By Thursday or Friday Camden and Charlotte got accustomed enough to me that they didn’t ALWAYS shriek when I picked them up… or at least not for very long. I could snuggle Camden and he’d fall asleep. I could distract Charlotte with food and she forgot she didn’t want to be with me. Early Friday morning Dan McClellan arrived for the weekend. It was good timing, Miranda was now feeling puny. I learned the hospital had a urgent care clinic in Walmart. Miranda got seen quickly and they decided it was strep throat. She felt better by Saturday. [Here's the happy mama with Camden and the Charlotte.]
Friday morning our stove arrived! Hurray!. We’d been carrying food downstairs each time it needed to be cooked in an oven. Andy and Tom spend the morning changing out the gas jets to convert it from natural gas to propane. Wow! More of a project than I’d expected.
But it all works fine now. In the afternoon Kera, Rebecca and I went thrift store shopping. I got a curtain rod for our new gussied-up room and a pair of shoes. Surprising. I don’t usually buy shoes. But I had plenty of time to look around the store as Rebecca and Kera were evaluating the children’s section piece-by-piece.
Saturday the moms went off thrift shopping again and Andy and I watched kids. My goal for the week was to be Grandma and enjoy the children. Tom kept himself busy with a variety of tasks. He weeded and rototilled a good portion of the garden. I only weeded around our few tomato and pepper plants. He burned the burn pile with the children looking on with fascination. They took the truck into the pasture and picked up deadfall and branches he’d trimmed off. He dug holes and put in posts for our grape arbor. I plucked and ate blackberries. The peaches were becoming bird food, so I decided they must be ripe enough to pick. They were juicy and tasty, although a bit crisp.
Saturday evening the menfolk made their annual pilgrimage to the fireworks stand and came home with some fantastic fireworks. We got great spinners that looked a bit like si-fi creatures. There were some fun fountain ones and Andy got a lot of the shoot-up-in-the-sky-and explode-and-shower-down ones. Even though it wasn’t quite dark, they were a great display. Charlotte and Emma were unenamored with the noise and preferred the view looking through the living room window.
Saturday night Charlotte and Emma were sick, so Sunday Andy and Kera forwent church and just headed for home. Tom conducted for the first time as Bishop and all went well. I had two children in my primary class and so it was a bit easier than 4. We talked about missionary work and I brought in a name tag and our lap-top. I showed pictures of the primary children in Kisumu who had been brought to church by people who had been touched by missionary work. They liked seeing the children.
It’s been great having all the family here. Miranda reminded me of the story of the man who felt his house was too crowded. His mentor told him to bring his chickens into the house. It’s still crowed the man said. The Mentor said to bring in his cows. Still too crowded. By nearly the end of the story, the man has all his farm animals in the house. Then the mentor tells him to take them all out. Now the man has plenty of room and is not crowded at all. I think when we have just Rebecca’s family here we will feel not crowded at all. And when they are all gone, we shall rattle around like the last two peas in a salad bowl.
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