The difference in my activities last week mostly revolved around preparing lunch. We ourselves don't eat lunch, and haven't for more years than I can recall. When, as a young mother of three I prepared lunch for our children, I would also read to them during lunch. That certainly solved the problem of ensuring that the children ate their meals; they were so transfixed by the classic children's tales, eventually reaching out to more mind-challenging stories I would read to them, they polished their plates clean.

I simply found it inconvenient to have lunch myself, and just didn't bother. I suppose because I was so busy with a myriad of things that a mother is engaged with when raising three young children, with a year and a half separating the three in age, that I didn't miss lunch time for myself. My husband drifted into the habit once he retired from the workforce, and that is closing in on twenty years. Neither of us miss not having an afternoon meal.

But when we have company that afternoon meal becomes a necessity to present to others, as a good host. And in the case of our granddaughter deciding to spend March-break week with us it was a decided necessity. So I called upon memory to dredge up recipes that are always palate pleasing to the young. It takes but a few minutes for me to prepare bread dough for pizza, and a few minutes more to cut up fresh vegetables and cheese to top it with. Preparing a small macaroni-and-cheese casserole does take a bit longer, but it's her favourite. There are always salads, and corn on the cob, and chopped egg- or tuna-salad sandwiches as alternatives. She isn't that hard to please, pleased to have placed before her light meals that the young favour.

Her grandfather offered to take her out and about on little shopping expeditions. There is that peculiarity about her as a teen that she is not an avid shopper. Generally, she takes the time to research things she is interested in, on line to determined where they're sold to best advantage in price and accessibility. And there are so many places in close proximity to where we live it takes but an instant to reach them. She will enter a shop, select what she wants, and exit it speedily. I often don't accompany them because I cannot abide the interiors of shopping malls. She isn't keen to join her friends on shopping expeditions, because as far as she is concerned, wandering about a shopping mall represents an utter waste of time.

She far prefers to do other things, reading chiefly among them. She still enjoys being mothered -- or in this instance, grandmothered. To be smothered with hugs, which she initiates, and tucked into bed at night with a kiss.

In the past, she would often visit with us bringing along a girlfriend to share the time, space and relaxed atmosphere with, and since these visits happened most often in the summer months we would haul both girls off to various outdoor venues. She is conflicted about this, deciding she better enjoys being here with us when there are no distractions, when she can just relax and think of nothing, if that is what her mind brings her to.