary to Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, was Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911. Other legacies of the fourth Earl Grey include the Department of External Affairs, Grey Cup football thing, the Plains of Abraham National Park in Quebec City, and best of all, lovely Bergemot-scented Earl Grey tea blend.

Support Fair Trade when you buy tea such as this: Tea for One Gift Box

The Christmas Twin Doll from Zimbabwe

When I was a little girl, the star gift under the tree was a dolly.
I don't think things have changed too very much. My little
granddaughters love their "babies". (Just so you don't think I'm
going all sexist here, our sons both had dolls and in the day care
where I was a social worker, the boys had an equal go at the dolls.)

These particular dolls, the Twin Dolls, work a little differently
from the usual purchase-- for every doll purchased from this Fair Trade
website, there will be a donation of its twin doll to a needy child
in Zimbabwe. You buy TWO dolls for TWO lucky little children!
Dolls are made by members of the Batsiranai Craft Project, an IFAT
(International Fair Trade Association) member and cooperative of
mothers with disabled children living in Dzivarasekwa township in
Zimbabwe. Their faces are hand-embroidered, and dolls are dressed
in traditonal African clothing, some with embroidered pockets. Each
doll is one-of-a-kind; hairstyle, fabric colors and designs vary.

Country of Origin: Zimbabwe
Dimensions: 6"h

Was 2009 the Year You Were Going To Learn To Play the Piano?

Was 2009 going to be the year to learn to play the piano? Are you still struggling to make the progress you had hoped for with your piano playing?

The year 2009 is not over yet! 

I find that when it is bleak and rainy outside there is nothing more that I want to do than something creative to get me out of my doldrums... you know those old movies that show people sitting down to a Grand Piano and playing away?  That's my fantasy!

The really nice thing about the Rocket Piano Course is that you get a few free lessons.  If you are a granny like me you can diddle away when you like... if you are an adult in a house with a "shared" keyboard/piano you might want to wait until the others are occupied at the computer or gone to bed : )  In any case, the free lessons are really worth your effort before you decide if you want to invest in the lessons. (the cost of the lessons by the way-- 18 months for about what it would cost you for two(2) in-person lessons, no kidding!)

I'd start with the Free Lessons right away because I happen to know that there are some pretty amazing discounts coming up that you really won't want to miss!

This year students from all around the world are getting results with Rocketpiano. Why not join them and make 2009 the year you learned to play the piano?

Click Above to Sign Up for Free Lessons!

Reading Together

I know that reading together is likely not an activity between grandparents and their grandchildren that requires too much explanation, but I will ramble on a bit anyhow...

Reading with your grandchildren is an opportunity to cuddle and a most excellent way to initiate and maintain a love for reading and literature. I recently re-read a book that my dear Grandmother Rempel read to me when I was about ten ("Beautiful Joe"). I had forgotten the story but I have never forgotten the quiet warmth and love that my granny conveyed as she turned the pages. My other grandmother had the "Books of Knowledge" (early home encyclopedias) that I pored over when visiting... but I truly appreciated the being read to.

What to Read? Small children enjoy picture books, the fewer words, the better. This gives you an opportunity to teach a little about how to turn pages, to have the child contribute to the story line, and to just enjoy the snuggling.

Older toddlers and young children will likely have books they like to have read to them (if you are at their home). They may know the story off by heart. This becomes a co-reading opportunity. Again, more snuggling. If you want to have an idea of some great children's books chosen by librarians and teachers for young children, click here.

Respect for Books: I know that I might come off as an old 'fuddy-duddy', but I also look for opportunities to impart some basic values and ethics when reading together. Keeping the books tidy and tear-free means the book will be around for the next generation to look at. Putting the book back-where-you-got-it- from means that Mommy or Daddy will have one less thing to pick up at the end of the day. And, of course, this is doubly important where library books are concerned. It is not a huge, punishable deal if a page gets torn or colored on, but it is useful as a lesson if the child is there to watch you scotch-tape the page and be given another try. (Little children probably should stick to cloth and board books until they can master the turning of thin paper pages).

Have fun with this most pleasurable of all activities for children and grandparents!

Organic Toys for Christmas

Organic Toys? Whoopee-- a whole section devoted to the Natural Granny's Heart (yours too?). You can skip to the Organic Babes Store right here if you want!

From the moment you discover that you are going to be a grandparent, all the choices you make for that new little someone become IMPORTANT-- you want the safest, greenest, most plushy and comfy items on or near your grandchild.

