"May you live to enjoy your grandchildren." PSALM 128.6 So thankful to be alive to know and love and be full of JOY with my grandkids!
Saturday: I spent a little time with KT today. We came over to my house and played Foosball, three games of UNO (I lost every game), ate dinner, and then went over to Altitude--first we went to 5-Below because KT had a gift card to use. She got some ear buds, a holder for them, and two containers of slime with her $20 gift card--she was very pleased.
Thursday: Today was a bit of an odd day--but I went to Meijer's as I usually do, although an hour later than normal. When I arrived there, I received a call from Terry stating that he had locked his keys in their car over at their house. He was asking if I had any of those old-fashioned metal/wire hangers at my house--they had looked in every cupboard and closet at their place and came up with ZERO. Anyway, I did my grocery shopping and then drove home and searched out my house for hangers, but I didn't have any of the kind that were needed either.
SO ... we all drove over to Lowe's to see if there was some kind of tool or piece of wire that Terry could fashion that would be able to reach inside through the window and unlock the door for him. It was a lot more complicated than we realized--nothing seemed to work at all. It was quite frustrating.
I drove over to pick up Kaity from Jesse at 3:00 and ran the scenario by him. His first question was--do they have road service? Duh. Good grief.
Kaity was too sleepy (having been awake all night) to come with me, so I drove back over to Ruthanne and Terry's, only to find them STILL trying to get into the car to retrieve the keys. I ran Jesse's question by them and Terry said he was unaware that road service would cover unlocking car doors. So he called. They came. The door was finally opened--not while I was there--I had gone back to my place to wait to hear from Kaity when she finally woke up. She texted me at 5:00 to say that she was awake, was headed for the shower, could I start dinner and then drive over to get her? Sigh.
Sure. That's what I did. Kaity wasn't rude about it or anything--it's just that sometimes it seems like I do a whole lot of accommodating in order to just spend a little time with Kaity. She is worth it, for sure--but I do wish I didn't have to jump through so many hoops just to get stuff to happen.
Traffic was pretty thick that time of day, so Kaity and I didn't get back to my house until nearly 6:00. We ate our dinner together, and then drove over to Altitude for Kaity to do some jumping and playing.
Wednesday: I am always so relieved that I made it through another Tuesday without "losing it", that Wednesday's have become my favorite days! It was an exceptionally nice day today with beautiful weather, quietness, hobbies worked on, an afternoon walk enjoying flowers, dinner with Ruthanne and Terry out in Rockford, followed by mini-golf up at AJ's, and a trip over to the fitness center here at the park--just a look-around, not actually to work out.
Not surprisingly, I only took pictures while I was out on my afternoon walk:
Wednesday:
[I will post this at a later date. The tentative plan is that Emma and I are going to get together this weekend to celebrate her birthday. I am surely looking forward to it!]
Later ...
It's now Monday, August 21. I didn't get to see Emma on her birthday. Her gifts were wrapped and placed on her bed waiting for her. I was excited to watch her open them--I always like that part best--but I didn't get to do that this year.
Memo to self: this is NOT about YOU!
I'm not sure what happened exactly--except that I was in and out of the house quite a bit Friday and Saturday during the day. At about 3:30 on Saturday, I arrived here with Kaity, but had gone to the mailbox to check for mail before coming inside. There was a piece of mail for Emma, so I opened up the door to her room to put it inside, and ... then I noticed that her gifts were gone. My heart sank ... like to the floor. Somehow I had missed her coming and going. I did send her a text at 1:00 in the morning on the 16th with a birthday greeting, but Emma had mentioned that she would come this weekend and perhaps we could hang out. I thought we would do her gifts then. Evidently, I thought incorrectly.
Here is the card I designed for her this year. These pictures are from back in 2020 when we had gone over to the Cascade Dam to walk around for a bit.
I have always loved Psalm 139. The fact that God designed each of us personally means so much to me. The song on the inside is called "I Am Not My Own" by Keith and Kristyn Getty. I only used the first verse on Emma's card (I love that line: "Before I drew a breath, I was loved and known"), but here is the rest of it:
Verse Two: "My body is a temple of the Living God, I'll worship in this house that His blood has bought. As I bear His image, oh may I not profane the holiness I hold in this earthly frame."
Chorus: "I belong to the Lord, oh I am not my own. I belong to the Lord, I am not my own. I will honor Him for this I know--I belong to the Lord, I am not my own."
Verse Three: "And if He has redeemed me, I am not my own. The measure of my worth is His love alone. He declares my standing, and He declares my state; so I will know myself by the name He gave."
Verse Four: "I am not my own and now my heart is free. O Maker come and make what You will of me. There is nothing broken that You cannot repair; so Lord, I leave my life in Your loving care."
I love this song so much. It's such a confession of our helplessness in the face of our sin and our desire to be made new. It's wonderful to know that His love covers everything that has gone wrong in our lives--so I pray this for Emma as well. I love her so much.
I ordered some stuff from Emma's Amazon list (which is super helpful since I don't have to play guessing games about what she really wants), and then I made her a book. The crazy thing about the book was this--I began working on it WAY too late. I really REALLY wanted it to be done in time for her birthday (and it WAS!). However, there is a pretty big three year gap in the book because years 2013, 2014 and 2015 photographs are on a different hard drive and I did not retrieve those years. As it was, I think I ended up with more than 60 pages and close to 300 pictures. I loved working on this little 8 x 8 book. I loved looking back and remembering . . .
Front Cover:
