September 5 – “Some de-stressing family time”

The tropical storm has landed.  It is onshore and barring a real freak of nature occurrence, it won’t be heading this direction.

We were visited by a thundering horde of grandchildren again last night.  Kel was off and the kids were going stir-crazy after being stuck in the house for two days.  So they all packed up and headed to the library … which was closed because of flooding.  Hadn’t heard that one yet.  With no books in hand they then trudged over to Nana and DadDad’s house to … eat, of course.  Christina brought along some pulled pork for sandwiches.  We provided the ice cream and sodas for floats for dessert.  Good stuff. 

So the evening was spent with a Galvestonopoly game going at the table, swinging outside in the backyard, a floor full of toy tools and kitchen equipment, and the Astros game playing on the TV.  And I never once turned off my hearing aids.  The din was steady enough that I managed to discern bits and pieces here and there.  I remember at one point I thought I heard my name being called upon for assistance, but by the time I located the source of the cry (I’m pretty sure it was Noa), she had moved on to something else.  I did get to “interact” (read here tickle-monster) with Noa and Josiah a time or two when they crawled up in my lap at the same time to hang out.  And Ezra was always good for a “DadDad, DadDad, DadDad” every time he toddled in my direction. 

The talk of the evening between Jachin and Micah and their Dad, other than the inevitable baseball references that pepper every conversation when Jachin is in the room, concerned a new Monopoly game Kel saw online.  It was the Cheaters edition.  He was pretty sure he and his brothers had played that one all the time when they were growing up.  And now that I think about it, we did hear more than an occasion, “Hey, that’s cheating” when they were involved in brothers’ play together (Not just Monopoly, but that would be another story).  Kel texted a picture of it to his brothers, and later last night Josh responded … “I already won.  Don’t bother opening the box.”

Psalms 97:1 says, “The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.”

Father, thanks for some relaxing family time.  Great way to relieve some hurricane watching stress.  Amen.