The world seems a lot different than when I grew up, or even when we raised our own kids... I breastfed, but I also thought nothing of sticking a plastic pacifier in my baby's mouth in between feedings. And they chewed on plastic teethers. Now we know about those nasty petrochemicals that can leach right into the precious baby's little system. Organic toys can make a huge difference in lowering toxicity.

And as well as the importance of play with organic toys, I now know a lot more about what effect something like throwing away tons of disposable diapers can have on the environment-- and what effect the chemicals in the disposables can have on the baby's little bottom!

Here are some sobering thoughts:

Childhood asthma has shot up and the death rates have doubled

Acute lymphocytic leukemia in children has rose more than 27% between 1973 and 1990

Child brain cancer jumped almost 40% between 1973 and 1994

Genital defects among male babies and testicular cancer among young men increased by a terrifying 70% in the same period above

Autism and attention deficit disorders in children have increased at any amazing rate

It IS a different world! New chemicals are on the market all the time. Researchers in a 21-year old longitudinal study say that small children are more profoundly impacted because-- pound for pound-- they eat more, drink more water, and breathe more air than adults. Their small, immature bodies are less able to get rid of toxins, AND they are close to the ground, constantly putting their little hands in their mouths, along with whatever else looks chewable, suck-able, or somewhat interesting to try.

Natural-Gran's Organic Babes Store wants to give you safe, green, alternative choices for ideas as to how to pamper and nurture those precious little munchkins! And because "organic" can often be a code word for "too expensive" and turn people off at the get-go, I want you to know that most of what you find on these pages is priced well within the budget of any doting, caring grandparent (aunts, uncles, godparents, friends, and others).

So, have fun! And know that when you shop here for that new baby or that little toddler or your day care biz or church nursery everyone benefits from greener, safer, more comfortable toys and personal care items! (And YOU will sleep better.)

Natural Christian Parenting

What I call "natural Christian parenting" can be found in articles by respected Christian writers all over the Internet. I have chosen to gather these articles together here so that you have an easy reference to the best in the web archives. To "make the cut", the content of the article has to show respect, empathy, compassion and effectiveness in meeting the needs of the child and the caregiver and the situation. In my understanding, natural Christian parenting would answer the question "What would Jesus do?" in various situations. Feel free to refer your grandbabies' parents to this page if they come to you with questions that you don't have the answer to.

Catching Them Doing Good

Peek-a-Boo--I See You by Gary Smalley

Click on the thumbnails below for some great audio parenting books that can be listened to while relaxing, driving, folding laundry... Excellent WelcomeBaby Shower gifts. Find other audio books here

Best Play Doh (or Play Dough)

The best play dough recipe will meet the following criteria:

Fast and easy to put together, no lengthy cooking or soaking or having to run out to buy ingredients that you don't have in the pantry or fridge.

Safe and natural-- non-toxic ingredients, organic if possible-- no alum (which is listed as an ingredient in some of the recipes on-line)and nothing that you don't want in your grandchild's mouth and tummy, because 90% of the time it will end up there one way or another! I would be hesitant to use many of the 'vegetable food dyes' these days, as well.

Smooth and squishy and plastick-y (yes, no such word, but you know what I mean). The #1 play dough will have a large range of mold-ability, from rolling excellent long, thin, ropey worms to sustaining fairly recognizable people shapes and teeny-tiny people features.

I personally rate scented play dough very high on the contest scale, so a lovely sniff-able fragrance is a must-- but must be something that will not create respiratory or allergic reactions, or be toxic if ingested. Pure and natural food-quality essential oils are preferred.

Gran's job is to help with the making of the play dough (maybe to make it before the child arrives) and to be part of the play. It's nice to provide roller items, such as dowels, actual rolling pins, small round jars, and other "tools", such as plastic picnic knives. You can generally dispense with all the gadgets that come in the commercial packages with the brand name play dough... they are just there to substitute for an absent playmate-Gran anyhow. Work out that imagination!

A broad, clean table space is useful. An old plastic table cloth or recycled shower curtain might be useful for large gatherings and lots of dough projects.

Hungry kids can be given a snack BEFORE the play dough play so they are not inclined to eat the toys.

The best play dough recipe of all time? Here it is:

Old Hippie Play Dough

1 cup all-purpose Flour (the only time I use 'white' flour)

1/4 cup Celtic Sea Salt

1 cup Water

2 T Vegetable Oil

Beet, Spinach, and Carrot Juice

Few drops of pure Lavender or Citrus Fresh or Lemon Essential Oil

Mix Flour, Salt and Oil, and slowly add the Water. Cook over medium heat, stirring until dough becomes stiffened. Turn out onto wax paper and let cool. Knead the dough until you get the proper consistency. Divide into balls and add a few drops of the Vegetable Juices and Essential Oils to make green, pink, and orange and fragrant! Comment: Only use pure essential oils that can be ingested without harm... if the bottle says "for external use only" you will know that those oils should NOT be used in this recipe. Gran is the person who handles the essential oils and kneads them into the dough at the beginning.)









For Brain Exercise in older adulthood , would you believe that the Number 1 activity to promote the expansion of neuropathways (yes, our brains DO keep developing) is DANCING?

I'm not kidding.

And dancing is not, of course, restricted to the sort where you need to dress up, pay a cover charge, and cut the rug like Fred and Ginger.



Here are some ideas for exercising the brain by dancing-- ways to incorporate continuing good health and vigor of the Grey Matter:

BALLET

Did you take ballet lessons as a youngster? Maybe you regret having put away your point shoes? Maybe you dream about the perfect plie? Or perhaps you don't have a clue what I'm referring to, but you have watched ballet in the movies and fantasize about flitting around in a tutu like Dame Margot Fonteyn-- who, incidentally, danced professionally until she was 60, actually hitting her peak in her mid-40s when she and the young Nureyev brought down the house with 86 curtain calls in a performance of Swan Lake in Vienna.

*Get a book or DVD and learn to do some simple ballet steps.

*Do you own version-- Nothing too dangerous, okay? No gazelle-like leaps between your roof and your neighbor's. (Or if you are into that... wear a helmet to protect your brain from dancing carelessly...heheh)

*If you really want to learn ballet in a classic way-- in a ballet class-- why not? Adults have been coming forth in droves for just that, maybe encouraged from reading about the likes of Zelda Fitzgerald, eccentric wife of the famous novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald and friends with Papa Hemingway. Zelda studied ballet all of her adult life.

*Check your local dance schools to see what is available for adults.

*Check with your kids or grandkids-- maybe one of them-- or someone they know-- would like to conduct a (paid) mini workshop so that you can learn the basics.

*Watch famous balleinas for inspiration.
*Just keep dancing!

JAZZ AND TAP DANCING

Jazz and tapdance are enjoying a revival in popularity. Like ballet, these are dance forms that require some formalized connect between what you receive in your ears (the music, the beat) and what occurs with your feet and other movable body parts. True brain dancing--tap dance is harder than it looks. The professionals consider themselves percussionists as well as dancers. Their feet become the instruments like the staccato drum beat-feet of the Riverdance crew. Music and Dance in one package.

Apply the same ideas presented in the ballet section above:

*Watch the stars of the art on DVD and do your own versions

*Join a class as an individual or join a group. A good friend of mine attended a group called "The Fat Ass Dance Club". The innovative leader-- the Brain of this dancing wizardry-- knit classic jazz, ballet and tap steps into the "guided free movement" that characterized most of the class. The group was made up of a great cross-section of individuals-- spritely 20-year olds who wore their original dance slippers to well-nourished matrons who had never been inside a dance class before. Fun was had by all!

FOLK DANCE, WORLD DANCE, INTERNATIONAL DANCE

Do you 'Irish jig' around your house? Do some fantastic twirling between stirs of the Hungarian goulash? Queen of the Hora at all the Jewish weddings you attend? Then you need to know that it is possible for you to have even more regular folk dancing frivolity and joy in your life. And thus MORE neuropathways as you get your brain dancing!

*Check to see what world dance groups are already happening in your community. Some require a fair amount of skill, and maybe even a matching ethnicity, because they participate in festivals and other events that require a level of performance competence. But my guess is that you will find a group that will spark that dancer joy.

*A neighbor of mine does Scottish Country dance with an instructor a group of "well-heeled" devotees brought in from Scotland. As far as I know, the woman stays with one of them for a period of weeks, meets with and instructs them, and then they fly her back to Scotland in their off-season.

*My Filipina daughter-in-law has talked about starting up a dance group where she lives. You can do that too... team up with someone else who maybe remembers folk dance that you learned as a child and form a group. (Hmm... a link back to that active childhood!)

*Check out your local Elder Education programs.

*For a while I attended an International Dance group started by a couple of brain dancing, enterprising women who had attended workshops in other communities, read books, watched videos and instructed from those bases of learning. A clutch of women from the Former Yugoslavia led out one evening. I was thrilled to join in a vigorous shoulder-shaking dance that brought us together into a small circle of smiling faces and out into a larger circle. There were some hearty vocalizations built in to this dance as well (loud "hahs" I seem to recall-- satisfying to do in a group of spirited women). The movement seemed so natural and I felt such belonging!

