June 16 Good times

Tuesday:  I had these grands today from about 9:30 until 5:30. Since it was a rather "wet" outside day, it meant that we had no choice but to play indoors. I had hoped the weather would clear by later in the afternoon so that we could go to a park and get some good outdoor play in, but that did not happen today.

Instead, we made the best of our time right at my little house. Thankfully, I DO have a lot of toys. These kiddos really do not need entertaining--they do really well with the materials I have right here and are quite a creative little bunch.

Sometimes it helps to divide and conquer ... in this case, it was just putting different things in separate rooms so that they weren't all competing for the same objects to play with. Here is Erin in my bedroom constructing a "city" and a "tower" with some very basic blocks I have. 

Erin was very happy to spend some alone time in my room. We even closed off the door so that Cal and I could shoot hoops in the hallway without our basketballs bouncing into whatever Erin was creating.

Meanwhile, Aidan was busy making a "magnetic checker board" out of MagnaCubes. I really didn't think it was possible for him to do this, but he was quite determined! Aidan is a very precise builder. There is a lot of passion in this child ... I love him dearly.

Erin also had a lot of fun with baby "Bonnie" today. She carried her all over the house, interacting with her during our various activities. She decided Bonnie's bonnet needed to be converted into a gnome hat ... which cracked us up.

I dug out of my game drawers a game I purchased ... probably two years ago but have never gotten out for the kids! It's just that it sounded a lot better ON-LINE than it did when I actually received it and tried to figure out how on earth to play with it. BUT ... I have many weeks ahead that I will have an all-day with these guys and I simply must utilize all of the material I have in order for us to have meaningful time together. It's too easy to just flip on a video (which, by the way, has a HUGE draw) and then everyone just sits around and vegetates for hours on end. Not on my watch--not if it can be avoided anyway. We DO watch videos, but I try to intersperse them and keep them brief.

Anyway, this is QUISI. It comes with 210 very interesting photographs on nice sturdy card stock. You can do a variety of activities with these cards. What we tried today was making up a story with them. All five of us sat at my table. I dealt each of us five random cards, and then I started by placing one of my cards on the table with a sentence that introduced the story. The next person (Aidan) then chose one of their five cards, placed it next to the one already on the table, and added to the story. Somehow we started with a world outside of our galaxy and ended up with leaders and wars and ... I forget how it finally ended.

Cal enjoyed himself HUGELY with this activity. After the five of us were finished playing, Cal and I made up a story together.

I also got "smart" during the week, realizing all of the kids enjoy fiddling around on my piano, and located my headphones to the piano and got it all set up for them. This worked really well! They all enjoyed taking turns, changing the sound effects, and whooping it up on the piano ... all without annoying anyone at all! Look at Aidan and Cal interacting about it!

Aidan finally cornered me long enough to play a game of checkers on his homemade magnetic checker board! I wasn't sure we could actually play the game on this board, but Aidan had it figured out perfectly (are you surprised?) and we played a very decent game together.

Aidan also requested that I get the Origami books and papers out so that he could make things. He is very very good at this, and it keeps him occupied for a good interval of time.

Erin and Gregory went fishing out in the hallway. The toy room was too crowded with toys they had already played with, so they settled for the hallway (this was my suggestion). They did pretty well, except it seems that Cal wanted ALL of the fish, no matter what. Erin's protests were quite LOUD. We had to kind of rein in our littlest Pahman and make him be a bit less aggressive with his fishing.

After we ate lunch, I hooked up my computer camera and suggested the kiddos each make a 3-minute video using our puppets. We got everything set up and then each of them had a turn making a video. It was pretty funny actually. Here is Cal with Oscar and Cocoa. Cal's movie quickly diminished into a karate match with Oscar winning by a long shot.

Meanwhile, the other three were busy in the other room. I "requested" that each person who was making a video be left alone to make up their own story without outside interference. Aidan had a hard time with this because he has "ideas" for everyone to do in their videos. He resigned himself to wait for his turn.

Here is Cal enjoying watching his video, which was basically a 3-minute video of two puppets fighting each other to the FINISH. He was very pleased.

We did a lot of eating today--mainly because I was actually prepared to serve a variety of quick foods for them to eat. Nobody seemed to be hungry by the time I drove them to their house, so I was glad about that.

I love you guys so much. I'll keep trying to come up with interesting things we can do together. Hopefully we won't be rained in every week!

June 9 An afternoon with the Kids

Tuesday Afternoon:  I dropped Beverly off back at her apartment and then drove across town to pick up four beautiful grandchildren. They were excited to see me (which is so nice, because hardly anyone ever is!). We had such a nice few hours together.

I had a batch of homemade French toast already made up, so these guys scarfed down a whole bunch of that before we played games. The game we are playing (below) is called: "Worst Case Scenario". Don't worry! I took out all of the inappropriate questions that were not child appropriate. The deal with this game is that each person has 5 tokens, numbered 1 through 5. Five "situation" statement cards are laid out on the table, and each player decides which situation is the worst one by playing his numbered tokens in front of each card. I'm not explaining it very well, but the fun of the game is seeing WHO picks WHICH scenario as the worst. Examples: "You are lost and alone on a desert island." OR "You can no longer go to any restaurants." OR "You have to eat only vegetables for the rest of your life." Stuff like that.

