2010 Calendar
Date Host Presenter
May 1 Carol W Sharon N
Jul 11 Judy open
Sep 19 open open
Nov 7 Irene open
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Hosts and Presenters Wanted
As you can see from our 2010 Calendar above, we need a host for September 19, and presenters or ideas for July 11, September 19, and November 7.
Do you have a topic related to grandparenting you'd like to share at one of our meetings? If you'd like to lead a discussion or know a speaker, please let me know. I'm open to your ideas.
Please continue sending me emails with fun activities you're doing so I can include them in the new GaGa Zone section.
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April 13, 2010
Private Tour of Filoli
Get your taxes done early and reward yourself with a
tour of the beautiful gardens at Filoli on April 13 at 10:15 am. We'll have our own private tour of the estate led by our docent GGS members Betty Z and
Judith. After the tour, we'll meet at Woodside Bakery and Cafe for lunch. I sent out an email requesting that you mail me a $12 check before March 28 to reserve your space. Hope you can join us. |
May 1, 2010 Meeting
Multigenerational Living
Carol W is hosting our May 1 in Saratoga. Our
speaker is Sharon Niederhaus, author of Together Again: A Creative Guide for Successful Multigenerational Living. Sharon will
discuss a dozen housing options featuring proximity with privacy (i.e.,
separate kitchen and entrance).
She will also cover remodeling your
home for adult children and grandchildren, financial and legal planning,
and making co-habitation agreements.
Sharon's topic is so timely. The census reports that 6.6 million U.S. households in 2009 had at least 3 generations of family members, an increase of 30 percent since 2000. If you broaden the term "multigenerational" to include two adult generations, a record 49 million, or 1-in-6 people live in such households.
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The Art of Grandparenting
The Art of Grandparenting is now available. In the chapter I wrote, How to Become a Go-To Grandma, I offer seven strategies for building lasting bonds with your grandchildren. The most important lesson I've learned as a grandma is that getting time with your grandchildren requires building trust and respect with their parents. Trust is the foundation for having access to your grandchildren.
The anthology, subtitled Loving, Spoiling, Teaching and Playing with Your Grandkids, includes 20 chapters by "new" and "seasoned" grandparent authors. To order the book, click here.
You can also purchase copies at our May 1 meeting.
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Greetings!
While my husband watched college basketball's March Madness tournament, the GGS had some of its own "madness" this month!
At 11 am on the day of our March meeting, our host's husband called to say that Marilyn was so ill she needed to go to the ER. After wishing Marilyn a speedy recovery, I hung up and started dialing all 20 members who had RSVP'd. The meeting was changed to my house.
Amazingly, I reached all but two attendees. Then I cleaned my house...in record time! This is the first time a host has had to cancel on such short notice. (Marilyn called the next day to apologize and let me know she was feeling much better. She came down with food poisoning Sunday morning but did not have to go to the hospital.)
But that's not the only drama! Our speaker, Victoria Zackheim, sent me an email ten days before our meeting saying that she had the week from hell! Just two weeks before, she had a colonoscopy, was diagnosed with colon cancer, and had surgery to remove the cancerous polyps. Two days after she came home from the hospital, Victoria sat at her mother's bedside before she passed away on February 26. At the end of Victoria's email she said she still planned to come to our meeting. And she did! Victoria entertained us by reading from her anthology The Face in the Mirror and sharing stories of the publishing world.
In Sisterhood,
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March Madness at the GGS
New Introductions At our March 7 meeting we introduced ourselves by answering one of the following questions: What surprises you most about being a grandma? What is your favorite thing to do with your grandchild? What unique gift do you bring to your grandchild?
Here are some of the great ideas that were shared:
Susan B. said her 8-year old grandson wanted to start a diary after reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Susan T. took her four granddaughters to the Cantor Museum at Stanford University and gave them pens and sketch pads to create their own works of art.
Sandy gives her 5-year old grandson stickers to create a picture then they make up a story about the stickers.
For Carol W
every Friday is grandma day when she teaches her grandchildren real life skills like
sewing and cooking.
Carolyn brings a different kind of Silly Putty every time she visits her grandsons.
The Face in the Mirror
Our speaker, Victoria Zackheim, stunned us all by asking if she could begin by digressing from her subject. "I have a message for all of you: be sure to get a colonoscopy!"
Then she told us about the previous two weeks and all she'd been through. She explained that colon cancer runs in her family. Her father died of it and so did her mother. Victoria's mother refused to have a colonoscopy. She died just two days after Victoria came home from her own colon cancer surgery.
But Victoria was upbeat. Her doctors found no signs of cancer in the section they removed. She's ecstatic because now she can get back to being "Granny Nanny" for her precious 7-year old twin granddaughters.
Victoria read some of her favorite passages from The Face in the Mirror. She's
a great storyteller and had us all mesmerized with stories about how her different
anthologies were created and how she's built a community around the authors in
her books.
Anthologies and
personal essays are Victoria's specialties. As an editor of three, she's been
able to ask well-known authors to "go deeper," requiring
them to be brutally honest.
"Authors love
the challenge of writing about our own human condition."
The Art of Grandparenting
Victoria is also a contributor to The Art of Grandparenting and spoke about the very delicate subject she addressed in her essay: living with the fear that your grandchildren will be taken away from you.
"Relationships
can change on a dime," she said. "They can be tenuous and, if you say or do the wrong thing, the door may slam shut
for a while." She admitted it was hard to bring up such a negative thought in
the celebratory group. But we understood the anxiety. One GaGa described it as
"the elephant in the room."
Victoria as Grandmother
She spoke with tremendous pride
about the way her granddaughters have turned out. She credits her daughter and son-in-law for the outstanding job
they're doing as parents. Victoria is
very respectful of her childrens' role and checks things out with them first
before doing anything with her granddaughters. Her granddaughters have not had to go through the turmoil and
abandonment of divorce that her children faced. As a result, her daughter
entered parenthood with a different approach: we'll always love you.
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GaGa Sisterhood Featured on
"Ask Dr. Business"
On February 18, I was the guest on Ask Dr. Business, a cable television show hosted by Roy Blitzer at the Media Center in Palo Alto, CA. Roy has been producing and hosting the show for five years and focuses on how to make your work life more satisfying. During the show he fields live phone calls from the television audience, dispensing advice on career management and interpersonal issues.
Roy is an animated host and I had a great time sitting in the guest spot telling him how the GaGa Sisterhood evolved and what our mission is. The show was supposed to air live but, due to a tragic plane crash in East Palo Alto the previous day, all the power had been knocked out and the systems were still not repaired by air time.
You can watch the video of the show in three segments by clicking on my blog post.
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The GaGa Zone
GaGa Cindy has been skiing at Squaw Valley since the 1960 Olympics. She always loved skiing with her daughters and now she says it's a thrill to ski with her grandchildren. In February she and her family took a three generation trip to Squaw Valley and the highlight was racing down the slalom course with her 7 1/2 year-old grandsons. "They won," she says, "and I was doing my very best!" She and her 5 year-old granddaughter, Julia rode the funitel (a type of aerial ski lift) together.
Cindy with Zach and Charlie  |
"Not only have they developed my love for skiing," says Cindy, "but they also adore the hot cinnamon buns in the morning at High Camp. It's just like the Visa commercial says: Skiing with your grandchildren...priceless!"
Cindy and Julia  |
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