These are just a few of hundreds of possibilities for dancing your way into lovely longevity as a natural gran! Do it for your brain-- exercise dancing is something anyone can do, from the crib to the wheelchair.

Grandmother Quotes

Here you will find Grandmother Quotes-- a combination of witty quips, sage quotes, and light visionary commentary. Remember that Grandmothers are natural observers of life... I thank all my contributor grannies (I'm including male and female grannies) for the following:
Grandmas are moms with lots of frosting.

~Author Unknown


What a bargain grandchildren are! I give them my loose change,
And they give me a million dollars' worth of pleasure.

~Gene Perret


Grandmothers are just "antique" little girls.

~Author Unknown

Perfect love sometimes does not come until the first grandchild.

~Welsh Proverb


A grandmother is a babysitter who watches the kids instead of watching TV.

~Author Unknown


Never have children, only grandchildren.

~Gore Vidal


Becoming a grandmother is wonderful. One moment you're just
a mother. The next you are all-wise and prehistoric.
~Pam Brown


When grandparents enter the door, discipline flies out the window.
~ Ogden Nash
Grandma always made you feel she had been waiting to see just
you all day and now the day was complete.
~ Marcy DeMaree


Grandmas never run out of hugs or cookies.

~Author unknown


Grandmother - a wonderful mother with lots of practice.

~Author Unknown

Grandmas hold our tiny hands for just a little while, but
our hearts forever.

~Author Unknown


If I had known how wonderful it would be to have grandchildren, I'd have had them first.
~Lois Wyse


Grandchildren don't stay young forever, which is good because
Grandfathers have only so many horsey rides in them.

~Gene Perret


My grandkids believe I'm the oldest thing in the world. And after two or three hours with them, I believe it, too.

~Gene Perret



If becoming a grandmother was only a matter of choice, I should advise every one of you straight away to become one. There is no fun for old people like it!

~Hannah Whithall Smith


A grandparent is old on the outside but young on the inside.
~Author Unknown

It's such a grand thing to be a mother of a mother - that's why the World calls her grandmother.

~Author Unknown


Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing
Old.
~Mary H. Waldrip

You do not really understand something unless you can
explain it to your grandmother.
~Proverb

An hour with your grandchildren can make you feel young again.
Anything longer than that, and you start to age quickly.
~Gene Perret

The best baby-sitters, of course, are the baby's grand- parents. You feel completely comfortable entrusting your baby to them for long periods, which is why most grandparents flee to Florida.
~Dave Barry

I wish I had the energy that my grandchildren have - if
only for self-defense.
~Gene Perret

Grandmother-grandchild relationships are simple. Grandmas
are short on criticism and long on love.

~Author Unknown


Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do.
Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.
~Alex Haley



One of the most powerful handclasps is that of a new Grandbaby around the finger of a grandfather.
~Joy Hargrove

It's amazing how grandparents seem so young once you become one.
~Author Unknown


If your baby is "beautiful and perfect, never cries or fusses, sleeps on schedule and burps on demand, an angel all the time," you're the grandma.
~Teresa Bloomingdale

Grandparents are similar to a piece of string - handy to have
around and easily wrapped around the fingers of their
grandchildren.
~Author Unknown

What is it about grandparents that is so lovely? I'd like to say that grandparents are God's gifts to children. And if they can but see, hear and feel what these people have to give,
they can mature at a fast rate.
~Bill Cosby

Grandchildren don't make a man feel old; it's the knowledge
that he's married to a grandmother.
~G. Norman Collie

for you!



(1)Making Daddy a Cuppa Tea



(2)The Middle Wife



(3) Recall the Wolf and the Fate of Poor Granny in the fairy story Little Red Riding Hood? Here's an updated Politically-Correct version (a hoot!)


For All-Things-Tea (and Tisane), check out Granny's Tea Aisle!

Naomi Cranney turned 100 in 2005 and was still making $338,000 a year as a network marketer. Her 100th birthday was declared "Naomi Cranney Day" by the state of Massachusetts. She later flew to Hawaii to be part of her network marketing convention and told her company's CEO, Roger Barnett, "Roger, you know, they told me I didn't have to come, but if there was going to be something new announced I wanted to hear it first." (from a presentation by Roger Barnett to the White House Conference on Aging, December 21, 2005).

Grandmothers are the hands that rocked the cradle of she that rocks the cradle now...

