Thanksgiving was good. The next day, yesterday, I babysat 2 grand-daughters while their mom worked. The first thing the younger one said when she came in the door was "Grandma, can I play 'puter?" I told her no, she had to wait awhile. About the 30th time she asked, I gave in and said OK. We set the timer and she played PBS Kids for 10 minutes, then it was her sister's turn. They took turns for awhile, until I decided that was enough. The day went well. I even got a nap while they went next door to play with their 13 year old cousin. While they were gone, youngest son who is visiting from Rochester, N.Y. constructed a complex marble run, using every piece available. When the girls came back Evie went right to the 'puter.

Big sister went downstairs to see the marble run.

Part of it was too high for her to reach. She must have played with it for an hour or more.

Then it was time for supper. After supper their mama came (she had had to work late) and took them home. She wasn't feeling good, and today has a fever and cold. There's a lot of that going around. I hope she'll be better by Monday when she has to go back to work. We're going to pick up the girls for Sunday School tomorrow.
You know a toy is good when it's challenging enough for an adult, and a child can still enjoy it.  Thanksgiving evening, our 2 year old grandson was playing with it, with the help of his dad and grand-dad, with his mom and grandma watching to make sure he didn't try to eat any marbles.  I first bought the set from Discovery Toys several years ago.  The next year I bought some more pieces.  Through the years I've found some at garage sales too.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all. I'll be back Friday or Sat.

Remember cloth diapers and plastic pants? Remember hanging wet wash on the clothesline to dry?  One of our girls just hated to bring in the dry clothes and fold them.  She said she was afraid she'd find a spider in them.
Remember when mom changed all the diapers? There were no arguments about whose turn it was. Sometimes new ways are better. At least this mom thinks so.
Remember washing dishes by hand? Or, almost worse, making your children wash them by hand? We had one son who preferred to sit on a stool to dry dishes. One evening we went out for a short while. Before we left. his sister was told to wash the dishes and he was told to dry them. When we got home, he was still sitting on the stool drying dishes.

My first child was born in 1959, and the last was born in 1984, so I've seen a lot of changes.  When the first three were born my husband wasn't allowed in the delivery room.   The next 2 were born in Africa, so of course he could stay with me.  The last 2 were born in the U.S.   and he was able to stay with me.  Today  anyone the parents want can stay if the Dr. and Hospital allow it, and most of them do.  Which reminds me of a friend who had her babies at home.  She wanted the kids in the room with her to welcome their new sibling.  The first 2 times they were excited.  The next time they were too busy watching TV to care.    I think she eventually had 10, and gave up on having the older ones watch.

Isn't there a Little House on the Prairie book called "The Long Winter"?  Or is it "The Long, Long Winter"?   I think we may have it this year.  At least we have heaters, and cars, and hot running water,  and indoor bathrooms.  Lots of blessings that people in other times and other places didn't have and maybe still don't.  I had to run errands today, and had forgotten how annoying it is to try to remember my coat, scarf, hat, gloves, purse, and keys.  I'm not sure what the temp was today, but the wind made it feel a lot colder.

My daughter is still crocheting hats and other things. Now a grand-daughter is doing it too. It amazes me to see what they create.

A friend made this snowman for me for Christmas a couple of years ago. He lost the scarf last year. Guess I'll have to find him a new one. Actually this is an old picture. He's still in a box of Christmas stuff in the basement. I refuse to put up any Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. I do have most of my Christmas shopping done though. When you have as many descendants as I do you have to start early. I made some peanut butter fudge tonight. It's my friend's fault. She posted the picture and recipe on FB. I wonder if it will freeze? Or keep in the frig until Thanksgiving? The trouble with the frig is........it's too easy for me to eat.  I don't need that much sugar.

I was 10 when my mom and dad divorced.  My brother was 7.  I remember that we were on our way to Vacation Bible school at a nearby church when dad called us to the lliving room where he was sitting on the couch and told us to sit down.  He told us with tears in his eyes that he was going to go live somewhere else for awhile.  We went on to VBS.  Afterwards I got my brother and we ran home.  Dad was gone.  Mother was vacuuming. I asked her "Are you going to get a divorce?"  She answered yes, and I went in the bedroom, shut the door and cried.

After that my father would come to get us every Saturday morning, and take us fun places like Griffith Park Zoo, the airport to watch the planes, Point Fermin in San Pedro to climb on the rocks and find sea anemones, or the docks to watch the ships.  If we went to an aquarium he read every word of every sign to us.  He would have been a great home-schooling dad.  Same thing at the zoo.  A couple of times he took us to Mount Palomar to the Observatory.  Once he took us to see the Ramona Play.  I think it was in Hemet in a natural ampitheatre, but I don't remember for sure.  Sometimes we stayed in town and went to Recreation Park.  Mostly though, we went to the beach.  All things that we probably would have hardly ever done if they had not separated.

