Just a few more pictures from February ...

I didn't take many pictures this weekend--I had my camera nearby, but just didn't use it much. The grandchildren spent Friday night with me here at the Beach House. The boys are beginning to bring small containers of their favorite LEGO pieces with them, and they play and play and play, combining them with the LEGOs that I have here. 

It was "white" day over at the middle school on Friday; so Emma had sprayed her hair white with some fancy hair spray and had put white make-up on her face, etc. She was eager to have it removed, so she took a nice long hot bath right after our dinner and got back to feeling "normal."

We got ready for bed earlier than usual!

I asked Matthew to change my little calendar to the correct date and he had fun making up all kinds of impossible dates … 

We had a late dessert of either brownies or strawberry sundaes (they could choose which dessert they wanted) … but these brownies were leftovers that I had frozen a few weeks ago and when I thawed them out and re-heated them, they were a little too hot … so we had to wait for them to cool.

Our Bible story pictures are in the wrong place in this post … but I am too untechnical to move them to where they belong! We actually didn't do our Bible story until Saturday morning. We were learning about TWO women (Sarai and Hagar) and TWO sons (Isaac and Ishmael) ...

This is Hagar running away from her
mistress, Sarai ...

 We are continuing to study through Genesis. We have met a lot of interesting people and are following their journeys of faith. Sometimes they were very faithFUL and other times they were not. But God was always working His plan out in the lives of His people.

Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac

 We learned that Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born … and Sarah was 90 when she gave birth to him!

Hagar and Ishmael, being sent way
after the birth of Isaac.

 We are going to continue talking about Abraham's family in the next few weeks and how God's promised Son came through this special people. We reviewed our two memory verses, using our two hands, 10 fingers and 10 words of Scripture from Psalm 118:6, "The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid" as well as Hebrews 13:6, "NEVER will I leave you; NEVER will I forsake you." We then folded our hands and said these words as prayers, thanking God for His presence with us.

But … back to our dessert on Friday night. Christopher chose a strawberry sundae … "Make it HUGE, grandma!" Well, I really didn't make it any bigger than the usual; but midway through, Christopher became too full to finish it! Good thing I didn't make it any bigger than I usually do!

It was MY turn to chose the movie of the week; so I chose "42," which is the story of Jackie Robinson. Emma groaned when I put it into the laptop, thinking that this was just another movie about baseball (not her favorite sport), but within five minutes, all three children were alert and extremely interested and following the racial story that was unfolding. These guys love to learn about history and what happened in our country during the 50's and 60's. It was an excellent movie and it DID end well for Jackie and his family.

Saturday, we just hung out around the house. We are experiencing quite a bit of "cabin fever" and long to go out for a romp in the woods. However, it has been too cold and the children don't always have adequate layers to stay outside for very long. We will just have to endure the wait for spring.

We did play a few games together. We also read the next chapter in "Prince Caspian" as well as a few chapters in "Absolutely Almost." So … it was a good weekend! I took the children home by 4:00 and then went to meet Ruthanne and Terry and my mom, to celebrate her birthday.

Dear sick Little Fellow and his doting daddy ...

I went to visit my Little Fellow Thursday instead of Wednesday this week. He has been sick with the flu, poor little dear. He had no energy whatsoever to play.

It is very heart-rending to see this usually bright, bouncy, happy little boy listless and limp and … sick.

 No fear, though. Brendan is a much loved and well cared for little child. His parents love him deeply, and he knows it right down to his toes.

I love these guys. Get well soon, dearest little one!

A brutally cold winter walk ...

I was running a few errands this afternoon and had just enough time to take a quick walk behind Maranatha Bible Church, down the hill, across the railroad tracks and into the woods where Stoney Creek flows through ...

I think our high temperature today was 10 degrees. We started our day -4 degrees, thankfully without any wind whatsoever. But still … BRUTAL. 

The woods was not "magical" today … I think because the trees were so starkly bare and not outlined in the frost or snow … no etchings or beautiful frosty drawings on their branches and boughs today.

Ah, but at least the sun was shining … so my shadow friends were all out dancing and enjoying the day!

There are quite a few pathways back here … but the woods is not as deep as I normally like it to be so that the QUIET is almost noisy (if you get what I mean) ... 

We have been in this frigid air mass for two weeks (I think) and they (the weather people) feel that we might have another 10 days of this arctic blast ... 

Thankfully, I love Michigan … or I would be very tempted to MOVE. However, I could never leave my grandchildren or children. I wouldn't even consider it! So I wear three layers when I go outside! 

35 minutes was all I could take, even with THREE layers from head to toe! I am glad, though, that I was healthy and able to walk these lovely pathways today!

