November 18 with the children

Tuesday:  Half of November has flown past already ... where did it go? Young Cal reached his half birthday three days ago and I didn't even realize it! I informed him today that he is definitely NOT allowed to turn six. He scorned that remark rather thoroughly and then laughed--me too!

I didn't meet anyone for lunch this morning. My friend, Julie, is out of town; and Jennifer's floral shop is super busy leading up to Thanksgiving--so I ate a quick lunch here at home before I drove over to do a little cleaning at the house. Brendan came home a little after 3:00 and we visited for a bit before he went downstairs to unwind from his day at school. 

The "littles" got off their bus as usual--except Aidan is gone this week with Kelly down to Cincinnati for some health evaluations to try to get some assistance with Aidan's dietary and digestive challenges. Much prayer for the physicians and therapists who will meet with Aidan and Kelly this week. It sure would be encouraging to get a few answers and some help for him and everyone who loves this little guy.

I only took a handful of pictures today:

Cal and I played 5 games of fox and wolf tic-tac-toe. Cal won FOUR of the five games! He was quite ecstatic about it too!

Erin and I built stuff with the Jenga blocks and just talked for awhile as she ate her cantaloupe and cinnamon toast.

Dylan came home between work and teaching his night class (!!), long enough to feed the kiddos and then take off for a few hours to do his teaching. The class he is teaching is basically on his new book: "The Kingdom of God and the Common Good." It is a reference book/textbook for Orthodox Christian Social Thought. He is teaching the course on-line, using Kelly's office space as his classroom. Cool. 

Dylan and the kids had a group hug before he left ...

Since Kelly is out of town, I stayed for the next few hours until Dylan returned from teaching. Erin and Cal went to bed at about 7:30--although NOT to sleep--they required a bit of extra tucking in and a few stories from my childhood to entertain them as they tried to enter the land of sleep. But all was well, and they finally drifted off to sleep. Brendan doesn't go to bed until later (after all, he is almost 14!). We played several games of UNO Flip--all of which were won by Brendan. It was nice to spend time with this beautiful grandson. 

Thankful to the Lord tonight for the love of family.