October 2 Fall Retreat at Maranatha

Thursday:  My friend, Cheryl, and I attended the 2nd half of the GIR Fall Retreat today over in Norton Shores at Maranatha Conference grounds, right on Lake Michigan. About half of the people in our Sunday school class signed up for the entire overnight retreat, but I didn't really have the $$ to spend a night out there and since Cheryl is a school teacher and could only get one day off, we decided to just do the "day" retreat today. So Cheryl arrived at my house just before 7am and then we took my car out to the retreat, arriving in time for a very hearty breakfast.

After breakfast, we attended a session of teaching from Psalm 90 about being good stewards of our time in our old age and developing friendships and places of service. Cheryl and I signed up for a "tour" of Maranatha Bible & Missionary Conference Center at 10:45. The tour group rode in two separate 6-seater golf carts. The tour was led by Dr. Mark DeHaan, grandson of Dr. M. R. DeHaan (founder of Calvary Church as well as Radio Bible Class). Mark grew up throughout his entire life spending summers out here on the grounds; so he knew the history of this place very well AND was very entertaining in his telling of it.

This is a tiny replica of the original Maranatha Chapel that stood on the grounds until just a few years ago when it was demolished. 

This very oversized chair was donated to Maranatha ...

After the official tour and a delicious lunch, we had free time until later on in the afternoon. I took a very long walk down to the lake (naturally) and did a little exploring. This is the channel that goes into Mona Lake.

Look at the beautiful day we had! Perfect weather.

Beautiful location. I took upwards of 250 pictures, but many of them are duplicates that I can "play" with in order to design cards. Maranatha owns a very long stretch of beach property, so it was a nice, long walk.

Here are a few friends seated on the huge Adirondack chair: Ruth, Katie, Cheryl, and Sue (L to R).

And then Cheryl insisted that I get in a picture (notice the bottom of my sweats--WET) too, so here we are:

And then at 2:15, several of us climbed the 100+ stairs to what is called The Prayer Tower, with this beautiful view.

While we were up there, someone suggested we sing a song and since I had my phone with me that was loaded with all kinds of beautiful music, we lifted our voices and sang "Holy Forever!" It was very beautiful to sing at this location.

"Our Lord, come!" is what "Maranatha" means in English. What a day that will be! Please come soon, Lord Jesus.

September 30 With these little ones

Tuesday: Yay--I remembered to take some pictures today! I think it helped that I got the housecleaning done with 20 minutes to spare before they got off their bus. The 20 minutes allowed me some "down" time before interacting with them. 

All three of them got off the bus and looked absolutely exhausted! Being in school all day is hard stuff. 

Here are a few pictures to remember our time together ...

Right away, Cal wanted to fold paper airplanes! I was quite unprepared for this--I have a TON of paper airplanes at my house that I should have brought!!!! But as it is, I did remember ("de-member" is how Cal says this word) the one basic plane that actually flies very well, so I folded a few of those for us.

Erin has turned into a "reader" ... I knew she would! She might have been a little "slow on the draw", but she obviously enjoys books. Yes!

Gregory / Callaghan ... I simply MUST get used to calling him "Gregory"! But how!!! And isn't he such a funny little guy?

Ah, Erin ... I love to see a child with her head buried in a book ... it's good for my soul.

Mr. Cal, here, was VERY into flying airplanes today. Look at him!

We decided to take our airplanes outside to see how far they would go in the front yard. There was a slight breeze that messed with our flight patterns, but we still had fun. Look at the beautiful flowers growing in their front yard!

Erin informed me that these pretty little purple flowers are NOT flowers but weeds. I think some of the pretties blossoms in the world are weeds!

Aidan rode his very nice bike for awhile. He is a very aggressive bike rider--what I mean by that is, he is not hesitant at all. He jumps on it like he has ridden a two-wheeler his whole life! He seems to really enjoy it. I remember loving to ride bikes when I was his age. 

We kind of went inside and outside, back and forth for awhile. Emmy came over and Erin went to play at her house for a little bit too.

What on earth is that face about, Aidan?

I love these pictures of darling Erin! She loves to chew gum!

We had a healthy snack of cantaloupe, and all three had two slices of buttered cinnamon toast too.

Aidan and I played a game of "Tetra Tower" and Cal and I played the fun version of Tic-Toc-Toe (the one with the foxes and the wolves). Cal won 2 games and I won ONE game and two games we TIED.

Aidan and I played a few games of JENGA, which is always fun. Aidan is a superb player.

And here is Gregory being very silly, howling like a wolf!

I am so thankful that the kids actually wanted to play today instead of just watching TV or playing video games. I love to play with them! Thank you, Lord, for this really good day.

September 28 GO LIONS!!!

Sunday:  I asked Jesse if I could drive on over to his place to watch the Lions play this afternoon. It used to be that anyone ANYWHERE (almost) could just turn on their TV and watch a professional football game. I haven't had a TV now for 14+ years--so that wouldn't be true for me; however, it isn't true for anyone even if they HAVE a TV nowadays. Evidently, you have to have "sports" channels, or subscriptions to see games, etc. Thankfully, Jesse has what he needs in order to watch the Lions play; so he was very agreeable for me to watch the game over at his house. The added bonus was that Matt was also there, as well as Kaity ... and little Miss Willow too!

Jesse and Matt keep up with professional football with all of the stats and ratings, etc. It was very informative to listen to their back and forth conversation about the game.

This is Jesse's 56" screen! It makes watching a game very very NICE.

I snapped as many pictures as I dared ... no one wants to be hounded to death with a camera ... for some reason, it seems less rude when I use my phone ... more incognito I guess.

It was so nice to be in the same room with these two. I rarely ever get to see Matt, and I love him so much.

Maybe I can "drop" over to see more games in the future. I always ask Jesse first--afterall, it's not like he is my little boy or anything, and I respect people's boundaries! It's especially important with family.

I only briefly saw Kaity-Girl. She was in her room "gaming." But she did come out to get a few bites of the watermelon I brought, so I was glad about that.

The Lions WON by a very comfortable margin; but they were playing the "Browns" and Jesse said that anyone ("even you, mom") could beat them (I strongly doubt that) ... but we'll take the win no matter what! 

GO LIONS!