June 23 Nine to Six

Tuesday:  I know that it is ridiculous to "title" this post "Nine to Six", but I'm trying to stretch myself you see. ?? Nine hours with four grandchildren can be quite challenging. BUT challenges are good for me! It gives me a chance to put faith into practice. When the Lord tells us to "lean on Him", He means it. It also says in His Word that "tribulation works patience" ... not to attribute nine hours with these beautiful children as a trial or a terrible tribulation. It does, however, test my abilities, fortitude, creativity, unconditional love, and unhealthy self-love. I remind myself that I am their grandmother NOT their parent. Grandmothers can be indulging without spoiling! They can just relax about behavior and rules, etc. and just ENJOY who these little people are. Yes, it's difficult when at least two of the four are at the same time talking to me about completely unrelated topics, expecting my undivided attention and meaningful response. And I'm rather lousy at anything chaotic. And certain noise levels are bothersome to me too. Good grief. I sound like an old fuddy-duddy. I don't want to be that. So, I ask the Lord to change my heart and my mind and give me the kind of love and wisdom I need to make lasting and happy memories with these beautiful children.

Yesterday was a good day! The weather was mild. We even "played" outside for an hour! Let me show you the pictures I took.

Before picking up the kids, the early morning began rather ODD. You see, while I was blow-drying my hair in my back bathroom, I was also using my space heater full blast to warm up the main room of the house. Right in the middle of drying my hair, the power went out! I was baffled. There were NO storms, NO wind ... no reason for us to lose power. However, as I walked through the house, the light was ON in the front room, the oven overhead light was on, the microwave was registering the time, etc. WEIRD. I told all of this to the kiddos as we were driving to my house. Oh! Also, my computer monitor would not go back on! And my CD player was dead too! I finally concluded that I must have triggered a partial fuse failure and that somehow, if I could figure out HOW to trip the fuse back into working, our problem could be solved.

As it worked out, I finally called Monty (our neighborhood fix-it person), and indeed it was a tripped fuse. He was able to figure out which one and fix it.

SO ... the children were able to continue making home movies with my Photo Booth program. Here is Cal watching his recent "movie" with Oscar puppet and our cat puppet having another karate' war. Look how pleased he is! Brendan was also amused watching Cal's production.

Erin was super excited about a new marker set her mom had picked up for her, with a nice new notebook of paper on which to draw. Erin is growing very artistic! She really enjoys sketching and coloring.

Here is Erin with my little finger puppet, "Lamb Chop". She is sketching her! I have the finished product hanging on my refrigerator. Erin gets a lot of joy applying herself artistically. She comes by that one naturally, as quite a few of us in the family have that tendency.

Dear Brendan LOVES Great Wolf Lodge. The last time I was there, I think it was to celebrate Brendan's SEVENTH birthday. I purchased this puzzle there at the gift shop. Brendan still enjoys putting it together and telling the other children (who were too little to remember going) all about the fun stuff to do there. Erin later took the puzzle apart and tried to re-assemble it. Actually, she asked Brendan for help as long as she could put that LAST piece of the puzzle in.

I got out the fire truck puzzle too, and Erin did this one all by herself. Cal (somewhat) got in on the action too.

I love these of Aidan. For some reason, he just loves to come to my house. I am so thankful he does!

After we ate our lunch, I coaxed all of the children to the Leisure Village playground--a few blocks away. I was going to have us walk there, but then I wanted to bring a bunch of stuff for us to do there so I drove us instead. We blasted our stomp rockets for quite awhile! It was fun to have so much space to launch them.

Brendan is quite "old" for playgrounds now, but he never complains. He has the sweetest heart and I love him to pieces. Thankfully, I had a few comic books (Charlie Brown, as well as Garfield) in the car; and Brendan retreated there and read for awhile. We opened up the car windows so that he didn't get stuffy.

I remember when each of these four kiddos were in their 2's and I would have a 1-on-1 with them. We would often come down to this playground and chill out for awhile.

And look! Look what the Lord gave us to examine and enjoy! Our very own caterpillar! Erin fell absolutely in love with her. Brendan too, except not the same as Erin did. The other boys were interested, but wanted nothing to do with actually TOUCHING it! We played with it very gently for quite a long time. When it was time to do other things, I suggested we find a leafy place to transport our little fuzzy friend. Erin INSISTED that the leaf be PINK! And look! She found some pink leaves especially for it. We watched it for quite awhile making itself comfortable in its new pink home.

I brought a bunch of paper airplanes that we tossed around too. Too bad that the wind picked up and we didn't get a very good flight out of any of them. That's okay because the stomp rockets weren't bothered a bit by the wind.

I also keep some really old plastic trucks in my shed, so I brought those too. Cal still likes digging around with them, and Erin enjoyed them too.

I told the kids that we had to play outside for ONE HOUR before returning back to my house, and that's exactly what happened. We came home and I scooped everyone a mint chocolate chip ice cream waffle cone, and had one myself.

We decided to try a round of "Apples to Apples (Junior)" and had a lot of fun doing it.

Look at these two beautiful children!

We also built for a little while with our MagnaTiles and Cubes.

Gregory requested that we get out "OuiSi" ("Oui" = "yes" in French, "Si" = "yes in Spanish) once again and make up stories with our designated cards. He really really enjoys making up stories. Perhaps someday, they will not always be WAR stories! Erin joined us in this game. She is so sweet making up the next part of the story.

Look at little Gregory. He studied each of his six cards to determine who was going to fight WHO and WHERE. He started one of the stories. When it came around to my turn to ADD to his story, I always tried to resolve whatever conflict Cal had created in his little brain. He cracks me up.

We hardly watched any videos today--just a few short "reels" of funny animals and babies that I shared with them. . Brendan did play some basic video games on a site on my computer--pretty harmless and basic graphics, and he seemed to enjoy himself. He also did quite a bit of reading.

We also enjoyed eating French toast (for breakfast), corn on the cob, Ramen noodles, hot dogs, and various chips for lunch, and all kinds of snacks in between--some healthy and some not so much. All and all, it was a very good day!

After returning home from bringing the kids back to their house, I picked up the main rooms, refused to do the sink load of dishes, pigged out on "X" for awhile, got caught up on emails, and went to bed super early. I was pooped. But happy.