January 17 – “Bouncy houses and princesses”

Saturday was Cailyn's second birthday party. It was at a house in a new subdivision in LaMarque. They wanted to do it there so they could fit a massive bouncy house in the back yard. It was a big one, too. I don't know if there's supposed to be a weight limit on those things, but at one time there were at least four adults and one pretty big older kid in there along with some of the little ones. It was quite appropriate for Cailyn, though. It had big pictures of one of the Disney princesses and her prince counterpart. I can't tell those princesses apart. Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella and the girl from Beauty and the Beast – they all look the same to me. I guess the guy was Prince Charming. He didn't look like the Prince Charming from Shrek. He's he only one I can keep straight. I guess that's because that movie wasn't a pure cartoon, so I mostly stayed awake through it. I must confess that I haven't been inside many bouncy houses, so I am by no means an expert. But this one was kind of fun. Of course the only reason I went in was to coax Cailyn to join me. It worked, too. To enter the thing you had to climb up a little slide that led to the door flap. The little slide proved quite daunting for some of the toddlers. Hence the need for well-meaning adults to step in and help. The door was about a foot and a half high, so you had to squeeze in under the flaps. A safety measure, I'm sure, so no little kids would fly out mid-bounce. The interior was as you would expect for a bouncy house – bouncy. And quite roomy. It was like walking on a boat in high seas, though – up and down and constantly moving. Recipe for seasickness. Everybody kept their pizza down, though. The best part of the whole experience was the exit. It was a giant slide. And the only way to get onto the slide was to climb up a big hum if you were a little guy, or if you were one of the larger sized vermin like me, to hurl your body over the barricade. I only did it once, but I sure wanted to get back in. Sadly, though, it was time to blow out candles and open gifts, so I never made it back. I was most impressed with Micah and Jachin when they arrived. They were not very happy about the prospect of going to a girlie birthday party with a bunch of little princesses and a "Hello Kitty" theme. But they responded in awesome fashion. They came in costumes. Totally appropriate, I thought. These two boys came to the princess party dressed as … knights. How perfect is that? 1 Corinthians 13:11 says, "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." Father, help me to recall the childlike ways of trust and transparency as I put aside the childish ways of selfishness. Amen.

January 16 – “Basketbunchball”

We watched Jachin play a basketball game yesterday.  Chris and Mom and I went to the rec center in the part of Galveston where the projects used to be before Hurricane Ike.  As we entered the building a lady came up to us and said, "Can I help you?"  And without giving us time to respond, she continued, "Oh, you must be here to watch the basketball game."  I'm sure she knew that because of our age.  After all, would a couple of old folks who parked in the handicapped spot be there to work out?    It was a real treat to see a bunch of six-year-olds chasing each other and the ball up and down the court.  We remembered our favorite term for what was happening during soccer games for six-year-olds (and even younger).  Bunch ball.  Wherever the ball went, all the kids went, too – in a bunch.  It wasn't quite that bad.  Some of the kids even knew where to stand on defense and how to keep their hands up.  One or two could actually dribble.  Not that they did it consistently, but traveling was a rare call – only if the ref knew the kid could dribble.  The game ended in a tie, 2 – 2.  They did run one overtime period trying to give them one more shot at victory, but when the little guy missed a free throw with 13 seconds left, we knew it was pretty much over.  I think they would have tried again, but everyone there was gearing up to go to the Martin Luther King, Jr. parade, so a tie it was.  They ended the game with each team lining up and slapping hands with the other team, offering a "Good game," in a show of respect for each other.    Each team gathered together after the game for an official team photo, so being the observant grandparents like we were, I headed out onto the court with our camera.  I guess that was all it took for the rest of the Moms and Dads and grandparents to join me.  It was a great picture of the way life should be.  Have some fun together, then melt into one big conglomeration of commonality – we all had some connection with one of the kids.  It's amazing how kids seem to just know that.  Guess that's why Jesus wanted us to come to him as little children.   Luke 18:15-17 says, "People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them.  But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."   Father, teach us to be like the little children. Amen.

January 15 – “War Zone”

