weekend

What a busy weekend! Not busy going places and seeing and greeting different people, but staying with the same folks all weekend – small people. These small ones were the four local gruntmonkeys – we kept them over for their parents to go off for the weekend. SSIL is about to go out of town to work for most of the summer and they wanted to have some time away. They went down to the SC coast for a couple of nights in a B&B.

They left Saturday morning but we actually started with the young ones staying Friday night. First on the agenda was to pick up GM1 at an evening party nearby. It was held at a lake and about 100 kids were there, along with a dozen or so sets of parents. She seemed to have a great time and along with the eats, she said she played volleyball about 3 hours. They played this game with a beach ball, so it wasn’t exactly regulation – ball or rules – but it did look like fun.

Although we have two bedrooms in the basement, I wanted to keep the young ones on the same level on which we were sleeping. GM1 usually sleeps with the Spice when she is over, so the two of them occupied the TV bedroom. The little guy is a light sleeper so we put him in the other extra BR. This left the two older boys and I in the MBR – I put down two single mattresses on the floor for them and I slept alone on my bed – grateful not to be kicked by little ones all night.

Our general agreement was that I would see about these two older boys during the night and the Spice would see to the little one. This was OK with her except for one detail, although he does usually sleep through the night; he gets up at the crack of dawn and will see to it that someone is up with him. He was up just a tiny bit later than usual the next morn, but not much. I didn’t fare much better in that I didn’t sleep well because I was listening out for the GMs with me.

Of course it didn’t help that I was still trying to get over a cold and a lingering cough. I got up to help out with the little one but my two charges were up not long after. I had the whole crew for a good part of the day since the Spice went to help with our church’s homeless ministry. We survived the day and night. Early next morning, one of the young men in my room had an ‘accident’ and after getting him situated back in bed, I couldn’t go back to sleep.

The Spice, GM1, GM3 and GM4 all got ready and went to church while I stayed with GM6, who does not do well in church. I was able to attend our service electronically by watching it on our web cast. We were having a dish of baked spaghetti that had been previously prepared and frozen for just such an event. This was baked and ready for them when they got home, along with some garlic cheese bread. It was during this meal that GM4 supplied my laugh of the day.

He is 3 ½ and along with his 5-year-old brother, has a large interest in pirates, cowboys and such. He is constantly talking about bad people doing something or another and how much we needed to watch out for them. This was such an oft mentioned subject that the Spice tired of it. She told him, “Why don’t we talk about good people instead of bad people all the time?”

To start the subject, she asked him, “What do good people do?” He hesitated not a whit with his answer when he said – “They shoot bad people.” The old guy in the group totally lost it and had a terrible time regaining any semblance of composure for a while, much to the displeasure of the Spice. She seemed to imply that I was just making it worse. Maybe the little guy should watch less pirates and cowboys, even though they are of the Disney type.

The GMs, the Spice and I all survived the weekend and I felt much enriched by the experience, even though a little worn around the edges. God is good, all the time. ec