Written in 2014.

THIS IS THE FIRST- cobbled-up playhouse.

I am not sure how it all happened. I know I was in the room when eight out of the ten of our grandbabies were born.  I was there to sing Happy BIRTH day in a hushed whisper to each one of them for the first time.  I took their first photographs with their mommies and daddies. Mommies crying tears of joy, daddy’s cutting cords…. I  took the first pictures when the siblings met the new baby. I was there. I was.  

And yet……how can it all be. It seems inconceivable to me that I am 51 years old and have three WONDERFUL grown children of my own AND now have TEN grandbabies under the age of nine. What a sacred blessing it was for me to be invited into those moments.  Memoires more precious than the spoken word can express. 

I am grateful God allowed me to be here to see it all. It wasn’t this side of 9 years ago that I battled cancer and wasn’t sure I would survive to see our first Grandbaby born, and to be honest …days when I was so sick, and tired and wouldn’t have cared if I did.  What a gift. I didn’t just make it to see Benjamin born, but nine more after him, and I am grateful to say I am a survivor.

It can be crazy and loud at Omie and Papas house.   (Omie is German for Grandma).  There is actually almost three sets of twins between our two daughters. Each of our daughters has been pregnant and delivered three babies, and each pregnancy has been within five months of the other sister’s delivery.  We have a set of 2-year-olds, a set of 4-year-olds, two babies at the moment, and then there are three older grandchildren, aged 7, 8, and 9, as well as a little sister who is 2, all from our son.  Life is full,  and happy and loud and chaotic.

At least one or two days a week, you can drive by our farm and you will see all those yellow and red plastic cars left discarded in the yard, children riding tractors, bikes, tricycles. Or you may see them climbing up to the two-story playhouse that I built for the first of our grandbabies about five years ago. In a group effort, everyone helped me build this playhouse for the grandkids out of a woodshed that was made for our outdoor central boiler, after we relocated the Boiler unit.

We have a central boiler, Papa built a shed to hold wood, I built another one, and put a playhouse on top of it with the help of my son-in-law and son.

Last weekend, our playhouse received an upgrade. With the gift of two previously used slides, one normal and one of those enclosed, ugly slides, I decided to add 8 feet to the second deck and install another yellow slide. So we have slides going to the east and the west. A large green enclosed slide on the back side (not visible from the road…yeah) going south.  The grandchildren come, and they are beyond excited. You cannot slow them down and I seriously wish I had a little copper penny for every time one of those children climb the stairs and race down a slide…..they do it hundreds of times in a day. Its crazy. The energy they have.

I am very grateful for this piece of ground that I can be the steward of while I walk on this earth. I appreciate the wonderful place our children and their children get to play and explore. That I  will be able to teach them/ show them (as I did our children)   what a tractor with wheels is like, what mold board plowing is, and what its like to raise animals by hand and to use a New Idea corn picker to pick ears of corn to store in a corn crib like folks did back in the 1940’s – 80’s.  A hard way of life back in the day….but the best way  , and we got it honest. It wasn’t handed to us…we struggle to make the payment every month like so many people today….But I am so grateful for the opportunity to wake up here every day and watch all these beautiful babies grow, play, laugh, and yes, even when they cry or scream. Its Bliss.

UPDATE…..PLAYHOUSE NUMBER TWO.

Suddenly, one day, I decided that this old playhouse was in rough shape, too many metal edges, too cobbled up and we devised a plan, and with everyone’s help, one long weekend a new playhouse was build. One of our Son in laws runs a pole building company and that was instrumental in making this all come together faster and closer to perfection than I could have ever dreamed.

The playhouse was constructed, with many windows on every side, and when the railings went up, I insisted on doubling them so no child would fall over them and get hurt. I love this playhouse, its beautiful and completely over the top. I cannot imagine how wonderful it would have been as a child if my three brothers and I would have had something like this to play in. We played in haymows, and trees, and tried tirelessly to create tree forts that just never stayed in place.

Shortly after the house was complete. The Grandsons (four of them) decided that they wanted their own home “fort.” They didn’t like all the doll stuff and dishes. One afternoon, the seven grandchildren who live in the neighborhood and spend most of their days at Omie’s daycare, we all closed in the bottom half of the building that was for lawn mowers and such and built a wall, a fort for the boys. The seven granddaughters were tickled to have the upper level to themselves. Of course, you know it goes without saying that no one stayed in their own territory. That’s just the stuff that makes life fun.

The children have loved it and enjoyed this playhouse for over a decade now. It used to be full of trunks of clothes, high heel shoes, dolls, doll beds, a small table and chairs, then it had a vintage cookstove, and shelves of dishes, pots and pans. Those kids made more mud pies, and water and grass soup than I care to recall cleaning up at the end of a weekend, but they loved it. As they grew older, we slowly moved thingsout; they outgrew playing dolls and dress up, and now there is a large brass bed and a table for playing cards or games on. There are still six windows covered in wire mesh, and it a great place to nap in the early springtime or late fall.

The bottom of the playhouse now holds about fifteen used bikes, and when the kids are all here, the circular driveway at this farm looks and sounds like a NASCAR speedway.

LIFE IS BEAUTIUFL. LIFE IS GOOD, WE ARE BLESSED, AND GRATEFUL