Another wonderful weekend ...

It can be somewhat challenging to host three extremely active grandchildren for 30+ hours every weekend, made more so by the extreme cold and snow that we've had dumped on us the last few weeks. However, no matter what the weather, I am always much in prayer throughout the week as how to best occupy our time together … so that it isn't wasted … or so that chaos isn't the total rule of thumb around here … and so that these three precious and beautiful lives can be encouraged and strengthened in their faith in Christ.

After listening to the weekend weather forecast, and since it had been quite awhile since I'd checked out any library books for the children, I went over to the library before I rendezvoused with them Friday afternoon. I picked up some very fun books! The one in the picture above was quite enjoyable about a little chicken seeking adventures away from her boring farm, and about a few of the dangerous journeys she took. 

I was able to check out THREE origami books … they look a little bit difficult, so I'm going to have to run a few tutorials this week to see if I can get a handle on some of these folds! I've been able to pick up (on sale) lots and lots of beautiful paper for the folding … the children really enjoy origami!

I brought home from the library one of Mo Willems' books: "The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!" Christopher picked it up, read it through, and decided to make his OWN pigeon book … Matthew soon got in on the same kind of fun. Christopher was rather put out by Matthew's "copying" his idea without ever once considering that HE was copying Mo Willems! Kids are so funny sometimes, aren't they?

Christopher drew quite a lot of pigeon pictures, made up his own story about two pigeons finding "true love" and after he was finished with his art work, we stapled the whole thing together.

Matthew worked very hard on his book too!

Our Bible story for Friday night was about Jesus walking on the water and Peter's brave attempt to do likewise. We had a good talk about our "fears" and our "failures" and the children colored in a nice illustration of the story.

Our Friday night movie was "Forever Young" which I'd had in my video library but forgot entirely about. I hadn't watched it in years. The kids were very taken with it! We had our usual bedtime music and back rubs and then everyone went soundly to sleep ~ at our usual midnight hour. 

Saturday morning, everyone slept in really late (thank you, Lord!) but then we were up and at it. We basically continued with reading together, drawing pictures, making books, and enjoying good food. These are the only children I know who can scarf down a chef's salad in a flash! 

These "old" micro machines are still a real
hit with all of the kiddos ...

I think one of my favorite memories from the weekend was playing the piano for Emma, who by the way is teaching herself to play quite nicely. I have a CD of the Getty's and one of my favorite songs of theirs is: "In Christ Alone." I also have the piano accompaniment for that piece, so we put on the CD and then I played along with it. Emma came over to the piano and began to sing the lyrics with me. I love the words to this song ~ so full of truth and grace and the wonderful salvation we have in Christ alone. I will always remember her sweet voice singing this song and how she danced with JOY for Jesus.

Emma asked if we could work on a picture book for her good friend, Alysia, and she came all prepared with what she had in mind. We looked through my archive of recent pictures, Emma picked a few that she liked, we printed them out on my printer, and then Emma cut and affixed them into her book.

Here in West Michigan, we were under a Winter Storm Warning most of Friday night and Saturday. We certainly were NOT disappointed by the snowfall … yikes … this is a crazy amount of snow! 

We decided to be brave and go outside just for a tiny bit. I needed to dig out my car as well as to shovel out my carport and driveway. Plus, I had a bottle of bubbles for the kids to try outside in the cold. We had seen on Youtube where kids had been able to see their bubbles freeze in this cold weather … but evidently it wasn't cold enough here to do the trick! We'll have to try it again if ever it is colder! 

We were only outside for about 30 minutes and were totally frozen. The kiddos loved it. I was glad I had warm, dry clothes for them inside. We spent the rest of our afternoon just hanging out together, doing the usual stuff we always do: we baked brownies, we watched "The Princess and the Frog", we listened to beautiful music … I am thankful for every minute I get to spend with these three children. God loves them very much, and so do I!