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.