August 6 Along Mill Creek

Thursday:  On my way over to Jesse's today, I decided to TRY to get a mile walk accomplished over at the walkways along Mill Creek--just to change it up a bit from walking around my neighborhood. I'm super glad I did--it was SO beautiful today. I absolutely love wild flowers, don't you?

It was really HUMID today. Thankfully, the air temperature was only in the mid-70's so it was tolerable to take a walk outside at least.

Look at the detail at the center of this cone flower ... the pattern and the texture are so amazing.

Queen Anne's lace is right up there at the top of my favorite of all wild flowers. If you pull them out of the ground, all the way down to the stem, it looks like a carrot at the root.

Mill Creek is running pretty low. We haven't had much rain in W. Michigan the past 4-5 weeks.

After I finished walking, I visited with Jesse for awhile. I said "hi" to Kaity too, but she was mostly in her bedroom occupied with other stuff.

"Sir Purr" was over for a visit for a few days with Jesse and Kaity too. He sure is a pretty ginger cat. His LICK, though, actually hurts! I've never felt such a sandpaper-ish tongue in all my life.

Also, my sister turned 77 today. I phoned her to wish her a "Happy Birthday" but sadly, she was unaware it was her birthday. Dementia is a terrible thing to happen to a person's brain. "Please, Lord, spare my children and grandchildren the heartache of this condition happening to me."

August 4 Sweeties!

Tuesday:  We had a very good day today! We played many games that we hadn't played in a very long time--games these guys requested AND variations (invented by the kids) of each game--these kids are very creative. I love to laugh and play with them.

This is my TETRA game, which is very fun to play with the proper rules; but these guys switched it up quite a bit and an entirely new game came out of it!

I had the TREEHOUSE (which belongs to Kaity) out on my coffee table, and Gregory and Erin played and played with it, making up all kinds of stories with the animals and people. Brendan brought one of his hand-held games, but he also played SUDUKO on my computer for awhile.

I love this picture of Aidan.

Right before I was ready to prepare lunch, we had a plumbing incident ... no one was truly to blame ... just too many kids using the same toilet without proper flushing and too much toilet paper; hence, an overflow of epic proportions! Yikes. Thankfully (because I asked for HIS help), I didn't "lose it" or become overly anxious or grumpy about the escapade. It did take awhile to clean up since the bathroom floor was inundated with water and other undesirables; but the kiddos didn't interrupt my cleaning, and eventually everything was back in working order. 

Last week I had gotten out my almost completely never used (!!) "Battleship" game and the kids really had fun with it, which surprised me because it it NOT a video game!

Here is Erin making up quite an intricate story involving the Playmobile children and treehouse. Cal doesn't let Erin do ALL of the storytelling--he is very good at it himself.

I think we have about three more weeks before all four of these sweeties return to school full time. Fall will be upon us and another summer gone ... thank you, Lord, for each day You give to us.

July 31 - August 1 Brendan's sleepover

Friday:  I looked ahead at the weather forecast for this weekend and found that we had a 30% chance of rain today, but a strong 70% chance of rain Saturday. As a result, I took Brendan over to Deer Tracks this afternoon instead of tomorrow morning. I had such a great time interacting with and enjoying Brendan's joy with the animals.

The BUDGIES are always one of our very favorites--aren't they SO beautiful?

Brendan spent quite a long time exploring the tunnels and rope ladders in this playground--it seems to be everyone's favorite place.

We said a brief "HI" to the camera, who were VERY hungry for the carrots we fed to them--well, at least the two white camels ate them, but the brown camel never opened his mouth fast enough to get any.

I think camels have very cute faces!

The bunny place had a few "young" bunnies, but no actual babies. Brendan was able to finally hold one--they are pretty strict about how long each young one can be out of its cage due to overstimulation and anxiety. We had to come back 45 minutes later in order to be allowed to hold one. So we did!

I love these pictures so much of Brendan and this bunny, who I think should be named "Butterscotch".

I did not know that female rabbits are "DOES" and males are called "BUCKS" and their babies are "KITS"!

The EMU are always fun. These are the EMU youngsters--they have grown a LOT in the last two weeks.

Brendan was not at all timid about feeding them up close. I find them very GRABBY and aggressive, but not exactly scary.

EMU are the second largest bird in the world. Only the OSTRICH is larger. AND they cannot fly even though they have really huge wings. I think they weigh too much to leave gravity!

We fed the KuneKune pigs for awhile ... they were super hungry too.

THEN, we moved on to the LLAMAs.

It's been many years now that Brendan and I have visited Deer Tracks together. Such fun memories!

Brendan crawled around in this area for awhile too--tunnels and ladders everywhere inside!

Both Brendan and I were getting hungry at about 5:30, so we looked at a few more animals (mostly the goats, to which we fed our remaining carrots), and then left to go get some yummy food for US.

