A Lesson on Being Present

For two days now, we have wakened to the sound of rain falling sometimes as a drizzle and other times as a hard rain. Oddly, there is no thunder or lightning with this rain. Yesterday the rain was much heavier and lasted until mid-afternoon. Just in time for Paige and me to make Ming-Ming cupcakes.


She arrived carrying her Thomas the Tank Engine umbrella, a gift I purchased when Thomas came to visit Chattanooga this spring. I bought it and tucked it away to give her at her birthday at the end of May, but forgot about it. We found it hidden in the closet one day and she was just as surprised and pleased, being the great Thomas fan that she is.


Bringing also her backpack, Leapfrog book, two video games, her digital camera, assorted books, workbooks, fake cell phone, doll in a carrier, and a Barbie scooter she asked me to download a recipe she saw on the television early that morning at, and I quote her words, "pbsparents.nickjr.com."


The recipe was for Ming Ming cupcakes from the Wonder Pets show. So with a break in the rain, off we went to the grocery store, list in hand. People followed us around listening to our conversation and one man, a friend from the Lions Club, who worked at the store helped us find all the strange ingredients that probably any mother of a young child would know, but to me were alien foods.


Other than mixing the cake with the hand-mixer (because she hates loud noises), Paige made the cupcakes. After cooling she iced them with the colored icing and then decorated them to look like Ming Ming. (I had to melt the candies in the microwave and then shape them as the pattern suggested.) But Paige did all the work. I was happy to get 6 of the 18 cupcakes decorated considering the detail undertaking that it became.


But what fun we had! I at the sink cleaning the pans and mess up, she licking the spoon in the bowl of leftover cake mix and said, "Umm. Mimi...guess what I did?" I turned to see she had put both hands in the mix and was stirring it with her fingers. I said it looked like we wouldn't be using the rest of the mix after all.

In the end, she sorted them out equally giving some to her Uncle Jason and Aunt Laura, one to her grandfather, Mark, and one each for her Mommy, Daddy (who she insisted was going to grease his cupcake), and one for herself. (None for me, she knew, because Mimi's always on a diet! And Uncle B doesn't eat sweets.) And so proud she insisted her Mommy eat hers when she came to pick her up after work. And what a kind and loving mother my daughter-in-law was to eat a delicious cupcake covered in icing, tootsie rolls, m & m's, starburst, and fruit rolls.


And to see Paige's face when she showed off the final Ming Mings! It was worth a thousand pictures. But here is one.



Today, she is back with me sharing the day with her cousin Hayden. Happy and healthy once more, Hayden has been sleeping more than awake, but they did have a good time playing this morning. Hayden loves his cousin Paige and can't take his eyes off her when she is in the room, but I managed to get a few pictures before he went down for his second nap.
Tomorrow we head for Charlotte to visit Little Lexi Lou Lou. I plan to come home with some great pictures and some great stories to remember.


Someone asked me what I did this summer and I answered nothing much, just took care of the grandkids.....NOTHING MUCH??? What was I thinking? I am one lucky woman and I shall not forget it!


I thank God every day for bringing my grandchildren into my life! What a blessing!