Sunday afternoon ...

The grandchildren were unable to come over Friday night and Saturday, so we opted for Sunday afternoon instead. I picked them up right after church. We had five hours together, which is a whole lot less than the usual 24 hours, but we were thankful and happy to be together no matter what.

We ate tacos and salad and brownies and two kinds of ice cream sundaes (!). We enjoyed a very interesting story about the call of Abram from Genesis 12, 13 and 14. We learned so much this week about FAITH and the struggles of that journey for Abram … and for us! 

 We got our LEGO guys involved in the war between the nine kings and acted out how Abram rescued his nephew Lot … and we even met King Melchizadek and talked about giving one tenth of everything we have to God because of our thankfulness to Him for his deliverance and provision.

The kiddos colored beautiful pictures while the story was being told. They always do a beautiful job. We are eventually going to make each of them a book, putting all of their pictures together sequentially … kind of their very own picture Bible. Below is Matthew showing me his beautiful picture of when Abram built an altar to God and "called upon the Name of the LORD" (His Name that is high and lifted up, and the Name above every other name!).

We memorized another 10-word verse this week: "NEVER will I leave you; NEVER will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:6) and talked about that word NEVER, as well as LEAVE and FORSAKE. Emma struggled with the difference between "leave" and "forsake." We discovered that "leave" had more to do with letting GO of someone, and "forsake" means more to abandon someone or to leave them in a helpless situation. But God NEVER does that!  

Emma likes to decorate my little white board for the coming holidays. Since Easter is the next "holiday" she has done a very nice job illustrating Easter. I will not erase this beautiful picture until after we have celebrated the whole season through. 

A Fun and Wonderful Wednesday ...

 This little voice saying, "Grandma Carol! Grandma Carol!" is the BEST sound ever after work on Wednesday. I always drive by Acton and pick Dylan from work and we ride together, home to see Brendan … and Kelly too. We are always greeted happily and enthusiastically by this Little Fellow.

Brendan is very industrious at … playing! I am serious. He plays hard at everything he does. He is thorough. His imagination is beautiful. He has great sound effects too … for trains, trucks, animals … everything! 

 Brendan is VERY serious about his trains ...

He especially loves to put them through the train wash on his train table ... 

 Such a thrill for him!

 Beautiful little boy!

This is Brendan, hard at work, playing with his trains.

He showed me every little thing (again) about them. We played with other toys too, but mostly trains. 

Ready, set … GO! Brendan raced around the basement, starting on the first step and jumping on GO!

He cracks himself up sometimes! I love him immensely!

Weekend pictures ...

Weekends come really fast, don't they? This past weekend was BRUTAL COLD, without any relief whatsoever! The kiddos were here Friday night and into Saturday. At the elementary school, Chris and Matthew both had Valentine's parties Friday afternoon. Christopher ate something that made him sick (most likely too much sweets), so he was rather miserable (groaning misery)--so we had to kind of work around and through that Friday night. We pampered him as best we could; however, we did not have our Bible story and we didn't play any games. Matthew and Ems and I just did quiet stuff while I was attending to Chris. I took NO pictures Friday night.

We did watch a bedtime movie. It was Matthew's turn to choose and he picked, "The Little Rascals Save the Day!" It was cheesy and totally corny, but it WAS cute mostly and not loud or obnoxious. We were still caring for Chris and didn't want a LOUD movie during his sickness. Thankfully, everyone slept well and Saturday was a brand new day!

Christopher awoke without any stomach problems! YAY! 

Christopher playing his hand-held video game … something called a DS ??? 

After her bath, Emma made a domino run combination with the old marble run I have ... 

And Matthew constructed one too. We ate lunch together, wrapped some gifts for our GOLDEN COUSIN and then drove over to visit Brendan for just a few afternoon hours Saturday ... 

 The kiddos had not seen each other since … Thanksgiving. Pathetic. Brendan was struggling to get these ribbons OFF his gift ...

 So Emma helped him out ...

 Brendan was SO pleased with his gifts from his adoring cousins ...

Christopher helped open up the box and undo all of those annoying twisty-ties ... 

Inside was a CONDUCTOR HAT, a train whistle, a Thomas train … and another train whistle from Ems!

Oh my word … what a little doll face this child has! Could you just kiss him forever? Yes! I know! 

I think our Little Fellow was completely pleased … he makes a marvelous looking conductor! 

Everyone had fun trying on the hat ... 

 We enjoyed some snacks … although Christopher looks less than happy here … I am unsure why!

 The kiddos all played so nicely together. There is a huge gap in age here between Brendan and these guys, but everyone enjoyed our play time.

Even Aunt Kelly!  

Love these guys!