August 11 At the park and at home

Tuesday: Kelly asked me to meet her and the kids this morning, 9:45, at Roselle Park. At first, I couldn't picture WHERE this was. Goodness! Then I remembered!

At Roselle Park: This play area has received an upgrade or two in the last few years. Kaity and I used to come here and play often! So did Emma, Chris and Matt many years ago! 

This little fake tree that Cal is balanced on is exactly where Kaity and I crawled and hunkered down in a rain storm way, way back!

Since Gregory was wearing GREEN today, he was happily imitating a FROG--notice the tongue is out and ready for any bug that might just possibly fly by.

I remember, like it was yesterday, all of Jesse's children climbing on this fake rock. These guys are great climbers too!

I missed out on seeing them climb the outside of the tower using the hand holds, but they all told me they DID climb up as far as they could go.

This park is surrounded by grasslands, wildflowers, little streams, and beauty everywhere you look!

Kelly had an appointment to keep, so I talked the kids into "walking to the river", telling them it wasn't TOO far. Truth is, I had quite forgotten just how far the river was! Brendan had been at the park earlier practicing for Cross Country with Forest Hills High. He told me they ran this pathway and that he'd already SEEN the river, etc. Brendan and Aidan were less than enthusiastic walkers, but they were very good sports about it. I told them that if we walked as far as the lookout (below) and still didn't have a view of the river that we could turn around and go back to my car.

We made it to the lookout and took a vote. Who wants to turn around and return to my car? Brendan and Aidan voted "yes", but Erin and Greg voted "no." So we split up, and the 2 littlest walked a bit further until we finally reached the Grand River.

The kids had fun throwing rocks and watching them "plop" in the river. They were not throwing these huge gigantic rocks (!!), but just a few smaller ones they found in-between the big ones.

If we had just walked maybe another .10 mile, we would have reached a much better place to throw rocks; but these little ones were quite exhausted at this point and we still had to walk all the way back (!!). You should have heard the moans and groans--but again, they did really well and seemed pleased that they'd made it all the way to the river!

We heard all kinds of birds chirping, as well as crickets, bees (they were NOT chirping), and met many other walkers who had their dogs with them too. We got to pet many dogs on our way back to the car.

I've been inside these silos with Jesse's kids ... all the way to the lookout deck. The annoying thing about it was that after walking ALL those stairs and reaching the top, the door to the outside deck was always locked! Goodness. What a disappointment. And dear Emma--it was all she could do to look down! She has a pretty morbid fear of heights.

At my house:  We arrived at my house at nearly 11am. The kids were ready for some French toast, and even had seconds--except for Erin, who said she'd had enough.

We had a very low-key few hours over here, just hanging out, playing with so many nice toys, doing some sketching, etc.

Erin grabbed my phone and took a few "selfies" ... she is so funny when she does this! It was a pretty humid day today (notice Erin's curls), but thankfully the temperature was just in the upper 70's.

We played a very fun game of "Apples to Apples". It's so great to crack up with these kids. We laughed a LOT.

I love their ready sense of humor, and I like the way the play games together. Little Greg isn't a reader yet, so he needed assistance. Aidan was very willing to help him read his cards, and Gregory was a very enthusiastic participant.

Erin won! Aidan and Brendan were tied ... then Gregory, and then ME! 

After we enjoyed our root beer floats, I introduced them to "Tweety Bird and Sylvester" (on Youtube) while I cleaned up the place. They had never seen one of these cartoons! Can you even imagine?!?!? A few months ago, I introduced them to the Road Runner and Wiley Coyote! They love watching them. As I am picking up the stuff in each room, the sound of their laughter carries all through the house. It's one of the nicest sounds ever.

August 7

Friday:  It was January 20, 1981--the day of Ronald Reagan's Presidential inauguration. I wasn't feeling well and kept an appointment with my doctor, who explained WHY I was feeling so exhausted--I was expecting a baby. I was taken completely off guard by this "news" because I already HAD a baby (Jesse) and he was only eight months old. The doctor suggested that we see if we could hear a heartbeat, and we did--a very clear, strong heartbeat. Hearing his heartbeat sealed the deal for me, which was a good thing because I cried many tears in those coming months from fear of our future. I also believed there are no "accidents" when it comes to God creating life, and I loved this baby inside of me just as I loved the one I already had.

Forty-five years ago today he was born on a Friday morning. He was perfect in every way. Eight pounds, 13 ounces, 18 inches, with just a tiny bit of soft reddish hair. He was born so quickly, it didn't even hurt. 

There are many things I wish I could change about the years I had young children. I wish I had been wiser and stronger. I wish I had been more faithful to the Lord. I wish I had allowed the Lord to take complete charge of my heart so that it would line up better with His ways, His thoughts, His Word. But He is always faithful, even when I am unfaithful.

Each year now, my son's birthday comes and goes without any connection really. I can’t find words to describe the loss. I hope it isn’t painful for him, this lack of relationship. Perhaps he is better at it than I am, and I am glad he has a regular and happy connection with Dylan, Kelly, and their kiddos.

I know the Lord will accomplish His purposes in the lives of all of my family. He is perfect in all His ways—how wonderful He is--no wonder we can worship Him and give Him honor and praise.

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.