Big Brood

At this moment in time I am as perfectly satisfied as a grandma can be. My three children's kids- all eight of them, are just great!

Valentina and Emilio, our youngest, twins, are so amazing! They are precociously articulate (in both Spanish and English!). They are the youngest in a family of five siblings, and here you see Emilio with his biggest brother, Diego.

Caroline is eating ice cream and her cousin, Vale is regarding a flower.

I am awed by the expertise all our children have as as parents!

These modern parents seem to navigate among all the complexities of kids and stepchildren, several languages, and multiple layers of relations. They all pay real attention to their progeny in such thoughtful and loving ways it takes my breath away.  I see that my grandchildren are not all the regulation WASP blondes of my generation, though there are some of those.

Our parents, if they were still living, would be amazed , and maybe horrified, at the diversity of our extended family as it is now. But they would understand the underlying love and attention their great grandchildren have for all these kids.

These eight grandchildren are all being raised by the villages- Puerto Rican, Slavic, WASP, gay and straight, and who knows else? Our gatherings to celebrate everything are joyous occasions of different configurations and colors and ethnicities.

I salute these parents of kids who are our children. They are doing a wonderful job in uncertain times.

A Lot of Money Out There

I am so aware these days, after the Great Recession has receded, that there is a whole lot of money to be had for various projects large and small. Folks who were tight with their money are more expansive, big business is too. Philanthropy is expanding.

The destitute are still standing by the side of the road with their cardboard signs, asking for money. Some dysfunctional families in our communities still cannot manage to keep their lives on track and care for their kids and keep a car functional. Pay day lenders are still in business. Drugs make everything worse.

How do we address this disconnect? You cannot throw money towards some of this. People need to have decently paying work and have the means to buy into success.  Raising the minimum wage will go a long way and raise the economic floor.

Education is, of course, the key. So much of our philanthropy can and will go to making sure that the next generation will be able to go to college or get training for some useful work in our society.

I am always asking the question about every 'great' idea, "How does this work?" I want to know the pragmatic bottom line. If you get the grant, what will it lead to? If you have the funds, where and how will it be spent?

In our community/school garden, we seem to have plenty of dollars to do whatever we need (through grants and contributions), but what we really need is a time commitment from local folks who will show up on a regular basis.

The society of humans is so far behind the scrappy digital world!

Neighbors Up the Road

Tonight, after a drenching five inches of pure Florida summer rain, it is just beginning to clear though I still hear distant rolls of thunder.

I see distant lights up the hill in the little house and it makes me glad. I see the warm glow of the chili lights and I think that dinner may be happening up there.

At the beginning of June we decided to rent the guest house to our dear friends who have been using it for ages when there was an opening between other guests. It seemed that when our family comes to visit they always wanted to be in the main house and that is great for us.

We want to sell twenty acres of our land to our good friends who have used and loved the little house. But there are some legal issues, yet to be resolved, about making this happen. So, we came up with the idea of renting the little house to them until they can have their very own slice of this paradise. This is a good deal for everyone. They feel free to come and go as they please. They have use of everything here, and most of all, these folks truly love the place and know it almost as well as we do. They pitch in with mowing the pastures, weeding the vegetable garden, heaving mulch. We love to walk together in the woods and swamp. Their kids have grown up here and frequently come to visit. I was charmed when we went to one of their boys' graduations this spring, and we were introduced as his grandparents. We are that close.

Having neighbors, even sporadically, is the best! We live out here in such a vast space it makes the people who come to fix things gasp. (The drive way is a mile long!) But having such wonderful people as neighbors on the hill, not very near, is perfect, just perfect.

You never know how life will turn out; it always takes unexpected turns.  Many years ago, I thought that one of our sons would live in the vicinity and would be interested in making this ranch a part of his life. But that didn't happen and his career and family life soars elsewhere. If you give your kids wings to fly, they'll fly. And all of mine have flown and I am pleased with that.

But one of the very best and unexpected things has been having a close connection to one of my grandsons, who is now nine years old. He has spent a lot of time with us since infancy, has his own room here, his own toys and books and he folds seamlessly and joyfully

into our lives. I know that soon he will be a teenager and be more distant. But for now, I enjoy every moment.

The neighbors up the road will bring ribs to barbecue for the 4th of July, everyone will make food and our daughter and her wife will be here, my sister and brother in law, and we'll set off firecrackers and smoke bombs. The nine year old is still in camp in North Carolina, our neighbors' boys are not in the vicinity, so it will be just adults. (Unless the Mexican neighbors from Lacoochee come to swim).

I am pretty wildly happy to be here in this swampy and forested place in Florida and it is all the better to have neighbors up the hill who love frogs and birds and plants. Who knew?