Josh's come

I returned to Kansas on Friday.

I needed to make sure the house was ready, and did some grocery shopping.

The fridge was pretty bare!

On Saturday afternoon, Josh's arrived from Arkansas.

 Papa greets Elijah.

On Sunday afternoon, we went to see Grandpa Pete and Grandma Lois.

We picked my Dad up from his room and "drove" him to Mom's duplex. 

The painting behind Staci is a famous lookout point along the Nichinan coast where I grew up.  It was painted back in the day when the road was unpaved.  Here is a photo below.

                           

Mom has a closet with some toys for the children to play with.  Emeri loves this tea set and served us all some "tea" and "coffee".

Mom has had this fun toy for years.  She got it from Avon.

My children used to play with it when they were little. 

 My parents always enjoy it when Josh plays hymns for them!  We had a little sing-a-long.

 His new guitar is really nice!  Hand designed by Dehradun Guitar in India.   Josh learned a lot about guitar from Dave Murray while at JBU.  Go to the webb site to hear the story behind how they make these guitars!

After a good visit, we took Dad back to the home.

It was lunch time so we dropped him off at the lunch table. 

Later that evening, Jill's family came over for dinner.  The children were playing so very nicely in the basement that we decided to go ahead and eat in peace and quiet!!  Ha ha!

 It wasn't long though and they came stomping up and exclaiming
              "You're eating without us????!!!"

 So they joined in on the dinner.

YUM!

A little project

The children enjoy crafts.  I got this idea for them from Meg's 

Whatever blog, where her kids made this butterfly craft.

 The kids painted a sheet of paper with lots of colors.

We purchased canvases and they painted those too.

They both wanted the same color.

I purchased some punchers (is that what they are called?) 

Emeri wanted a butterfly puncher.

Eli wanted one that cut out bats.

Eli decided he wanted to use both bats and butterflies. 

And Emeri selected butterflies for hers. 

While Emeri had been at school, Eli and I had done some shopping and since I got him a few things, Emeri needed a turn too.  She chose to go to the mall.

I had a great time with the children

but it was time to return to Kansas!

The wonderful thing was, they were following on my heels

to come and celebrate Sophia's birthday!

Helping

I may not have an outside "job", but that doesn't mean I don't work!  Lately, I've been on-call for my mother, church and my kids.  Before my mother went to the hospital, I had offered to help my son and wife with their kids.  Her mother was going to have surgery and Staci was going to be working more than usual since co-workers were going on vacation.

I was quite nervous about leaving my mother.  She was home from the hospital, but very weak.  I was helping her out daily.  But my husband and my 2 daughters said they would check in on her while I was gone, so off to Arkansas I drove.  It was a very hot day!

I stopped along the way for an iced coffee!

and a frozen yogurt!

Culver's is the BEST!

I got to Rogers just in time to be there for a worship time at Fellowship Bible.  It was called "The Well" - a creative night of worship for the collective church of Northwest Arkansas.  My son did keys, hammer dulcimer and acoustic, and Staci was in the worship choir.  I got to sit on the front row with the grandchildren and soak in the worship!  Here are some pictures that were posted on-line and I copied onto this post.

We got home well past the children's bed times and it was going to be a school day for Emeri the next day, but it had been such a well worth time, everyone raising their voices in praise.  A little taste of what heaven will be - except even louder!!

The next day Emeri went to school.

Eli did his own school work.

 And we read books.  We read this book over and over.  He LOVES this bear book!

Eli also liked for me to print out pictures of aircraft and dragons that he could cut out.

We also went to the park.

We got pretty sticky and hot so we stopped at
 I love Mama Carmen's and stop there nearly every time I go to Fayetteville!

Josh's church office is in a warehouse right across the street.  I texted him that we were there and he came right over!



Mama Carmen's has a little shop called the global shoppe.  Every item is made by poor women in underdeveloped coutries.  Click on the link to find out more!  I can always find something to get here!!


Josh got me this amazing chocolate too.  Oh my goodness!!!  They make only small batches of chocolate with hand-picked beans from single farms in different countries.
Check it out:  Kyya chocolate!  


Next stop:  Hobby Lobby to pick up some craft items to work on while I was there.  And Mr. Eli got to choose a few things for himself too!  He loves this foam sword that cost $3.99!  And of course, back at home a sword fight with my grandson ensued!