The Sweetest of Holidays

I walk around with a smile plastered on my silly face these days. I am drunk with hope and joy.  Anger and hurt feelings I use to nurse religiously have melted away.

Why?

I have a job.

Miracle of miracles – a job.

The answer to a million prayers – a job.

If you are unemployed you know the sheer depth of  that word.

The simple joy of going to work will be mine.

This past year has been the most challenging of my life. For months I barely moved, frozen in fear of losing everything.  Every noise frightened me – were they taking my car, turning off my utilities or serving legal papers?  I cried myself to sleep more nights than I can count; many days I thought I couldn’t go on.  I felt a failure, a terrible, awful failure.

But I did go on, sometimes in tears and more often than not a mess of tangled emotions.  How I made it through is a miracle. I always had food. I kept my car. I managed to keep looking for work and be positive for interviews.

How?

Through the grace and love of friends.

Friends who called me to let me know they knew what I was going through. Friends who fed me, paid a bill, or two, or more.  And my mom who never stopped listening and caring for me – even though she is a little forgetful at times.

I am so lucky, so blessed.

From the bottom of my heart – thank you.

The Peppermint Phone Is Ringing

When Son No. 1 became engaged to She-Who-Is-Brilliant I not only received the gift of a daughter, but also two wonderful grandchildren, I’s and Ev. They don’t call me grandma because, as I’s puts it, “Judy doesn’t like to feel old.” He is right. But if growing old is a bitch, having grandchildren makes it a whole lot easier. I am new at this grandmothering game but I do my best and am learning as I go.

I’s is an impossibly skinny pre-teen with an irreverent wit and a natural slacker style. He is an astute observer of the human condition and delivers his pronouncements with a deadpan delivery style that alternately tickles me to death or drives me insane. Or both.

With I’s I get to indulge my inner Jewish mother “eat eat!” He “tolerates” it, barely.

What now?

Ev is almost 7: she captivates everyone with her sparkling brown eyes and wondrous imagination.

Ev

Where I’s is laid back to a fault, Ev is on 24/7. Never passive, always creating, you could put Ev in a cardboard box and within minutes she would create a magical and functional world where she rules and everyone else follows.

Coffee shop artist

This past week the kids spent a couple days with me. The first afternoon we had to stay home for some reason. I’s was deep into in his DS (remind me to give it back I’s – it is in my cupboard) while languishing, as only a teenager can, in an overstuffed chair. Meanwhile Ev was on a mission to have fun. She looked around my cluttered family room and spied a silver candy tin – “can I have it?” she asks.

Empty Tin

Within minutes she fashioned herself a peppermint phone complete with dial pad and background graphics.

Peppermint Phone - Limited Edition

This little tin box kept her amused for 2 days and reminded me of the wonder of childhood and imagination.

Don’t forget to dream.