ScrumpyDaddy

On Friday April 5th Dave’s Grandmother Carmella Byerly passed away. It was sudden in how fast her body quit on her, but not sudden in that we knew she had been declining for several months now. For the past 6 months or so his Grandma had been in and out of the hospital for various problems and had problems maintaining a body weight. She had been down to 76 lbs at one point. Abby weighs almost as much as she did. On Wednesday April 3rd she went to the hospital due to a bloody nose she could not get stopped. They got it stopped and were going to send her home, but she insisted she didn’t feel right. By the end of that day she was in ICU and her body seemed to be shutting down. My father-in-law then received a call at 4 am Friday morning saying he should come be with her and later that morning she passed.

It is really too bad we can’t save the mind when the body stops working. Her mind was sharp as a tack and she was herself all the way to the end. I remember when my Grandmother was in her final months she was not all there. I can remember sitting with her and all she would do was moan and sing for God to take her home. Her body didn’t want to give up even though her mind was not with us any longer.

She moved back to this area several years ago so we have been able to spend birthdays and holidays with her. It was so wonderful that my children and I were given the opportunity to get to know her. She was an amazing person. She had so much love to give.

I’m not sure how much Zach really understands what is going on, but Abby has been very curious about death. This was the first person she has really known that has died. She has been asking many questions about death; where our body goes and where are spirit goes. She is comforted by knowing that Great Grandma is with God. She has said that she believes in God and will get to be in heaven with her too. She was also very curious about the viewing and seeing Great Grandma’s body. She did not seem afraid by it at all and I think it was good for her to see and have closure. Zach said that she looked like Sleeping Beauty.

Here are some pictures of her from the past several years of the many family times we had with her. Love you and miss you.

Read the rest of this entry »

It has been quite a week leading up to Easter. Dave was on call this week and had lots to do at night. Matt starting teething so the wonderful sleeping through the night he had been doing for almost 2 weeks was over. Despite being tired we have had lots of fun as a family getting ready for Easter.

On Tuesday Zach and I got out the Easter decorations and put them out. Zach was very interested in playing with his basket, but didn’t understand the mess the Easter grass would make. Ugh! Had to follow him around for a bit picking it all up so the cats wouldn’t eat it and get sick. Finally found his Easter bucket he was given several years ago and filled it with the plastic eggs so he would stop playing with his basket. Not looking forward to the mess Easter morning will bring. The Easter Bunny will have to make sure to hide the baskets where the cats can’t get into them.

Abby had off of school Thursday and Friday and Dave did so much over night work on Wednesday that he worked from home for a half a day Thursday and had off on Friday. It has been very nice having everyone home so much. Wish it could be like this more often. Abby and Zach have really been enjoying playing with each other, especially outside. Yes that is right I said outside! It has been sunny and warm enough in the high 40s low 50s to spend considerable time out side. Yay vitamin D!

On Thursday the kids and I made sugar cookies in the shapes of eggs and bunnies. The cookies are so good we have to make a second batch. Dave and I are eating all the cookies before the kids can.

Abby wanted me to post, “We love sugar cookies!”

On Friday we had lots of fun dying eggs and having our Easter egg hunt. Not sure how many of you still do this, but we use the real eggs that we dye in our Easter egg hunt instead of the plastic eggs. Some of my fondest memories as a kid was dying eggs at my Grandma Swaim’s house and then hunting for them in her backyard. My mom would always have my sister and I go into my Grandma’s family room and wait for her to hide the eggs outside. We were very good and never peeked. Not sure I would trust my kids not to peek. They are just so curious about everything we do at this age. We put on a short video for them to keep them occupied while I hid the eggs in the backyard.

Abby was very sad that she cracked her egg.

The finished product. We only cracked 2 eggs in the process of dying, which the kids ate as soon as they were done.

Sitting on the couch watching an episode of Sofia the First while Mommy hid the eggs.

The Hunt:
I had to keep giving Zach hints about where the eggs were and encouraging Abby to let him find some. She is so fast and sharp that she probably could have found all the eggs before Zach really had a chance to find many.

Here is a nice spring time/Easter/belated St. Patrick’s Day craft that is easy and fairly mess free, coffee filter rainbows. If Zach was able to do this mess free your kid can too.

Take a white coffee filter and cut it in half. Then take food dye and combine it with some water in cups. You don’t need too much water, just enough that it will run on the coffee filter and let the colors mix. Lastly, you will need a medicine dropper.

I put the coffee filters on a shallow pan so that the dye wouldn’t run all over the place. It seemed to work great. Then just take the medicine dropper and fill it with the color of your choice and put drops on the filter. Here is how it turns out.