July 11 One Goal

Friday:  I probably should revise that post title ... but actually I did have just ONE MAIN GOAL for stopping by to visit the kids this afternoon (many secondary ones, but this one was a MUST). 

Ella was covering all "kid" bases today, just as she had yesterday. I have to tell you--Ella is an amazing young girl. I can't say enough good things about her. She is fun, firm, intelligent, confident ... like I said--she is amazing. The kids really like her too, so that's really good.

I told Sarah when I was leaving Wednesday night that I had run out of "cleaning" energy and planned to return today to clean the upstairs bathroom that the kiddos have basically trashed. I was tempted to purchase HAZMAT gear in order to see this project through ... but instead, I wore some very old jeans and an ugly T-shirt! I came equipped with plastic gloves and plenty of cleaning supplies. Plus--and this is the most important--I prayed A LOT, requesting His strength and wisdom as I was cleaning. This might sound ridiculous--praying about cleaning a bathroom--but the Lord cares about stuff like this, because He loves me and He knows how much I struggle with this issue.

I am a tiny bit (!!) over-fastidious when it comes to bathrooms in general but I truly can't help it--I just can't! I could have taken "before" and "after" pictures but I realized that would be very rude of me; so you will just have to believe me when I tell you that after an hour of deep cleaning, the bathroom actually sparkled! Plus, since I could not find any hand-towels in any of the closets or cupboards to hang in the bathroom for drying hands, etc., I took a little break and drove up to Meijer's and picked up a few, along with some kitchen hand towels too. I tried to choose something Kelly would actually like, avoiding all of the ones that I naturally loved (like beach pictures, lighthouses, Michigan stuff, etc.) and I ended up liking what I purchased very much for their house.

I did play a few games with Erin and Callaghan. Ella joined us! Ella had never played TETRIS before and she really enjoyed it. Oh! And look how beautifully Ella did Erin's hair! 

Little Cal and I played several games of "Connect Four". We had also played a game of CHESS, so he was pleased.

I did interact with Aidan and Brendan too. Brendan talked mostly about a video game called, "Animal Crossings" that he is very taken with, but didn't take any photos of either Brendan or Aidan today. They were doing just fine on day 3 of the folks being so far away; so I was thankful for that.