Merrily We Roll Along

A busy time with starting back to school and all that it entails.
The weekend of Bean's birthday found us at the capitol watching his state swim meet.  I got to be there to see the event in which he was seated 17th in the state.  I watched the preliminaries and got to see him come in 7th, quite a jump. 

That meant he would return for finals.  Plans to lunch with a friend fell through, so I asked the Captain and Missy Bugg if they wanted to  do lunch and visit a nearby museum I had never been to.  I would have loved for Ceece and Bean to have joined us, but we have a teenager ya'll and that means you feed them and sleep them between meets if you hope to be able to tolerate them at all.  

So my trio set out and the Captain found a place on the canal for us to have lunch, which was a bit of a walk.  The day was flat out glorious and after the closed in humid natatorium, it really was a breath of fresh air.

I really enjoyed the museum as Native American culture has always been a love of  mine.  

We returned in the evening to watch Bean take 4th place in the finals.  Woo Wheee, so fun to watch.

I headed home, while he stayed to swim another day, his birthday.  Umm, already gone down that fourteen year old road, so let's move along.

A few weeks ago, Noella and Ivonne came for the day.  It was cute watching Ivonne check out Handy Man.  He was very interested in him, but a bit wary as well.

Sometime later it occurred to me that Ivonne really has next to no interactions with men.  I'm always wondering how best to serve in this mentoring role.  It seems for the most part, that these two sweet people are very on their own in this world.  Don't we all need a village?  Who would be their village?

I still open up an evening for playdate, though the kids are all so busy. Rae is usually the only one to make it.  After a summer of playdates and wood camps, I just miss them so.  Anyway, I asked Noella if instead of me coming a couple of hours in the week, would she like to do a whole day with family and she agreed.  I asked the kids to plan to be some part of the day if they would or could.  My hope, to give Ivonne some experience with kids of different ages and with dads, uncles, cousins and grandpas. Also, to give Noella time with other younger moms than me.

First we headed off to church.

 In a liturgical church, many scriptures, prayers, etc. are repeated.  I think this would be good for improving language skills.  Of course, they are both so smiley and cute and attract a good bit of attention.

How fun is it to show off  your sweet baby.

Then home to play with cousins.  A floury mess is a joy across the ages. 

While always smiley at Pap, he never lets him get to close. He slipped right onto to Michael's lap to continue his play.

He enjoyed a story with Rae.

Next week, we will celebrate his second birthday.

In other celebrations, this week marked forty years at Beach Mold and Tool for the Handy Man.  In that time, he missed one day when he had a kidney stone, but I think that was like 38 years ago.  

When it was thirty years, I sent thirty balloons. He barely got them home in his car, so I decided I'd better try something different.  I got one balloon with 40 on it and a cake.  I told him he'd better text me a picture from work, because I know him and he'd throw it in the dumpster on the way. in  He did with a message that the guys enjoyed the treat.

Having been involved with this refugee situation makes what this forty years of hard work provided for our family no small thing to my way of thinking.  Thankful for a roof over our heads, food to eat and the knowledge that medical care is available.  Lord, help those who have to help those who don't and thank you for your provision to do so! Thank you Handy Man for showing up each and every day.