We decided to watch "Zootopia2" as our movie for the night. We enjoyed some ice cream in our waffle cone bowls prior to the movie and ate popcorn while we were watching it. Zootopia had a lot of funny parts! I went to bed after the movie--at about 11pm; but Brendan stayed up and was working on a few sketches, and he also folded a nice paper airplane.

SATURDAY:  I slept in until 8am this morning, and Brendan slept in until almost 10:00! That was okay, though, because I didn't have much pre-planned for our time today. I just figured we would play a few games and hang out.

We played a few games of Bananagrams. Brendan is very good at words--me too! I'm not at all competitive with games that I play, especially with the kiddos. I just enjoy playing the game for the sake of playing it.

After a few games, I got out the sock puppet container and Brendan worked for awhile on creating a new sock puppet. While he was working on that, I used all 144 letters of Bananagrams to create this:

Brendan discovered that he miscalculated the size of the finger hole he needed in his sock (for the purpose of hanging one of his fingers out of it to be an ARM), but he did a lot of cutting out and gluing anyway.

I made us chicken noodle Parmesan for lunch, knowing Brendan likes it. He ate two very large helpings, which is always a happy thing for a grandma to see!

It was a very relaxing time with Brendan this weekend. I think we had a good connection, although sometimes it is difficult to tell with a child this age. He seemed happy enough! We had a lot of good conversation, and we laughed a lot too. What else could I possibly ask for? I am very thankful for the time we had together.

July 31 Generational Godliness

 Friday:  This morning I attended the funeral of my friend's dad. He went home to be with Christ on July 7--so three full weeks ago. Prior to his death (about 5 weeks before), Tom requested that he have a pre-death memorial service in Calvary's chapel. This request was granted to the family. Jen's dad had been given only a few weeks more of life here on earth. 

Jen told me that the chapel was packed for three straight hours as friends and family came to say goodby and share memories with her father. He was in a pretty weakened state, due to two years of intense cancer treatment, but was alert and welcoming to all who came. Tom's main objective was to share the good news of salvation through Christ to anyone who came through the line to greet him. Jen said he had many listening ears. After all, who wouldn't listen to a dying friend's words? He told them that very soon he was going to stand in the presence of Jesus, the One who gave everything to redeem him and give him new life, totally forgiven for his rebellion against God, and adopted as a true son into the family of God for all of eternity. Isn't it wonderful that Tom took this beautiful opportunity to share the truth of Christ with people he loved?

The opening line of his obit reads: "Someday, you will read or hear that Tom ____ is dead. Don't you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God." 

I get chills reading that because IT IS SO TRUE of believers! This promise is given to us over and over again in Scripture. At his actual funeral Friday morning, we were given a brochure with many photos of Tom as a child, Tom as a young adult, as a newly wed, as a dad, as a youth leader, a businessman, etc. When I read through Tom's history, I was really impacted by the happiness he lived. Not only did he follow Christ from about middle school, but his parents were also faithful believers AND both sets of grandparents were solid believers too. And as I have known Jen now for several years, I have rarely known a more godly young woman (still single, quite beautiful, and in her mid-40's). 

Generational godliness would be quite a treasure. I didn't grow up with a godly heritage (although many people incorrectly think I did). I am sad that I did not live a more godly life to model for my sons--I give zero excuses for this. I have been more Christ-centered in my life since my grandchildren have been born, so I don't have as many regrets about what I have modeled for them. 

AND regrets really do not produce many positives unless actual CHANGE has taken place. Looking backward can sometimes be really unhealthy. But the Lord does ask us to repent of our sins, turn away from living for ourselves, and seek to align our hearts with His. I trust Him to complete His work in me, hopefully more and more each day.

C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying: "You can't change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending." I would add or interject "only by God's grace" to that statement. It's never too late to turn our hearts and lives over to the Lord and allow His Spirit to take over our lives.

This is the flower arrangement (above) our Monday Night Bible study small group purchased for the funeral. Jen is part of our small group. She also owns the flower shop that did all of the funeral arrangements.

Just for the record: I have no idea when the Lord will call me home (HOME is where HE IS), and the funeral for me will be quite small and hopefully as inexpensive as possible (except DO NOT CREMATE ME). I do want inscribed on my grave stone just five words: "Swallowed up by eternal life" 2 Corinthians 5.4 because that will be exactly what happens to me as I take my final breath here on earth. I will be more alive than I have ever been here. Forever with Christ, who loves me and gave His life for me.

Also, if any of my descendants read this blog and come across this entry--please do not use the sins of your parents and/or grandparents as an "excuse" to live however you want to live. YOU can be the beginning of generational godliness for your family and all those who follow you! But this will only happen if you surrender your heart and your will to the Lord of heaven and earth. Please do it!

"I keep working toward that day when I will finally be ALL that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be." (Philippians 3.12b NLT)