Wednesday, September 30, 2020

September 30 Just Me (and Matey)

Wednesday:  Look where I caught Mr. Matey hiding today! Underneath the fruit basket playing with his bathtub mirror!

Look at him using his eyetooth (and MAN is that beak sharp!) to spin his mirror around ...
Ha! Caught you, Matey! You cannot hide from me!
Here is a little Beach House I made with the magnet tiles ...
Complete with a rooftop deck and a side diving platform ...
... a nice backyard fence ... and a vehicle too! 
Just in case you are disturbed that I play with toys when there are NO grandchildren around ... sigh ... I just like to play with toys. There. I've said it.

September 29 Three darlins

Tuesday:  One of these days, these three are NOT going to be returned to their parents! Yikes! The cuteness is SO cute, I can barely stand it some days!

We stayed put at my house yesterday and the children played their little hearts out. It was so much fun.
The two "littles" were quite sleepy, having skipped the naps at their house--so they used my window seat as a napping place ... with zero results ... but funny as can be. Pictured below is Aidan telling me that he is sleeping, but he can still see me out of his ONE eye ...
... and then (below), he finds himself completely cracked up by his own comment (and my subsequent ones) ... this child is amazingly easy to entertain.
Erin and Aidan had a bit of tug-o-war over the rather small receiving blanket they were "sharing" ...
Can you see them tugging?
We solved the problem with a bigger and softer blanket. The other blanket was completely discarded.
Happiness abounded!
Little dolls!
After awhile, it was ice cream time at the round table, and then I got out some art stuff to try to "contain" the three of them for the last 45 minutes or so. My house already looked like it had been hit by a 9.0 earthquake in each and every room ...
Erin was quite intense about her drawing and then lifted it up: "Look guys! Look at my drawing!" she said in her adorable voice.
When she got zero response from her brothers, she inspected it more closely (it was two-sided) to see what on earth was SO unremarkable about it ...
Brendan drew a wolf, a racoon, and I forget what else--but I did hang his on my refrigerator. Notice Matey-Bird looking in on Brendan's art ...
Aidan was just pleased to be sitting at the table with anything that made any mark whatsoever on his paper--however, he is VERY fussy as to what goes on his paper. If he doesn't like the first mark he makes, he demands another sheet of paper and tosses the "mistake" on the floor.
Watching children draw is ... such a thing of joy, isn't it? Aidan was quite pleased with his "marks" ... FINALLY.
Matey sat in on all of their work and got as close as he would be allowed ...
Aidan's face! Yikes. I'll eat him up yet one of these days ...



I have NO idea what on earth illicited this expression from Erin ...
Whatever unpleasantness that had crossed her mind ... left it!
This wee Irish sweetheart has found her way into my heart ... always surprising that there is still room in there for another little person to sneak in, isn't it?

Monday, September 28, 2020

September 26/27 with Emma

Saturday Night/Sunday:  It was a weird Saturday because I did NOT have Kaity this afternoon. She was out of town with her mom! Emma asked that I pick her up at 7PM, so I did just that. When we got over to my house, I reminded Emma that she had wanted to look for some pictures of herself that were prior to age 4.5 (the age she was when I began this blog!). So I got some containers out that I store in various parts of my house that are full of old pictures and memorabalia and we began to go through them.

I remember the above day like it was yesterday ... Emma's DELIGHT in the first snow that had fallen super early. Look at her dear face. I remember loving her so fiercely that I thought my heart would burst from it. How could I possibly contain the JOY I felt just being with this dear little person?

The picture of Emma and Chris (below) was taken AFTER we had taken them on the Coopersville/Marne train. I'm pretty sure the engineer hats were purchased around that time ... cuties!

This is a picture of Emma at Halloween--I believe she was FOUR. She was dressed up like Piglet (from Pooh). She was VERY pleased to be dressed as a PIG, her very favorite animal at that time.
And here she is playing with Pooh and Tigger--the first two puppets I ever bought. Emma has always enjoyed puppets. She was the reason I purchased PACO for pity's sake!
After an hour or more of looking through old pictures and separating out ones that Emma could take with her, we settled down to watch "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." It had been a very long time since we had seen the movie. I was super glad to watch a beautiful rendition of one of my favorite stories in the world. Hopefully, the next two weeks we'll watch the other two that I own. Disney never completed the series, which is regretable. They were doing a good job, but evidently there were budget issues. Sigh.

Sunday morning, we attended the 11:20 service at Calvary. Wonderful time of teaching and worship. So thankful to be there in person--which would not have happened without Emma telling me that she felt God wanted us there. Thank you for speaking to Emma, Father!

After church we sat at the lunch table and I listened as Emma talked. It was good practice in listening because Emma had a lot on her mind. I'm glad she was able to talk about those things.
Emma played the piano for a little while too. I was very glad she did! She has a natural love of music and a good amount of ability in understanding musical notes and rhythm. I hope very much that some day she has a piano of her own and will take lessons. She has beautiful hands for playing piano--or any instrument, for that matter.
We played with Matey for awhile too ... he puts himself out there, so it is unavoidable! 
At about mid-afternoon, I asked Emma to build me something with my magnet tiles ... and for the next few hours (!!) that's exactly what we did!

It was relaxing and fun to just sit and make stuff. Emma is an excellent builder!



Below is the train station (with ticket booth) Emma made, complete with railroad tracks and train!





Saturday night when I picked Emma up from Jesse, I sensed that she was uptight and angry--I hurt for her and was unsure how exactly our time together would go. So I breathed quite a bit of prayer to the Lord as I drove from her place to mine. I just asked that God would bless our time together and that He would help me be a good listener, and that Emma would relax, rest, and be refreshed deep inside. I think the Lord more than answered my prayer. In every way, I am so thankful for this time I was able to spend with Emma. God is SO good.

Friday, September 25, 2020

September 25 Scripture and Beauty

Friday Night:  I love to match Scripture with photos I've taken. I usually make them into cards to send to people I love ...


So thankful tonight for so much God has given!