When everyone has placed their tokens face down on the table, then they get flipped over and you can compare who was in agreement with your assessment or not. Cal was very intense about this game ... and SO funny!

We did have root beer floats midday ... just to break up our day. It was quite humid and hot today, so we needed a refresher.

Erin decided to have a popsicle bomb instead.

The kiddos also ate very juicy cantaloupe as well as miniature cucumbers--they ate the entire bag of them!

After our "snacks" we decided to play, "Blank Slate". We had so much fun!

Look at small Cal's sweet little face ...

We had a really good time playing this game.

Aidan was our official score keeper.

Erin's 8th birthday is just 9 days away. I am almost ready for it! She will be excited when she sees her gifts!

June 9 GIR Ladies Brunch

Tuesday Morning:  Every spring/summer, Mary hosts a brunch at her house and invites all of the ladies from GIR. I went for the first time last year, after just joining the class a few weeks prior. It was a good time to get acquainted with these women as well as to re-connect with some old friends.

This morning was the Ladies Brunch, so I picked Beverly up and we went! Mary and her husband live on Lake Bella Vista. It was raining this morning, so we did not get to have a ride on their pontoon boat--but I don't think we all could have fit on it together anyway.

Mary is a really wonderful chef who LOVES to cook and entertain. She is not at all pretentious or proud. She does not set herself up as "better than" anyone. She's just a really fun person, who would never guess in a million years is 78. I would have guessed in her early 60's maybe.

From L to R: Sue, Cheryl, Birgit, Ruth, Debbie, Pam, Christa, ??, and Betty.

Cheryl is a second grade teacher in the Kentwood School system. I love her. We have been friends for many years, and it is because of her invitation to join this class that I am now part of it. Birgit goes WAY back, probably 30+ years to other groups at Calvary. I have only recently become acquainted with Ruth and Debbie. Pam goes back quite a ways too--she was originally in one of the small groups at Women's Bible Study. I don't know Christa very well yet, or the ??mark woman sitting next to her; however, I've known Betty for many years.

Mary baked 4 kinds of delicious muffins: lemon, chocolate chip, banana, and I forget the other one. Plus, she had two kinds of quiche', which were delicious, and a bunch of other good food.

From L to R: Mary (our hostess), Lynda, Marilyn, Paula, & Arlene.

See Mary? She is the first named person on the L in the picture above. She plays the piano beautifully. She is warm and welcoming, very fun to be with, and just a genuinely nice person. I feel like I have known her much longer than I have! Lynda has been in my Monday Night Bible study small group for about two years now. She is a very interesting lady with lots and lots of challenging situations in her life. Next to Lynda is Marilyn, who I do not know at all. The same is true of Paula, who came with Marlene this morning. Marlene used to be a full-time missionary to the people of Pau Pau, New Guinea. She teaches music and still travels 2x per year back to the same place she lived over there to bring "free" instruments and teach small children about the joy of music. Evidently Paula, worked with Marlene for 14 years in Pau Pau, New Guinea. Anyone who has ever "served" in Pau Pau, New Guinea is fascinating to me because I've read "Peace Child", "Lords of the Earth", and "Eternity in Their Hearts", all by Don Richardson who was also a missionary to the tribes in this area. He tells some beautiful and amazing stories of really scary people who believed in actual treachery and betrayal in order to trick other tribes into massacre, etc.

Anyway, once we finished eating, we played a few games. Mary loves games, and she gives PRIZES too. The first game was 25 questions regarding ladies in the Bible. I missed two answers, but won the game! The other question game was on WWII, and I wasn't even close to winning that one: 8 out of 15 correct. Yikes.

We also sang some praise to the Lord and had a time of prayer for each other. It was a super nice time.

This is the view of Lake Bella Vista from the back deck of Mary's house. What a peaceful and beautiful place.

I should make Mary a card to thank her for such a nice time! Perhaps I will go and do that right now!

June 7 at Yesterdog

Sunday afternoon:  I drove over to Jesse's to say "Hi" to he and Kaity this afternoon. We had a nice time chatting about the last few days. Jesse and I watched a video about the biggest tornado ever in the USA that occurred back in 2013 in El Reno. It is always fascinating to me (and apparently to Jesse) to watch the development of a super huge storm like this--and this particular one was quite deadly, coming about one week after another devastating tornado outbreak in the same area! People were pretty shell-shocked.

Kaity asked if Jesse would take her to Yesterdog for a hotdog before she returned to Diana at 6:00. Since I have lived in Grand Rapids since 1971 and have never yet been to Yesterdog, I invited myself along! Actually, the restaurant is celebrating their FIFTIETH year this year--so it wasn't here before 1976. 

We ordered are hotdogs and took them to our booth to enjoy them. We met the new owner, who strolled by to ask us how we were liking the food, etc. Jesse and he had a nice chat about the restaurant remaining vintage. The gentleman was surprised I had lived in Grand Rapids for 55 years and had never visited.

