Sunday afternoon

December 17:  I'm never quite certain exactly how things are going to come together with this bunch of kiddos each week ... and sometimes I fear that nothing at ALL will happen when everyone comes over! Especially when Kaity announces, two minutes after her arrival, that she is "bored" and can she watch a video? First of all, there are about one thousand things to play with here at The Beach House, none of which involve technology whatsoever; and secondly, I told Kaity that I was not "responsible" for her being bored as I had to be in the kitchen for TEN minutes and perhaps she could find something to play with?!

We also had a kind of surprise guest this week. Her name is Jamie. Her father is a veteran, like my Jesse. Jamie had come over to their house to visit and then I arrived to pick up the children. Emma decided she would stay back with Jamie (because I can't get five passengers in my car)--but I asked Jesse if there wasn't some possible way that Jamie could come over to my house too. So Jamie's dad and Jesse worked it out--they transported the older girls and I took the other three, and then we enjoyed three very nice hours together.

We played "Apples to Apples", made up stories with our Story Cubes, and then these older kiddos played "What Would You Rather" while I played back in the playroom with dear Kaity for awhile. Actually, Kaity played the first two games with us just fine. She just wanted/needed a little one-on-one time with her grandma for awhile.

My favorite thing about the afternoon, though, was that near the end of our time together I read one of my favorite stories to everyone: "The Three Trees." Jamie had never heard the story--whereas my kiddos hear it yearly from me. Jamie was very touched by the sweetness of the story and I was so glad everyone listened so quietly to this beautiful story of how Jesus can take our "nothing" lives and make something beautiful from them when HE is our Lord. Thankful for this nice Sunday afternoon.