Guest Posts, Retirement

From Grammy’s Grid

Retirement Reflections


Hi everyone, I’m Dee Blanding. Most know me as Grammy Dee. Thank you to Donna for asking me to be a part of her Sunday Series: Favorite Retirement/Lifestyle Bloggers. I’m a wife, mom, and grammy in my 50s. I’m from Alabama. I blog at Grammy’s Grid about things meant to amuse, inform, inspire, and make you laugh.

Summer is my fav season. I like sunflowers, palm trees, comedies, thrillers, photography, technology and I’m a gadget nerd! My fav saying is: ‘Laughter is the best medicine!’

I had to retire from my nursing profession after I became ill with fibromyalgia. With this illness, you can lose contact with friends and co-workers, even family sometimes. Connecting with others online who shared my same symptoms, long before I received a diagnosis, probably saved my sanity.

Starting my blog was one way I felt like I could connect with women my age who have something in common with me. Everyone doesn’t have an illness like I have, and everyone doesn’t want to talk about it even if they do. What many of us have in common, and are often eager to talk about, are our grandbabies.

I love my grandbabies more than words can express. The best thing about being a grandmother is experiencing a love like no other, a love that I didn’t even know was possible. Having grandbabies is like nothing else. My hubby always says that if we had known our precious grandbabies were going to be so much fun, we would have had them first!

Grandmothers unite! Speaking of grandmothers, I started a blog link party with two other grandmothers who helped me with co-hosting. Later on, another grandmother joined us. There are now nine hostesses! The Blogging Grandmothers Link Party is held on the 1st of each month and lasts for about a week each time. It’s for grandmothers who blog to come and share their posts with us.

We also have a Blogging Grandmothers Facebook Group for grandmothers who blog. We’d love to have you join us for friendship and networking. We grandmothers have to stick together you know!

Every week on Wednesday, I host a blog link party called Wednesday AIM Link Party. The AIM stands for amuse, inspire, inform, and make us laugh. It is for everyone, not just for grandmother bloggers.

I value the connections I’ve made on the web with women all over the world. Some of these connections have turned into friendships that I treasure. Thank goodness for my laptop and phone, as there are days when I’m not feeling well and I’m unable to be at my desk with the computer, I can still connect with my online friends from my bed or recliner.

Thank you for reading this post. I hope to see you at Grammy’s Grid, at the Facebook group, and connecting on social media.

Grammy Dee

Grammy’s Grid

From Retirement Reflections: As you can tell from this post, Dee is very warm, funny, open and generous. She is also incredibly supportive of other bloggers. Be sure to check out her website and link parties — you won’t want to miss them! Up next week is Pat, from Retirement Transitions, sharing with us her ’17 things for 2017′. This post will likely cause you to take stock of your own 2017 — it certainly did for me.
Finally, for the first time since I began this blog, I have published two posts in one day…this post and a teaser! In my following post, I have linked to a guest article where I have written about my upcoming Camino adventure. I would love for you to join me there!

Published by Retirement Reflections

Prior to retirement, I lived and worked in Beijing China for fourteen years (Middle School Principal/Deputy Director at The Western Academy of Beijing). Leaving international life behind, my husband and I retired to Vancouver Island in June 2015. To document both this transition and our new adventures, ‘Retirement Reflections’ was born. I hope that you enjoy reading these reflections, and will be willing to share your own.

29 thoughts on “From Grammy’s Grid”

    1. Hi, Jill – Thanks so much for being a regular visitor and contributor. I greatly appreciate your ongoing support. I’m glad that you enjoyed Dee’s post. She is definitely an amazing blogger!

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  2. Summer is my fav too. Wish we had palm trees here but any you see will be plastic. My granddaughters live 5 hours by plane so I rarely see them. You are very lucky.

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    1. Hi, Kate – Thanks so much for stopping by. We have two palm trees in our backyard (which is quite unusual for where we live). They were here when we moved in two years ago….and seem to survive amazingly well. I just returned home from visiting our grandson today. I feel very lucky to live just a ferry ride away!

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  3. I love sunflowers and my grandson too Dee. I have connected with you through you Facebook group and enjoy co-hosting the Blogging Grandmothers Link Party with you. I think connecting with others is so important and blogging is such a wonderful way to do this. I love that you have tried to get more grandmothers who blog together – there are so many ‘mummy blogs’ that sometimes we aren’t sure where we fit in! Have a great week and thanks Donna for showcasing Dee!

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    1. Hey Sue, didn’t know you liked sunflowers too! I know you love your main man, your little grandson 🙂 Yes, I appreciate you co-hosting with me and the other awesome grandmothers…we grandmothers have to stick together you know 🙂

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  4. Hi, Sue – It is my sincere pleasure to host Dee on my blog this week. I agree that she is incredible at helping grandmothers to have a place to share and unite online. I am very grateful for all of the work that she does in this area.

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  5. Thanks for hosting Blogging Grandmothers Link Party. I have met some great bloggers through it! I think that one of the wonderful things about our internet age is that it provides opportunities to connect with others all over the world, even if one’s own mobility may be limited.

    Jude

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    2. Thanks, Jude – That’s what I love the most about blogging — the chance to connect with other (like minds) all over the world. I am so glad that you are enjoying the Blogging Grandmother Linkups. There really are some great bloggers who regularly meet there.

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    2. Hi, Debbie – I love discovering how many of my favourite bloggers are already friends. I LOVE this little corner of the blogosphere!

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  8. Hey there Grammy Dee! I’m happy to meet you. I enjoy how blogging brings so many new and different people into my life. I’m not a grandmother but perhaps you’ll be able to overlook that. Looking forward to reading about your experiences with your grands.

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    2. Hi, Ally – I agree about blogging allowing us to meet new (and really cool) people from all over the world! Dee runs a linkup for all bloggers called AIM (see link above). I know you’ll find lots of interesting stuff there — non-Grandma related!. Hope to see you there!

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  10. Great to meet you, Grammy Dee. I’ve just been over to your Wednesday Blog Link party for a look around. Have also left a link. And, yes, laughter is the best medicine. 😀

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