As we were driving to Yesterdog, Jesse described it very accurately. It was very entertaining to see all of the "50's" posters, advertisements, equipment, etc.

A bunch of "famous" people have visited here!

I like the whole "feel" of the place.

Evidently graffiti is not discouraged ...

The nicest thing about being here ... is Jesse and Kaity-Girl. How nice to spend a little extra time sharing a meal together.

Cool place. I will return!

June 7 JEPHTHAH

Sunday:  Emma came again this morning and sat with me in church. Neither of us was quite sure what we thought of the teaching today. Calvary is doing a summer series on "Abundant Living". The pastors are selecting lesser known biblical people about which to do brief character studies. This week's person was JEPHTHAH (Judges 10 - 12). I had just finished reading through the book of Judges about 10 days ago, and so I was re-familiarized with this man, and once again strongly disliked him. Pastor Jim didn't paint a pretty picture of him either--although Jephthah IS mentioned in the faith hall of fame (Hebrews 11). 

Emma's biggest objection--which colored her entire "take" on the whole sermon--was pastor's choice to use a rap group as an example of someone who changed their minds about words they had spoken (part of a song), apologized to the person/group they offended, and then took down their song right off the internet. I don't know squat about rap groups, so I did not debate Emma's statement that most (if not all) rap groups are rooted in pretty evil stuff: violence, racism, hatred, etc. Emma was sad that pastor would put them "out there" as a good example of using wisdom to take back your words. 

Jephthah SHOULD have taken back the vow he spoke to God once his only child (a daughter) came running out of his house after he was victorious in battle. Jephthah told God he would SACRIFICE (as a burnt offering) the first thing that came out of his house when he arrived home. What a rash and stupid thing to do! Did he think a goat was going to run out? Scripture says his daughter ran out of the house, dancing and playing the tambourine, to welcome her father home. As the story went on, he "allowed" his daughter to go with her friends somewhere secluded for two months to mourn the fact that she would die a virgin. Yikes. 

Since nothing else is said in this story, one has to conclude that Jephthah did indeed sacrifice his only child as a burnt offering--something the LORD had strongly forbidden His people to do ... repeatedly! Pastor Jim emphasized this as well. He did not lift Jephthah up as a good example, but as someone who had started strong and ended up a disaster. Sigh. 

Emma said she was going to go home and study more about this. Good for her--that's exactly what we are supposed to do! There is a lot to be said for Emma about this--first, she doesn't just "bow" to whatever is taught. That's a good quality to have. In Acts 17:10-12, Paul and Silas had gone to Berea to teach in the synagogue and it says: "They searched the Scriptures day after day to check up on Paul and Silas, to see if they were really teaching the truth." I'm glad Emma has the same attitude! I think anyone who is serious about following God's Truth should do the same. God's Word is always the final authority.

June 6 Deer Tracks, Part Two

Saturday (continued):  Since we were all out of carrots with which to feed the animals, we purchased another cup. I was thinking Aidan would want to go and find the little goats and feed them, but when I asked him where we should go next--he said he really wanted to go back to the little pigs!

SO ... we revisited the pigs with fresh carrots!

They gobbled them up just like they hadn't eaten in a year!

I snapped this picture of the description of these guys because I had forgotten what they were called. These are Kunekune (pronounced "Cooney-cooney") pigs from New Zealand (originally at least). They are very friendly little animals and like to be around people. They are super cute, aren't they?

Aidan had such a good time interacting with them.

He wasn't one bit afraid of them, but he followed instructions very well about not hand feeding them. He wasn't afraid to pet them, and they enjoyed it when he did.

I think it would be wonderful if all kids could live on farms for at least part of their lives. Animals are so good for children.

This is the rather large slide in the pig enclosure ...

From the pig enclosure, you can view the back of the budgie pavilion.

There is a rather nice tractor (John Deere) for kiddos to pretend to drive.

Aidan and I did a few duck races which Aidan won every single time!

The kangaroos were all napping when we went by their place. I wish they had been up and hopping around like they were when I was here two weeks ago with Brendan. They are very fun to watch when they are awake. But still ... it was nice to see them up close, even if they were all tuckered out.

We went to see the prairie dogs next. They are such cute little animals.

Aidan was pretty happy to go into the tunnels and get a really close look at them.

Isn't this such a great place? I love it here.

I asked Aidan if he wanted to walk over and visit the bears or the guinea pigs, but it was about 12:30 by this time and Aidan was hungry. That was fine with me. You can see a lot and do a lot in two hours at Deer Tracks. Since they put a band on your arm, you are free to come and go all throughout the day; but I knew we would not return on Saturday.

We drove over to the Culver's in Rockford and enjoyed a very nice meal together. Aidan got our table ready while I ordered our food. We enjoyed eating together and just hanging out.

I love this picture of you, Aidan. You are growing up so fast. You have such a grown-up way about you--a rather commanding, logical, responsible outlook on life, kind of like a mini-adult. 

I sure loved having you over at my house this weekend, Aidan. I am thankful for you, dear grandson.