GM PM
I was asked to watch the three youngest local gruntmonkeys (grands) for the afternoon. Let me remind you of these three young lad’s ages – GM3 is 5.7 years old, GM4 is 4.3 and GM6 is 2.9 years. Their first request was that they each wanted a ball to bounce, since the two older had just started basketball. I was able to round up two volleyballs and then a play ball for the youngest.
Shortly the play ball got away from its bouncer and headed for the street. I retrieved it and herded the small crowd down to the back yard to play a modified game of soccer. They seemed to enjoy this for a time and a half time but suddenly their expressed desire was to go down to the pond. GM4 wanted to show GM3 how the water got from the upper pond to the lower pond, since he and GM6 had made that tour just a day or so before while GM3 was making efforts at higher learning in K5.
We made the walk over at the speed of GM6 since he had the shorter legs and GM4 proceeded to give us the guided tour. He told us how the water came down the spillway – this made from sections of 8 inch PVC pipe split and set into the ground in a cascading manner all the way down the hill. It then spills into a catch basin and goes through pipes a short distance and falls into the pond. He apprised us of every detail of the water’s travels and even walked it out all the way down.
I found a cement bench to sit on but they were having no part of just sitting. We walked on over to the bench swing mounted on a couple of poles in MIL’s yard and swung there for at least two or three minutes. They espied a large amount of acorns nearby and through a series of thought patterns and discussions; they decided they wanted to throw acorns into the pond.
I sat on the bank of the pond to be close enough to pull them out if they should suddenly become very wet and just watched them burn energy during their running back and forth to gather and then heave the oak seed into the water. These actions were fine with me as long as I got to sit there a few minutes. They tired of that and we decided to take the trek up to the peak of the hill to watch the traffic. We stirred up a couple of fire ant hills on the way and the swarm of insects amazed them.
Further on we saw some deer tracks and they tried to see where the animals went and were awed by that as well. We continued on up to the brow of the high place and watched the vehicles swiftly buzzing past – more wonderment. Then GM3 decided he had enough of the wandering and wanted to go inside – thought he would never ask, said my tired feet and the rest of the body agreed.
As we went inside for them to get a snack, it dawned on me that I had altogether missed lunch – no wonder I was so tired. After a while the parents came and took the energetic ones back home with them – the old guy sat down for quite a while. It was a wonderful afternoon of watching, entertaining, suggesting and being amazed by these three bundles of energy and imagination.
This made me wonder whether or not I was doing enough to instill good and Godly values into their young lives. But the Holy Spirit will guide me in that as I depend on Him to do so. ec
Shortly the play ball got away from its bouncer and headed for the street. I retrieved it and herded the small crowd down to the back yard to play a modified game of soccer. They seemed to enjoy this for a time and a half time but suddenly their expressed desire was to go down to the pond. GM4 wanted to show GM3 how the water got from the upper pond to the lower pond, since he and GM6 had made that tour just a day or so before while GM3 was making efforts at higher learning in K5.
We made the walk over at the speed of GM6 since he had the shorter legs and GM4 proceeded to give us the guided tour. He told us how the water came down the spillway – this made from sections of 8 inch PVC pipe split and set into the ground in a cascading manner all the way down the hill. It then spills into a catch basin and goes through pipes a short distance and falls into the pond. He apprised us of every detail of the water’s travels and even walked it out all the way down.
I found a cement bench to sit on but they were having no part of just sitting. We walked on over to the bench swing mounted on a couple of poles in MIL’s yard and swung there for at least two or three minutes. They espied a large amount of acorns nearby and through a series of thought patterns and discussions; they decided they wanted to throw acorns into the pond.
I sat on the bank of the pond to be close enough to pull them out if they should suddenly become very wet and just watched them burn energy during their running back and forth to gather and then heave the oak seed into the water. These actions were fine with me as long as I got to sit there a few minutes. They tired of that and we decided to take the trek up to the peak of the hill to watch the traffic. We stirred up a couple of fire ant hills on the way and the swarm of insects amazed them.
Further on we saw some deer tracks and they tried to see where the animals went and were awed by that as well. We continued on up to the brow of the high place and watched the vehicles swiftly buzzing past – more wonderment. Then GM3 decided he had enough of the wandering and wanted to go inside – thought he would never ask, said my tired feet and the rest of the body agreed.
As we went inside for them to get a snack, it dawned on me that I had altogether missed lunch – no wonder I was so tired. After a while the parents came and took the energetic ones back home with them – the old guy sat down for quite a while. It was a wonderful afternoon of watching, entertaining, suggesting and being amazed by these three bundles of energy and imagination.
This made me wonder whether or not I was doing enough to instill good and Godly values into their young lives. But the Holy Spirit will guide me in that as I depend on Him to do so. ec
posted by mreddie | 9:23 PM
5 Comments:
Having the gruntmonkeys about must be a wonderful experience—for you and for them.
Excellent choice on "gruntmonkeys" which in itself gives an auspicious definition of what was to come. It would seem that all mammaloids of this age tend to wear out the more seasoned adult counterparts. You made up a word, so did I. No matter what the outcome, this is a day you won't necessarily forget and you can look back and say what a good time you had. NLM
SSN - A wonderful experience and a humbling one as well.
randy and kim - It made this "seasoned adult" a little worn around the edges. I am building memories and gathering smiles - and I enjoy being the one that causes the smiles. I like your word - mammaloids - has a certain warm bloodedness ring to it. :) ec
You remind me of 40 years ago when we lived with woods and a creek, and our children were small.
They loved everything they saw, like your grands, everything was interesting and a marvel to them. I look back and know it instilled much of their goodness being so near nature.
And I thank God for putting us in that place, at that time.
Betty G
itsboopchile - Experiences like that go a long way in helping the young ones develop properly. Probably the reason God made nature so amazing. ec
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