The only problem we could see was that Daddy was always late.  We waited hours and hours for him to show up.  His friends used to tease him, saying he would be late to his own funeral.  (He wasn't, we saw to that.)   After a year or so. he started picking us up on Sundays too and taking us to Sunday School and church, and then to dinner at the house where he lived.  He lived with a family from church, and Mrs. Albright always cooked a big Sunday meal.  I remember fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and pie.  We must have had veggies too, but being a kid, I didn't like them, so I have no memory of what they were.

There were lots of sad things about the divorce, but weekends with Dad were good.

A friend and I were talking about bikes today.I was about 13 when I got my first bike.  It was a used bike that someone gave to us.  My brother might have had one before then, because he had a paper route.  I really don't remember.  I do remember about the paper route though.  After he got done with his route, he would go to what we called the little liquor store, and buy a pint of ice cream.  Yes, kids could go in liquor stores in those days, and this one had a cooler by the front door with ice cream and popsicles.  Anyway he had money and I didn't.  Babysitting didn't pay as well as paper routes (only 25 cents an hour.)

My brother would eat all that ice cream all by himself, and never even let me have a bite!  He was probably trying to pay me back for all the Chinese checker games I won.  After all, I was 3 years older than him.  He says he still doesn't like games and it's all my fault.  I remember once he tipped the board, and there were marbles all over the living room.  I don't think our mother was home.   A neighbor girl was babysitting us.  Mother had threatened to spank us both if she caught us fighting.  So we fought when she was gone.  He could hit harder than me, but I had longer fingernails.  He claims he still has scars on his arms, but I don't believe him.  I've never seen any.

Now we are best friends.  Funny how that works.

A year or so ago I rode my grand-daughter's bike down the driveway to the street.  That was enough.  I walked it back up to the house.  I never was the athletic type, though I loved to skate when I was a kid.   It seems like I always had skinned knees, and bandages on my legs.  And I was always losing my skate key.  I really preferred reading.  Still do.

Want to see what that looks like?  Here it is all wrapped and bagged.

We only have a small freezer, so a lot of it went in our son-in-law and daughter's freezer in their garage.
They live next door.
We had a visitor last week.

I must have deleted the wrong picture. I did have one that showed the heron more plainly. We didn't have as many herons this year as in past years. I don't know why. They like to sit on what's left of this pier. It stayed there a long time.
I know what I did. I zoomed in on it in Picasa, and then forgot to hit save changes. I'm too tired to fix it now.
Here is a beautiful sunset from last week.

Woke up to this scene this morning. No wonder I wanted to stay in my warm bed.

Most of that white stuff had melted by noon. South Bend was not so lucky. That's where hubby had to go to pick up the chicken. It took him about twice as long as it should have. I'm glad he made it home safely. Some of the family came to help do the chicken. I love my family.

Xanga is working tonight.   Please pray for my grand-daughter and great-grand-daughter.  They are both almost 15.  One has the stomach flu, and the other is battling depression.  Thanks so much!

This is/will be a busy week.  Mon. I shopped for groceries for my mother and for me.  Today I did a bit of Christmas shopping.  Tomorrow morning is our prayer group.

Thurs. I will get ready for Thurs. evening.  My husband will be bringing home 80 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  I ordered them from a company called Zaycon.  We have had them before, and we've also ordered their ground beef.  It is very good meat, all natural, no growth hormones,  all that good stuff.  Last time we ordered chicken breasts we got 40 lbs, and it didn't last  long, so I ordered 80 lbs this time.  I have no idea how long it will take us to wrap and bag 80 lbs of chicken.  I've invited the family over to help.   The meat is fresh, not frozen.  I'll need to clean and re-arrange my freezer first.  We have a small chest-type freezer in the garage, and our frig has a  freezer on the bottom.  If I were Murisopsis I would write a poem about chickens now, but I'm not, so.................  My daughter next door has some freezer space, so that will help.

Sat. evening will be fun.  We're going to a dance, the first one we've been to in a year or more.  I hope we remember how to dance.

Last night Xanga would not let me comment or post, either one.  Now I forget what I was going to post.  Is anyone else having this problem?  (Not the forgetting part, most of us have that.)

I'm sorry I was kind of negative yesterday.  I have so many things to be thankful for.  I'm thankful for my family, even though we have many problems.   I'm thankful for God's grace in my life.  I'm thankful we have enough money to pay for the repairs to the broken water pipe (at least I think we will.)   I'm thankful for the blessings God gives each day.  I'm thankful for the hope of Heaven where everything will be beautiful and perfect.

Please pray for my oldest great-grand-daughter.  She is having major emotional problems.  It was a shock to learn this today.  I'm just praying that God will heal her, and help the rest of the family through this hard time, especially her mother and her 2 grandmothers.  She will be 15 in one week.  It's not easy being a teenager today.

The birthday party today was fun, except for missing the one girl.  We went to a pottery store where you pick out what you want, then paint it.  I painted an elephant for my husband for Christmas, and a shot glass for my mother, who doesn't drink but loves boxes and things to put things in.  She's very organized.  This is a useful pot to put things in.  Remember that line from Winnie the Pooh?  That was Eeyore's birthday.

As far as I know Ella's toothache has not returned.  Here's a picture of her, taken at her 7th birthday with my mother.