My desk was in the middle of a war zone for awhile yesterday.  But at least they asked permission for entry before bombardments began.  We had Cailyn while Nathan was at work and April helped care for her grandfather.  Then Jachin, Micah and Josiah came over so their parents could go to a movie.  That's when the planning for the battle began.  Jachin had an entire scenario worked out in his mind.  He's the one who came in and asked in his most official-sounding voice if it would be "OK if a battle took place in here."  I agreed, with the stipulation that no bombardments be directly targeted at me or my immediate environs.  I didn't actually say that. He is after all only 6 years old.  But he did promise not to mess anything up permanently anywhere around me.  Translates to about the same thing.   Before I knew it, there were entire walls built around the room out of pillows.  The soldiers went to sleep on the floor for a brief respite before the battle.  I received a warning, "You might want to clear the area before the war starts."  Sounded ominous.  Josiah entered the war zone doing his patented belly crawl push with his right great toe, and he was immediately promoted to junior captain.  It took awhile, but I finally figured out that Cailyn was to be the enemy.  She didn't know it, though.  All she knew was she didn't want to change her diaper any time soon.  Her cousins were here and she wanted to play with them.  It was amazing to watch how Jachin and Micah incorporated Cailyn's reluctance and even Josiah's unexpected incursion into the area.    Kind of reminded me of spiritual warfare.  There we are walking around concerned about our diaper or losing playing time or a myriad of other things that seem important to us, when actually there is a serious spiritual battle taking place all around us.   Matthew 12:43-45 says, "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.  Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.  Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation."   Father, help me remember there's a lot going on besides what I can see.  Amen.

January 14 – “On Old Guys and New Words”

I get that Old Guy Newsletter from AARP.  In fact I signed up to be in that group as soon as I was eligible (when I turned 50).  I figured there was bound to be some kind of benefits, like discounts at Astroworld (whoops, they closed Astroworld), cheaper hotel rooms (that happened, but we have only taken one vacation in the last ten years), and maybe some coupons for restaurants or something (no coupons, but most of the time you have to come out and ask if they offer discounts.  I'm finding that gets easier and easier the older I get.  It seems like people expect way different things from old guys.  It's not really respect, I don't think.  That may be the roots of it, since years ago people did respect older people way more than they do now.  It's more like sighing and putting up with a two-year-old because he is acting like a two-year-old.  I have found that people are more likely to chuckle and respond favorably to the "nice old guy" as opposed to the demanding, highly motivated "senior executive."  Besides, it's a lot more fun being the nice old guy.  You can do pretty much whatever you want and people write it off to the rigors of aging.  Is that what t means to wield influence over the young?   My AARP newsletter had an interesting article in it.  It was about the new words that get added to the dictionary every year.  Of the fifty words they selected to define for us oldies so we wouldn't feel so out of place in our society, I had actually heard of thirteen of them.  Here's their introductory statement to the article: "Whether chillaxing with a gal pal or out on a bromantic date, you'll automagically impress your friends when you rock these beauties."  They may be in the dictionary, but they are sure not in my computer's spell check or grammar check yet.  There are little red lines all over this page as I type it.   Here's a few of them: Frenemy – noun – friend with whom one has frequent conflict Staycation – noun – vacation spent at home Viral – adjective – circulating rapidly on the internet Vuvuzela – noun – long horn blown by fans at soccer matches Heart – verb – to like very much, love (written as a picture of a heart) Bromance – noun – close platonic male friendship Own – verb – to utterly defeat or humiliate   Numbers 14:18 says, "The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion."   Father, please heal the frenemy rifts that have gone viral in our world.  Forgive our attempts to own each other.  Help us to go beyond bromances and learn to really heart each other.  Amen.

January 13 – “Baseball candy”

I got some feedback on the warped board.  (Thanks, Dave).  It seems I'm supposed to get the board all wet first, then try to straighten it out with the heavy box or whatever.  But Chris doesn't want to get the board all wet.  And it's cold outside anyway.  Guess I'll just wait a few days and see what happens.   We went to Sam's and looked at computers.  Well, we went to get some supplies for the church since Sunday is dinner on the grounds day.  The computers just happened to be placed directly on the aisle we had to walk down to get to the toilet paper and dishwashing liquid.  A guy who works there did his duty and asked if he could be of any help.  We told him we were looking at the laptops, and he got very excited.  Seems that some of them are going on sale this weekend, but only to business members.  That would include us, since our card is issued through the church.  He gave us a model number to watch for in the impending mailout that we should receive in the next few days.  "It's being sent out as we speak."  Yep.  He really said that.  He wrote the model number on what I thought was a piece of scrap paper and handed it to me.  It was an alcohol prep pad.  That'll keep us safe from germs when we read the mailout, I guess.   Jachin and Micah signed up for baseball yesterday.  Machine pitch and t-ball respectively.  And that means … drumroll here … it's time once again for selling candy.  They didn't even go home first.  Jachin got in the car and said, "We have to go to Nana and DadDad's house.  They'll buy some."  Of course we'll buy some.  They opened up their little case and showed the options.  $2 a piece for candy bars (one was a Nestle's Crunch Bar knock-off) or little boxes of candy tidbits of different kinds.  Chris sidled up to me just as I was reaching for my wallet and asked for ten bucks.  "Ah, so that's how it's gonna be," I thought.  I gave her the money and slipped out ten of my own.  I made my selections.  One crunch bar and four boxes of Mint Meltaways, frosty mint centers layered in rich milk chocolate.  Chris took a little more time.  She asked each boy what his personal favorite was of all the choices.  Jachin picked the meltaways.  Of course, it was the only kind in the bunch that didn't have some kind of connection to nuts.  Micah pointed to the chocolate covered almonds.  That made his Dad chuckle, because Micah doesn't really like chocolate.  But Micah reminded him that he had recently tried some chocolate ice cream and decided that it wasn't all that bad.  Well, being the great Nana that she is, Chris chose one of each of their favorites along with some Caramel Whirls, caramel covered in rich milk chocolate.  And of course, she promptly handed over a box of almonds to Micah and some Mint Meltaways to Jachin, along with the required admonition to "wait until after supper."  We ended up with ten boxes.  And that doesn't include the five boxes Mom bought when she found out there was chocolate in the house.  Not a bad haul for their first stop.   Ain't grandparenting grand?   Philippians 2:14-16 says, "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life — in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing."   Father, Jachin and Micah knew they could count on us.  All they had to do was ask.  Help me to be a kid of yours like that.  Amen.

