November 4 – “Guaranteed Winners”

We got back home today, and before we ever went to Omega Bay we headed in to Galveston.  Our first stop was Kel and Christina's house.  Mom wanted to hang around with them while we did our errands.  So once again, we were off …   We went by our house to pick up the mail, and there was our initial check from the flood insurance.  Finally, some indication that things were happening.  A little step toward victory.  But we have learned that often little steps are the only ones that consistently find solid ground, that keep on moving forward.  Give me little steps any day.   We went to WalMart.  We knew we had some groceries at Omega, but we weren't sure what.  And we knew we needed milk and eggs, so where else would we go but WalMart?  And on the way I opened some more mail.  There in the stack was a WalMart gift card from some dear friends in Houston.  Groceries covered.  Little steps.   We went back to get Mom and had a chance to do some serious playing with Jachin and Micah (the grandkids).  The game of choice was chase, of sorts.  I chased them in a big circle around the house until they caught up with me from behind.  OK, so I'm a little slow.  Then we'd fall to the ground in a pile of hugs and tickles.  Game two came later.  It was somehow related to baseball in that balls were used and Micah called it "Baseball."  Beyond that similarities grew fuzzy.  Micah and I sat at one end of the hall and Jachin at the other.  Then we threw those soft nerf balls and a plastic Frisbee-type thing to (or at) each other.  After awhile Jachin came to our end of the hall and we threw the balls to … the other end of the hall.  That resulted in peals of laughter and more hugs and tickles.  Kids sure know how to appreciate the little things, don't they?  Little steps.   We were invited to stay for supper, and guess what we had?  Meatloaf muffins.  Now that was a new one for me.  Individual size, yours-and-yours-alone servings of meatloaf perfectly formed in the shape of a muffin.  What will they think of next?  Am I getting too excited about ridiculous things?  I hope so.  Little steps.   We got back to Omega Bay after dark.  Oh, yeah, time change was this weekend.  Anyway, Mom was the excited one this time.  She hadn't seen the "new house" yet.  We were going to give her a grand tour as soon as we unloaded, but she just wanted to see one thing.  "Where's the elevator?"  Needless to say, we took a quick elevator ride.  I guess we can show her around tomorrow when it's daylight.  Tonight is all about little pleasures.  An elevator ride.  Little steps.   Oh, I forgot to mention that we voted.  Took awhile to find our precinct station's table over at Weis (it used to be a middle school, but I don't know what they call it now.  School district made some big changes.  Not very many happy parents.  But we did vote.  Earlier, at Kel's, we heard a comedian say that he was going to endorse Obama and vote for McCain.  That way he was guaranteed to be a winner.  The thing I learned today was, the winner is the one who continues making the little steps.  Takes longer.  But there is a lot more time to appreciate the little joys on the way.   Proverbs 16:9 says, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."   Father, help me to be consistent in taking the small steps that you have determined for me.  Amen.