July 13 – “A morning adventure”

It came accompanied by warnings.  It approached slowly, but when it happened, it was unleashed with a fury unsurpassed in the annals of Vaughan family history.  What manner of crisis is this?  What simple event could possibly burst onto the scene and systematically shatter any semblance of peace and tranquility that may have previously descended upon this small slice of resort-area pie?  Is it even possible for something to be so significant that it dwarfs concern over tourist traffic?  What in the world could warrant, say, even a trip to WalMart on a summer weekend, dodging carts filled with sodas and beer, hot dogs and hamburger buns, plastic silverware and … wait a minute!  Is that Blue Bell ice cream I see?  Oh, OK.  That’s my neighbor.  So I’m not the only one caught in this frenzy of vacationing humanity, grasping for a position in long checkout lines, chuckling at the distress of the father who is searching frantically for his lost child, who has discovered the wonderful new game called “Hide from Daddy by staying within ten steps behind him while he looks for you,” and waiting my turn to speak words of encouragement to the harried checker just starting her shift and facing the horrifying prospect of six more hours at her station. 

What, indeed, could so invade our realm and cause such a frenzy of preparatory activity?  Grandchildren, of course.  I can’t imagine anything else that could cause such a ruckus.  Jachin, Micah, and Josiah, too, all descended upon our household to spend the night last night.  And that, of course, means a frenzy of video games and pizza and popcorn and a movie.  Oh, I can say all that for certain, because like it or not, that’s just what you do when you come to Nana and DadDad’s.  Now the morning routine used to be pretty set as well.  Those small cinnamon rolls that come eight to a can that you bake and add icing.  Still a favorite when Zakary and Caleb are here, by the way.  In fact we affectionately call them “Zak cinnamon rolls” on our shopping lists.  But last time they came I shook things up some.  I went for donuts.  And there you have it.  So is instituted a new tradition.  One of the first things Micah said to me when they arrived (after making sure Mom and Dad and everyone else was out of earshot) was “Remember that time we woke up and you went to get some donuts?  Can we have that again tomorrow?”  These guys never forget, do they?  Well, strangely enough, this morning the first one up, after me, of course, was … Micah.  He was still a bit foggy, so I slowly and quietly walked him through some of the basics: “Can you get dressed without waking up Jachin?”  That took some doing.  He went into the bedroom to look for his suitcase, but came back empty-handed.  Seems it was on the floor right behind him all along.  He managed to get dressed, so I went one step further: “Do you have any shoes?”  He started off again, but this time I managed to stop him, since they were sitting right by the front door where he left them when they arrived.  Still whispering, I asked, “Do you think we could sneak out of here and go get some donuts and be back before anyone else wakes up?”  You would have thought I woke up a dragon.  His eyes widened, then creased as his brow furrowed conspiratorially.  His mouth dropped open, then wrinkled up into a smile.  We snuck out the front without incident and made our way to the donut shop.  Micah assured me that both of his brothers liked plain glazed donuts, so we grabbed a dozen.  I couldn’t resist the hot cinnamon rolls fresh out of the grease pit, so in memory of the two cans of Zak cinnamon rolls sitting in our fridge, I added three of those to our treasure. 

We made it back and even into the kitchen successfully and without seeing anyone else.  Micah was exultant at our victory.  So much so that he didn’t even mind when Jachin quickly arrived on the scene and joined in our feast.  Perhaps Micah summed up our breakfast experience best with his exclamation, “Iceman is my name and sugar is my game.”

Psalms 100:1-2 says, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.  Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.”

Father, thank you for these grandchildren you gave me.  They are definitely keepers.  Amen.