February 27/28 with Emma

Saturday and Sunday:  I was late picking Emma up Saturday night because I couldn't bring Kaity back to Diana until Diana was home -- Emma understood completely. We did not go on any hiking adventures this weekend--with the warmer weather, all our beautiful snow is tainted with soil, brown "grass" is everywhere, mud is in abundance ... so we stayed at my place. I love my dear little house so much. 

We watched "The Hunger Games" Saturday night. I had forgotten how tense this story is ... and how compelling the characters. Wow. The movie stays very true to the novel (thankfully), the acting is tremendous--everything about it is well done. It was so nice to be with Emma--she seemed happy in her heart tonight, more settled, more content--which is what I pray for her all the time. Not that she would not have any trouble--just that the Lord would protect her, give her eyes to see His love and work in her life, and to give her His peace.

We worshiped Sunday morning. Pastor taught us from Revelation 15 and focused on the song of praise from verses 3 and 4 (the song of Moses) ... how the Lord loves old songs of praise as well as new ones. We sang extra songs of worship, beautiful hymns and praise songs ... it was a wonderful service. We enjoyed talking to Nigel, Gela and Stephen before and afterwards--I miss these friends so much!

Emma and I enjoyed a healthy lunch and then just hung out together. At one point, we reviewed the Revelation teaching on the church of Thyatira--the one where pastor taught about the consequences of sin and the LIE of Satan that says God doesn't care what we do one way or the other--there is NO reward for doing what God says and certainly zero punishment for disobedience. Of course, that isn't true! Emma was laying on the couch as I reviewed the notes from that sermon back in the fall. I loved this time with her. Then we each took an hour nap! 

Later in the afternoon, we watched the sequel to "The Hunger Games" which was even MORE intense than the first one! Yikes. It was so well done.

It was a truly relaxing and sweet 24 hours with my Emma. I love her so much. Will You continue Your work in her, Lord? Draw her near to Yourself. Speak Your love into her life ... please Lord. 

February 27 Extra time with Kaity

Saturday Afternoon:  As much as Kaity wanted to sled, we found there were hardly any other children sledding this afternoon--due to the poor conditions of the hill--due to the warm-up and melting we've had the last three days. Kaity was disappointed, but finally asked to go to my house. 

I hadn't told her that my sweet cousin, Annie, had sent me a surprise gift! This was an out-of-the-blue, totally unwarranted present! I was SO ... surprised! These colorful, beautiful blocks are translucent and magnetic! Annie sent me an 85-piece set and also a 19-piece set. They are wonderful to handle, strongly magnetic, and a real joy to play with.

Kaity and I decided to build a Magna-Tile house--although Kaity did not ALLOW any design input from her old grandma ... Kaity decidedly likes to build BY HERSELF. So I just sat down next to her and handed her stuff as requested.

Inside the house, Kaity used the Maga-Qubix blocks to design furniture. She made beds for our magnetic people, kitchen cupboards, sink, table, a bathroom toilet ...

She worked diligently for over an hour ... just thinking and building ... it was wonderful to watch!

She designed a couch and pillows, a 4-seater, for the people to comfortably watch their flatscreen, wall-mounted TV.

Kaity eventually built a loft for the cat with a stairway leading up to it and a cat tower too! I neglected to take a picture of that addition.

Matey was busy dive bombing Kaity's efforts--he was never far away from the action.

Kaity and I also played my new game of colored beads, which she LOVED. We played three games of it, as well as two very one-sided games of foosball--I got clobbered.

It was very special to have these extra hours with Kaity today. She was so easy to be with. It was really an answer to prayer because there are days when Kaity is here when she is pretty restless and demanding--but today, she was just happy to be here. We also watched, "Homeward Bound, The Incredible Journey" and Kaity loved the story very much. 

February 27 Slush sledding

Saturday:  I picked Kaity up at 11:45 this morning! We got to enjoy 3.5 hours extra time today because Diana was out of town for a football event for Christopher. Since Kaity's "new sled" arrived, we went over to the sliding hill to try it out.

The thing is, though, our temperature in W. Michigan for the past three days or so has been well above the freezing mark, so there has been a LOT of melting going on. PLUS, when I got up this morning, I noticed a fresh new half inch or so of mixed rain and snow covering my walkway and street--it looked pretty, but it was complete SLUSH.

I think Kaity enjoys being with the children who slide as much as the actual sliding. Today there was only one other child who was with his grandparents--he was perhaps six years old--but he was interacting with his grandfolks, not with Kaity.

Kaity did slide down on her sled probably a dozen times or so ...

But it was a pretty lonely venture ... after about 30 minutes, she requested that we "go home" ... I knew she was sad about not finding any friends here today. I told her that since we were more than three hours earlier than we usually get here on a Saturday, that we would drive back by about 4:00 to see if any other children were sliding. That brought a smile to her dear face. We did return later in the day, but the hill was totally deserted ... with even more grass and mud exposed. We drove back to my house and got out the foosball table and played, with lots of silliness and laughter. 
 

February 25 Just keep swimming ...