January 12 – “Getting un-warped”

Well, it's cold outside.  I don't mean "Galveston cold."  That would be somewhere in the fifties.  But I don't mean frozen wastelands cold either.  That would be below zero.  But for Gilligan's Island, it's cold today.  When I got WeatherBug up on the computer it was 30 degrees.  That's pipe-wrapping, foot-stomping, winter-coat-wearing cold.  If it's gonna be this cold it should go ahead and snow to give the kids – well, us kids – something fun to do outside.    I have to check on our warped board today.  It's the last piece in the new shelving puzzle we started on last week.  The shelves themselves are already up and running – cut, painted, hung, and loaded down.  The warped board is a finishing touch Chris envisioned as a sideboard to the whole thing.  It would look good, too, if wasn't so warped.  We tried several approaches to straightening it.  First we just put it on the floor in the garage and left it overnight.  That didn't do any good at all.  The next attempt was to add a heavy box on top so it would be forced to lie flat.  That didn't really work either.  Then I had a brainstorm.  I put some small pieces of wood under each end, and then put the heavy box in the middle so it would be forced to sit the opposite way for awhile.  Now that actually worked a little bit.  There was still some warping at one end, though, so I moved both the blocks to one end and replaced the box.  I'm anxious to see if that worked.  I guess it will never be perfectly straight, but it will hopefully be close enough that we can use it to fulfill the purpose Chris has envisioned.   It's amazing to think about how much trouble we're going to just to straighten out one piece of wood.  It would be so much easier to just go buy another piece.  Hmm.  Kind of humbles me, too.  Reminds me of how much trouble God goes to to get us goofy kids of His straightened out enough so we can be of use to accomplish his purposes.  Glad he doesn't just toss us and go create another piece.  That's gotta be evidence of his love.   Philippians 2:13 says, "for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."   Father, thanks for not giving up on me.  And thanks for the "straightening process" even when it hurts.  Amen.

January 11 – “Unbalanced”

I had another of those in credibly frustrating experiences yesterday, and it spilled over into today.  It was time again to balance the checkbook.  It should be an easy task, even when I leave something out or discover an error in addition or subtraction (although those have been fewer and fewer since I decided never to trust my own mathematical genius and to let the calculator do what it was designed to do).  I don't have all our finances entered into the computer.  I know that's supposed to be the way to go nowadays, but I still like the satisfaction of having it all add up.     My personal system also keeps track of our credit card purchases.  Whenever we use the card, I delete that amount from the account just as if we wrote a check.  Then we can pay off the entire balance at the end of each month.  It provides us with a pretty accurate paper trail of our purchases, and it doesn't make me feel like we are using money we don't have.  I like being out of debt, and I want to keep it that way, even on paper.  It makes for an interesting look in our checkbook, but I think the system is pretty basic credit and debit accounting stuff.  I'm sure it's a piece of cake for somebody who likes math.  That person doesn't live at our house, though, so I get to do it.   Now for the last several months it has been cooperating nicely.  But not so much this time.  I was off somewhere, and I couldn't find it.  That meant I had to search not only the bank statement, but also the credit card statement.  I did discover one charge I forgot to post, so I took care of that.  But that correction only intensified the error.  I clustered and crunched the numbers in every way I could think of.  Every time my numbers came up the same.  And every time my numbers didn't match the bank's.  By the exact same amount - $50.04.  This morning Chris even joined in the fray.  She called out numbers and I added and subtracted on the calculator.  Every time my numbers came up the same.  And every time my numbers didn't match the bank's.  By the exact same amount - $50.04.  Oh, I didn't mention that the discrepancy was in our favor.  They were saying we had that much more than I can account for.     I finally gave up.  I created a new entry line in the checkbook – "Mystery Amount."  Oh, I'll wait until next month's statement and see if I can find the error with more information.  But in the meantime, with that extra post, we are balanced.   James 2:14-18 says, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?  Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith; I have deeds.'  Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do."   Father, help me maintain a balance with faith and deeds.  Amen.