Here is a quote on improper food combining from Paul Nison's book Health According to the Scriptures FOR Grandmothers:

"If a carbohydrate is eaten with a sugar, such as a cooked grain cereal with apple or banana, the carbohydrate and sugar will both ferment. The result is gas and flatulence. No healthy cell structure can be built from fermentation or putrefaction." (p.178)

Read about The Perks of being 60 and heading towards 70...

Behind every good man there is a Grandmother...

Grandmothers are prayer warriors who have traded in their swords for knitting needles, their judgements for a wiser way of seeing that passeth the understanding of most younger folks...

Great Grandmother Gifts

Perhaps. But more than laying out my own private 'wish list' I would like to offer some suggestions for acquiring gifts for other great grandmothers. I think it is important for our kids/grandkids and friends and spouses to know that we love them to pieces, but please, no more boxes of cheap (or even expensive)chocolates if they are not organic. you might have a different bugaboo and consider chocolates-- and lots of them-- a real pleasure to receive. I'm leery after the 'forward' emails about the industrial product melamine that was substituted for milk powder in some recent confectionery and other processed food recalls that even Snopes.com is supporting as true. I know there are a lot of much healthier options out there. If you are stuck for ideas about what gifts you would like to buy for the grandmother(s) in your family, I'm glad to help!

Grandmothers have all the same concerns about life quality that people of other ages do. We don't want to lie up against chemically-drenched fabrics any more than we want our precious grandchildren to be exposed to that kind of bedding (now that we know that non-organically grown cotton is the most heavily sprayed of all textile crops). We also don't enjoy clothing made out of petrochemical fibres (polyester, etc.) The stuff doesn't breath and it leaves its own brand of chemical residue behind on our skin (that actually absorbs it into our organs).

So, yes, organic fabrics are a great choice for us in anything from pillow cases to undies to bath towels. Great Grandmother Gifts are easier on the planet we are leaving to our grandchildren and an expression of our desire for a broadened market for organic products and a decreasing market for chemically-polluting products.

Grannies with compromised immune systems and chronic illness are particularly thankful for a more natural lifestyle. Organic fabrics, unscented personal care products,
and high quality, whole food nutrition-- these are truly great grandmother gifts!



Please go here to find some great organic products that you can basket up yourself with the #1 Health and Wellness Company's highest quality anti-aging and health-enhancing products at my HealthiaCynthia site. Order 100PV of product before December 15th from my site and you do not have to purchase a membership-- a $19.99 saving in the US and a $15.00 saving in Canada! Click here to order now.


Think of your other savings: no tromping endlessly around in crowds on your precious days off, no gas and parking costs, and no coming home with some over-priced gewgah because you weren't quite sure what to buy!

This year, have fun buying really Great Grandmother Gifts!

Click here to go to HealthiaCynthia.com

Click here to Pamper Gran with Organics

15 Ways to Avoid Power Struggles with Your Grandkids...

15 suggestions for avoiding power struggles with your preschool grandkids is adapted from an old article from Positive Parenting maven Jane Nelson (circa 1998) and it still has wisdom for today. When your grandchildren visit (or if they live with you) you don't want to waste time creating distance and hostility-- what comes from power struggles-- you want to nurture trust and closeness.

Your positive influence as a grandparent is dependent on the warmth and trust you demonstrate. Closeness and trust make for a safe and energized learning environment... and that is part of what grandparenting is all about, isn't it? Passing on what we have learned to the generations who follow us...

The following 15 suggestions are important in teaching skills like self-discipline, responsibility, co-operation and problem-solving.

They won't feed into any 'people-pleasing' habits. Granny's House will be remembered as a haven of win-win.

(1)Decide what you are willing to do, and when. State it positively as:
"I will read a story after faces are washed and teeth are brushed."
"We will make cookies in a cleaned-up kitchen."
"I will drive you to Suzy's when seat belts are buckled."
"I will pull over to the side of the road when children are bugging each other and me."

(2)Follow through with kindness and firmness, at the same time, together. Without any comments or sarcasm, pull to the side of the road or leave the room. Actions speak louder than words.

(3)Respectful Time Out. Choose a "nurturing" time out area with the child (somewhere they can 'get it together' and consider how they can co-operate-- not a punishing place). Ask "Would it help for you to go to your Time Out area?" You can use the area yourself if you need time to compose yourself or to think. This is good modeling for your grandchild.

(4)Distraction and lots of supervision works well for younger kids. Jane Nelson writes that "punishment decreases brain development" and means that children are developmentally programmed to explore-- so instead of stemming this natural developmental urge with hand-slapping and verbal berating, tell them what they CAN do. (If you want to understand appropriate developmental guidance, read Positive Discipline for Preschoolers by Jane Nelson).