July 5 The garden at Leisure Village

Friday Evening:  I actually WALKED to Ruthanne and Terry's this evening ... and back home again!! It's only a total of one mile; but I haven't been able to walk that far in months. It's time for me to get back into walking again, and I am so glad. It's not that I love walking so much--it's just that it feels healthier to be ABLE to actually walk a distance when I want to. Physical therapy has been very beneficial so far.

On the way over to Ruthanne and Terry's, I walked past the little garden area in our Village. Anyone who wants to can have a little "plot" and grow vegetables, flowers, whatever they want. I'm mostly interested in flowers ...

"Flowers preach to us if we will hear."

July 4 with Kaity

Thursday:  

Happy 248th Birthday, U.S.A.!!! 

That's about as "4th of July" as I get as far as any celebration is concerned. When the boys were young, we used to meet friends downtown on the lawn of the Gerald R. Ford Museum. We always had such a fun time down there. I haven't really been downtown for fireworks in a very long time--I think since 9/11 happened--I don't like huge public celebrations anymore--not to be paranoid, but ... kind of.

Kaity and I had our regular time today, except Altitude was only open from 10-2pm since it was the holiday. Instead of going there, we did something else--I'll get to that in a minute.

When I picked Kaity up from Jesse, they were excited to show me their renovated 2nd bathroom, which is now Kaity's exclusively! It turned out so nice, and I could tell how pleased Kaity was about the whole thing. She is growing up so fast now, and bathrooms for girls are ... kind of personal and special too. It's where we ladies get ready to go any place--fix our hair, fuss over what we are wearing, etc. Kaity's ready for all of that. Good job, Jesse!

We came over to my place where Kaity caught me up on all the latest short videos she has been watching and doing some dancing to. We played FIVE games of UNO: I won 2 of them and Kaity won THREE. They were good games though! We are getting to be quite experts at the game.

At about 6:45, we decided to go to Dwight Lydell Park for a little walk. Kaity did a bunch of climbing, and then we went down to the creek for awhile. 

Here are the pictures from our time together:

Back in the day, when Kaity was a little bit younger, this was a very frequent playground for us! Being TWELVE does change things up somewhat--but Kaity is a very physical person--she is good at climbing and running and jumping--so it's good for her to do that when she can!

I used to swing with Kaity years and years ago--but vertigo really kicks in for me when I do that; so I haven't been swinging for a few years now. Kaity still enjoys it, so that's good. Plus, I don't have to push her anymore.

I had most fun down by the creek (naturally). I did not have my water shoes with me, so I didn't get into the stream today. Plus, I've been in Physical Therapy now for almost 4 weeks and am just beginning to get better motion in my left hip--so I didn't want to risk the slippery rocked surfaced of the creek bed. Kaity, however, had no such compunctions and in she went!

I love these pictures of you, Kaity! She wanted me to snap her in a "Spiderman" pose ...

This is the best I could do! I'm not sure Kaity will think this are good enough, but they are fine to post here.

I love this place so much. It's one of my happy places--and at least I don't have to drive 45 minutes to get there (i.e. Muskegon or Grand Haven).

After we finished our walking and exploring, I drove Kaity over to Diana's by about 8:00; however, it turns out that they are not going to be shooting off fireworks until 9:30 tonight over in her backyard, so Kaity requested that I return her to Jesse and they could come together later on.

This is a tree/bush full of berries by Diana's driveway ... so pretty.

July 3 Wednesday with the gang

Wednesday:  We had a very nice time together today. The kiddos were busy, busy, busy--but it was a good kind of busy. They/we built and drew and colored and laughed and played games--I am very thankful to get to be even a small part of their lives.

Here is Aidan constructing a marble run ...

Erin sharpening her pencils and using stencils to make pretty pictures ...

Brendan, with a freehand drawing of ... I think some video game character (I'm sure he told me, but I can't remember!).

Cal wanted the race track assembled and then enjoyed the "blue" car for awhile, racing around it.

Look how tired our small Callaghan looks in this picture! What a little cutie he is.

The kiddos still enjoy the tree house every week and make up stories about the animals and people all the time.

Aidan, using the Spirograph ...

Brendan doing more drawings -- all of these guys are such artists! Young Cal hasn't begun quite yet with drawing and painting--I'll get him doing it this fall perhaps when it's just the two of us here.

