90

My maternal grandmother turned 90 on Friday. We had family home from BC, Alberta, Ontario and all over southern Manitoba to celebrate. It was chaotic with 48 people in one house, but it was also great fun! And my grandma continues to amaze me. After raising 6 kids during a time when maternity leave from her job as a nurse was NOT a year per baby, she has continued to stay active and spry enough to thoroughly enjoy her 20ish grandkids (and their significant others) and 10 great-grandkids.

I stood back a few minutes after the cake cutting and just watched the busy-ness of the place as my cousins and aunts started dishing up cake and ice cream. I thought about how lucky we are, to have so many people to support us.

How lucky we are, to have no one in the family who's gotten into any significant trouble, like drugs or teen pregnancy (that we know of!)....

How lucky we are, that every grandchild has at LEAST a high school education (except for the youngest who's still working on hers!)

How lucky we are that the vast majority of us have been able to go on to post-secondary and finish at least one degree.

How lucky we are to have so many people to call family who really get what family is about, and who love to just spend time together. One memory that someone mentioned on Friday at our gathering was of the day that most of our extended family went rafting down the Assiniboine river one summer about 20 years ago. We had lawn chairs and snacks on the make-shift rafts (plywood over empty oil drums if I recall), and a couple of canoes and inner tubes for those that were tired of the rafts. I think it's my all-time favorite memory of our family because it's such a significant image of us just being together, laughing and having a great time in the process!

And then I thought that all of that stuff is learned. Passed down through generations. And we are so blessed to have a grandmother who's still with it enough to continue to teach us about patience, love, wisdom and laughter.

Happy birthday, Grandma - we all love you!!

PS - welcome to the world, Gabriel Arthur!

Advice for Life

I was in my car for a total of about 5 minutes today, and managed to catch this on the radio. I'd forgotten about it since it first came out about 10 years ago, but it's so good, I didn't want to forget about it again. So I'm posting it here for future reference when I need some really sage advice about what's really important in life. And now I'll just let it speak for itself. Enjoy.

Outlook is Everything

We met some really fun people on the cruise... Specifically the bunch that sat at the next table at dinner every night. Most of them were from Texas, but I believe one couple was from California. We competed with them each night for the title of "rowdiest table" in the dining room that seats 1500 or so people... :-)

I never did learn their names, but by the last night of the cruise, a few of us went for drinks and dancing with one of the couples. Watching them on the dance floor, I couldn't help but think that I only hope I can still be that active, and enjoying life that much at their age.

Upon arriving home, I had a lot of catching up to do - a week's worth of blogs from several of my friends... And I came across these videos on one blog about an octegenarian chorus. Apparently these are clips from a documentary. The group is called Young at Heart. These people are much further along in their lives than the Texans we met on the cruise, but they're enjoying life just as much. What an inspiration! (Keep your kleenex box handy for the second video...)

Stayin' Alive


Fix You


Search for "Young at Heart" on Youtube and you'll find lots more clips...