September 22 Kaity!

Thursday:  I picked Kaity up from Jesse today at 4pm. We made a detour to Meijer to pick up some gum (!!), some plastic bags (the Meijer type--I ran out of them! I've been using my own bags for grocery shopping instead of Meijer's and suddenly I have NO bags to put little bits of garbage in) and a Kit-Kat candy bar (for Kaity). Then we headed over to my place. I had Kaity's Awana verse all ready to play games with; but sadly, Kaity informed me that I have been confused about the verse thing--I've been a week behind. So as Kaity played on her phone, I got this week's verse ready to memorize. I asked Kaity what she learned last night at Awana during study time and she casually informed me that she NEVER listens to the teaching on Wednesday night! She just goes on her phone and zones out. 

I was SO sad!

Sigh. I wasn't going to give up that easily, no way! AND just as I was trying to figure out WHAT to do next, Kaity received a text from her classmate and friend, Sophie (Sophia), telling her about the high school soccer game that was starting TWENTY minutes from then and ... could she come? Please?! It only costs $5 per person!! Naturally, Kaity nearly DEMANDED that we go to the soccer game.

I had several mental objections to this plan ... #1 when Kaity and I first walked into my house at about 4:30, Kaity ate about a half watermelon and several other "snacks" because she was after-school hungry and I figured we probably wouldn't eat our hotdogs until 6:30 or so. It was now 5:40 and we had not eaten dinner. #2  Five dollars EACH doesn't sound like a lot of money--but right now, $10 is more than I care to spend for an evening's activity. #3 It was COLD outside--and WINDY too!

I decided to BARGAIN with Kaity. I told her if she could sit at the table for 15 minutes and work on her memory verse with me, I would then cook us up our hotdogs and then we would pack a snack and some water bottles and go LATE to the soccer game. I also told her that I could not buy any items from the concession stand--like ZERO.

Kaity agreed to the plan, but with an attitude that was rather flippant. We talked about 2 Corinthians 5.17--just the first half: "If anyone is IN Christ, he is a new creation ..." It's difficult to explain what it means to be IN Christ and I didn't do a very decent job defining "new creation" either. (But today, while studying in Acts, I read about the NEW LIFE Jesus gives us, the kind that changes us into new people and makes us more and more like Him ... so I think that Saturday I will try to explain this again to Kaity.) We then ate our yummy hotdogs and arrived at the high school at 6:23, paid full price to get in (although it was only a few minutes until half time which I later learned was the cutoff period of paying), and Kaity met up with Sophie. I shot a few pictures of them with my phone.

After sitting up high watching the game and watching the girls run around, I was SO cold I could barely think. I told Kaity I was going to walk to keep myself warm. The area around the stadium is pretty open, so I could see the girls (mostly) from where I was walking. I found a few pathways leading off into the woods but I didn't feel free to explore and leave Kaity unattended. I was heading back to the stands to retrieve the girls for a little woodsy adventure when they sprung out of nowhere and told me they had been following me all along!

SO ... we followed one of the pathways into the deep woods, which was very fun. Sophie kept saying, "This is FUN!!" which made me think she didn't have much experience in the woods--but Kaity was having a good time too, so we explored for awhile.

In a few places, there was evidence that the first day of Fall was upon us! I LOVE Fall! 

I managed to log in TWO miles with the walking I did, so that was good. Kaity had fun with her friend, and I truly enjoyed meeting Sophie. Thank you, God, for giving us this time together.