Thursday:  Half my day today was spent trying to get the plumbing in my house back in order ... it's a bi-yearly problem with the roots that grow underneath my house and some how invade the pipe connections, blocking water and everything else from going to its proper place. I never get much warning when everything is backing up until there is water on the floor where water shouldn't BE on the floor ... which happened at precisely 1:30 this afternoon. 

The good news, though, is that once again the problem was found to be outside my home (as opposed to INSIDE--which would leave the plumbing bill to me) and the Park plumbing people came and all was fixed by about 5PM. Since I usually pick Kaity up from Jesse at about 4PM, this delayed that happening. But I did get to Kaity's soon after 5:00 and found her playing soccer in the neighbor's driveway. I was invited to join the game, which I did for awhile! 

Kaity and I only had about one hour over at my place before we had to leave to swimming lessons. That hour was enough for Kaity to BEAT me three games of foosball ... although all of them (except the first one) were close games. 

Since Kaity is now in Glider 3, she has a new instructor by the name of Harrison. Here he is! Tonight's lesson only had TWO students, which is always better than FOUR because each swimmer gets so much more time in the water that way.

Kaity worked on her skills and did such a good job tonight. She was very focused and attentive to Harrison's directions.

Look how happy she is!

This is Kaity treading water while Harrison counts the seconds ... all the way to 42! Good job, Kaity!

We had a good time in the car while driving to and from Gold Fish. Sometimes Kaity isn't very conversant ... but tonight she was very talkative and I enjoyed interacting with her so much. 

February 23 Toys and books ...

Tuesday:  Today was much like any other Tuesday with these three kiddos--lots of TOYS and high energy ... but today, I read a LOT of books to them too--which was a real joy. I had checked about 18 books out of the library last Wednesday. We had a lot of fun reading them together. These guys LOVE being read to ... and I LOVE reading to them. Win/win!

We played for a LONG time with the magnet tiles--always a hit with the little ones. I like them too--except Aidan was pretty intent on destroying ANYthing I built today. Sigh. It's OK--he got a real bang out of it!

What books did we read? Well ... we read a few by Dr. Seuss: "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back", "Oh the Thinks you can THINK!", "Oh Say Can You Say?" all of which a truly funny books with the oddest looking creatures and the cleverist and silliest of words. These kiddos LOVE words ... me too!

We also read: "Twinkle, Twinkle, Robot Beep" to the tune of the REAL Twinkle Twinkle song -- these words absolutely cracked Aidan up--Brendan too. And we read "Little Pea" about a darling green pea (!!) whose main meals consist of CANDY (an edict by his parents) ... Little Pea HATES candy. But if he just eats FIVE pieces, he can be allowed some delicious dessert--SPINACH--which is his favorite. It's a clever little story and always brings smiles to their faces. They actually HAVE this book at their house and read it all the time. However, they still enjoyed reading it with me here.

Dear Matey was in on all the fun today ... isn't he the cutest?

Brendan made a bunch of interesting stuff out of my plastic cups. He made helmets for the stuffed animals, and he made an ice house for Herbie (our talking stuffed hamster). We also watched a Disney movie--something about a super squirrel--this was Brendan's request. Erin and Aidan watched it while they played--which allowed me a little bit of clean up--not much, but enough to once again find a floor to walk on.

We ate our usual lunch of pasta for some and hot dogs for some ... Aidan ate his usual Gold Fish Rainbow crackers and cheesy chips ... you might ask: "Why do you let him eat like that?" Because for the past year or so, Aidan has been impossible to feed decent food to! His parents aren't pleased with this--because he is difficult to feed at their house too--but Kelly says they just take it a day at a time and rejoice whenever Aidan eats anything resembling healthy. We drove back to their house by 5:30 where I played with little Callaghan for awhile--although I neglected to take any pictures of him. He's growing SO chunky, crawling everywhere, and is a very pleasant little fellow.

February 21 Muskegon Lights and Beach, Part II

Sunday Afternoon (cont):  I'm just going to add these additional photos ... with not a lot of comment ...

We were thoroughly chilled by this point and walked back to the car and were going to leave ... but our usual exit from the park, Beach Street, was closed ... but thankfully the sun was reflecting off the open water and this view was just so beautiful, I pulled over and parked. Emma said she hoped I would do that very thing! She bounded out of the car in a flash and away she went!

It does kind of look like we are in the ARCTIC, doesn't it?

 

And here is a picture of EMMA taking a picture of ME taking a picture of HER! I had thrown my winter scarf around my neck and on top of my head ... like a BABUSHKA, you see -- and Emma kept making fun of me about it. She blurted out that the word BABUSHKA meant "Grandma" in Russian! I told her there was no way in the WORLD ... the word simply means "head covering." 

Well, wouldn't you know! Emma asked her phone (!!) what the meaning of Babushka was and it said "Grandma." I was SO surprised. I never heard that before. I think Emma is going to enjoy calling me Babushka from now on ... well ... it certainly beats what she called me as a little kid--"DRUNYA" ... sounds foreign too! I love you, Emma!