One week

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Taxes are due. Despite knowing such things happen when making use of a stash meant for tomorrow, it still stings.

We procrastinated, not wanting to know, not wanting to let go.

Of money.

It's just money, I tell myself as I crunch numbers.

Then an e-mail: Please pray. She's in a coma.

I pray. I crunch numbers.

Hours later, a text: "She's dead." That's all it said.

I pray.

And consider that it truly is just money.

An e-mail: My cell phone's on hold; can't afford it.

Cancellations. No subs. No plan. Times three.

A phone call: She could die, Mom. Please pray.

I pray.

And $30 for half a tank of gas?

It's just money.

A voice mail: He's in the hospital. Can't figure it out.

A text: "I can't do funerals."

Another text: She's in ICU. Broken bones, sternum, neck. ATV.

I pray.

A conversation: The former rental, now residence? Red dust. Brown residue. Taped plumbing. Rusted hinges.

Neighbors ... and Google: It's drugs. It's meth. It's $40,000 average to clean up.

Really?

Really?

Low-blood sugar. Comas. Reverse mortgages. Fears of homelessness. Death. Funerals. A mother binds her toddler with tape and leaves her in the shower. Another drives her babies into the water.

And the ever-present wind.

One week.

The center cannot hold.

Really.

Hope springs eternal. Or so I'm told.

Which buoys a heavy heart. Tethered to hope, it's kept from sinking.

A phone call: There's a new plan. They want more info. We're moving forward. This could work.

A text: "Thanks for today! I'm super excited now! I can really see it all coming together."

A plea: We need you. Can you come? We'll pay.

And 69 days become 22.

Hope springs eternal.

The center can hold.

The center did hold.

This one week.

Photo: stock.xchng

Today's question:

How was your week?

Before or After?

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I've learned from the comments here and from visiting the blogs of others that we're all very similar. On the big things. Such as love of family, commitment to hearth and home, and the desire to be the best we can be for those around us as well as for ourselves.

But what about the little things?

Just for kicks, I've created a brief quiz to see how how alike we are ... or not ... on mundane matters, the things that don't really matter at all.

BEFORE or AFTER? (my answers in parentheses):

Do you ...

1. Eat BEFORE or AFTER exercising in the morning? (Before)

2. Wash your whites BEFORE or AFTER your darks or colors? (After)

3. Add your cream and/or sugar — if you use it — BEFORE or AFTER pouring in coffee? (Before)

4. Floss BEFORE or AFTER brushing your teeth? (After)

5. Dust BEFORE or AFTER vacuuming? (I like to do it after, but it depends on if Jim has completed his chore of vacuuming.)

6. Turn off your bedroom light BEFORE or AFTER you've gotten into bed at night? (After)

7. Check Facebook BEFORE or AFTER checking your e-mail in the morning? (After the Grandma's Briefs e-mail, before my personal e-mail.)

8. Put on socks BEFORE or AFTER you put on your pants? (Before)

9. Feed the dogs BEFORE or AFTER you feed the cats? (Before)

10. Put on your deodorant BEFORE or AFTER you're dressed? (Before)

11. Go through your junk mail — USPS mail — BEFORE or AFTER the personal mail? (Before. I go through the stack, divide into piles, pitch the junk, then open the ones that matter.)

12. Read the Sunday newspaper inserts/ads BEFORE or AFTER the newspaper? (I read Parade before the paper. I'm trying to avoid the ads, for the sake of my budget.)

13. When having fruit with your breakfast cereal, do you add fruit to the bowl BEFORE or AFTER the cereal? (Before)

Photo: stock.xchng

Today's question:

How about you? Answer any or all. Plus, any other BEFORE or AFTER questions to add?

A daring and sharing Grilled GrandPA

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I've featured many a lovely lady here for the Grilled Grandma feature, but today I bend the rules just a tad and grill up a grandpa. As the grilled grandpa, John, said in his request to be grilled — yes, he asked me — "some of us testosterated reparenters make good bonne-mamans, too." (That's "grandma" for those who don't know ... and might need to Google it, like I did.)

How could I refuse? To be honest, I didn't even consider refusing, as John's a good bloggy buddy to Grandma's Briefs.

Yes indeed, John makes a marvy bonne-maman. An even better one once grilled. One quote from his grilling that proved most resonant for me was this:

Good talk with kids is underrated. It's not something you can do without practice. If you want to learn something about children, you can't ask them outright unless you already have a working conversation going with them. They need to know you've been listening all along.

As the primary caregiver for three grandsons, John knows of what he speaks, and he offers much more wisdom and wisecracks about his experience as a grandfather, a "reparenter," and a most interesting man in Grilled Grandpa: John. While there, be sure to show him some comment love. It's the least we can do for the only male — so far! — brave enough to willingly join the Grilled Grandma gang.

Today's question:

What stands out most in your memories of your grandfather?