I got out the Tetra Tower game for Brendan and I to play. Aidan and Erin just used the blocks to make towers and buildings. But I think they thought the game was pretty interesting too. Brendan won!

It was ice cream time at about 3:00 when I got out the Oreo Cookie ice cream cones ...

Little Cal! You look half asleep, dear little one!

After our ice cream snack, Brendan brought out my "Jungle!" game, which I had entirely forgotten about! It's just a variety of "Chutes and Ladders", kind of 3-D; but it was fun to have the three older kids play. I'll play this with Cal in the fall. He's a funny little guy--he just watched the others play and didn't complain about NOT playing. It was difficult enough with the older three--we had to keep turning the game so that each of them could see their pieces and do the counting, etc. I'm pretty sure Erin won first, and then Aidan came in second. It's all really the "luck of the die" as far as winning or losing is concerned.

I had ordered the video: "The Gruffalo" combined with "The Gruffalo's Child", so we watched just the first story, which is so well done. The kiddos remember the story because they have the book; and Brendan remembered the video from when he was very young. 

We drove back to their house by about 4:00 in the afternoon and played there until Dylan returned home at 5:30-ish. He brought us sad news about Kelly's father dying Monday night--he had not been well this year, so it wasn't a shock or anything; but still--I could tell it was sad for the kids to hear, feeling especially sad for their mom. Love this family so much.

July 2 Aunt Sally and Uncle Richard

Tuesday evening:  Ruthanne, Terry and I were invited over to Aunt Sally and Uncle Richard's for pizza tonight. We haven't seen them since Aunt Jan's funeral (last fall); but before that, it had been two years (at our last family reunion in cousin Mary's garden).

Aunt Sally is 85, almost 86; and Richard is 90, almost 91; but you would never know it from watching them move around their condo! They MOVE like they are still in their 40's--up and down stairs, briskly walking, bending over, etc. After all of the hip pain I've had in the last 10 weeks or so, it made me wonder what I am doing WRONG!

Anyway, we had a nice three hours with them Tuesday evening. Aunt Sally brought out a scrapbook from the cottage years in Sarnia, Canada. Ruthanne remembers this place better than I do--I was 5 years old the last time I saw it; but I have distinctly HAPPY memories from there--and those are some of the very few happy memories from my childhood. My great grandparents owned 400 ft. of beach property on Lake Huron, right at the mouth of the St. Clair River where it leads down to Lake St. Clair and then the Detroit River and on into Lake Erie. Anyway, from that beach we could see the Blue Water Bridge (crossing from Sarnia to Port Huron) and we could see the big ships approaching the channel there. I loved it there so much. There was one large cottage and two smaller ones on the property--all of the Holtzhouse families would come up for a week each every summer. I remember the rocks on the beach, digging small canals in the sand that would reach to the water, collecting shells, watching my grandfathers (and uncles) play shuffle board, eating my grandma's amazing meals, running around with my brother Kevin with a jar of ladybugs ... and even now when I hear wind blowing through the leaves of trees, I can transport myself back in time to Sarnia. It always seemed to be windy there, and there were a lot of trees on the property leading down to the beach. It was good to see pictures of the place once again. I especially love the picture of the stone perimeter wall and arch my grandpa built, and realized once again it is why I love rocks and stones so much. And beaches! And large bodies of water! Good memories to savor! Unfortunately, the year of my birth (1953) was the year one of my great uncles drowned in a sudden storm during a fishing trip, which marred all of the grown-ups memories of those days and then sold the property in 1958 (when I was 5). 

We asked a lot about their children and grands (12 of them) and great-grands (20 of them), and heard many stories--some sad and some happy. I think this is probably true of all families in our "fallen" world. We all concluded that Jesus could return any time--even this very day--and it would be just fine with us! Once a person has been rescued from the penalty of death, there is nothing more to fear about dying--so, whenever the Lord decides our time is up--that's fine too! We are so thankful for Christ's death and resurrection--such undeserved grace and mercy has been given to us.

Right before we left, I grabbed my phone and I snapped the first picture; and then Ruthanne took the second one.

I actually took THREE pictures,
but in all three of them Ruthanne's eyes were closed ...

Ruthanne did a better job than I did taking
this picture--we are almost all of us smiling even!

We all decided not to let so much time pass before seeing each other again. Next time, we'll have them over to our places here at Leisure Village.