July 16 – “Tumbleweed? Tanglefoot?”

I went up to the church yesterday morning to see off the Fort Worth group.  That's one great group of people.  They took care of VBS and did all kinds of other jobs while they were here, pretty much anything they found out we needed.  And they seemed to have a good time while they were doing it.  The definition of a group on a mission trip.  I sure hope they want to come back next year.    I hurried back home to see if we had to take Taylor and Cheyenne back to Bay City to meet their folks, but Chris decided to wait one more day.  The girls wanted to go to the beach one more time.  But then there were some strange, dark, puffy-looking things in the sky.  I vaguely recalled that's what storm clouds looked like.  We checked the Weather Bug, and according to the little chirping critter, it was about to pour down rain.  That would be a miracle.  We were ready to have a party in it.  The girls decided that it would be counter-productive to go to the beach only to have to return after just a few minutes, so they opted to make snicker doodles instead.  Great choice there.  We did get a few sprinkles, but not near enough to challenge the drought conditions.   Around 3:30 Jachin and Micah and Josiah came over to play.  Then April and Cailyn came over and joined us all for pizza.  And craziness.  At one point all five of the older ones were racing around the house in circles, chasing each other with empty nerf guns and a basketball that had transformed into a grenade of some kind.  Chris was getting nervous that they may crash into Josiah, the one-year-old-who-thinks-he's-eight.  She sent them outside for awhile, but it was really hot, so it didn't take long for the party to move back in.    They ended up watching "Cinderella, Cinderella, Let Down Your Hair."  Or was it Rumplestilskin?  Whatever that girl's name was with the really long hair.  I'm not so good with animated features, though I did stay awake for quite a bit of this one.  I had to keep getting up and moving around, though.  The name of it was Tumbleweed or Tanglefoot or something like that.  The boys checked it out from the library.   While they were all piling on the swing outside trying to see if it would break (interesting approach to a game, I thought), I went to Randall's to pick up my medicine that was finally in after only four days of phone calls and faxes and assurances that "even though we don't have your Mom's ready I will take care of yours right now."  That particular assurance brought a chuckle, because I had already picked up Mom's medicine by that time.    Cailyn left first, then the boys finally went home around 9.  We talked for awhile with the girls, which quite naturally led to a rousing pillow fight that even Mom had a part in.  By the time we tossed our last couch pillow, I was beat.  And I actually got a few hours of sleep last night.  I didn't wake up until around 6, if you don't count the brief and obnoxious interruption by the Tigger alarm clock that went off at 4:30.  Yawn.  Maybe I'll get some shut-eye on the drive to Bay City later.   Proverbs 19:13 says, "A foolish son is his father's ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping."   Father, thank you for the wisdom my sons show.  Especially when it comes to exposing their children to the joys of a relationship with their grandparents.  Amen.