Summer

There's too much to say, but you know I will try: 

Saturday morning I took a walk with my dad before the boys woke up. 

Then blueberry picking with lovey views. 

Nana and Blaze played Candyland. He loves games. Blaze and Nana and Papa played I Declare War, which delighted him. And Nana and the boys dipped things in chocolate and covered them with sprinkles. 
 

I spent the evening holding a nephew in the ER, while a family member got some tests and some medicine (they should be ok). 

The night vision setting on my camera picked up some of the twinkling lightening bugs! They put on such a show. 

On Sunday we went to mass at 8 a.m. at Q's request--he wanted to see one of his friends from VBS who turned out to be an altar server! Then we joined Nana and Papa for their church service. Blaze insisted that I join him for Sunday school, so I did. It was lovely to see so many of the people that I grew up with at Nana and Papa's church!

Don't think I didn't have notes about mass: It's one of my least favorite days of the year--July 4th Sunday. There was no mention of anything to do with Jesus or the Bible in the homily--it was about America; it wasn't a bad talk about America; it just wasn't a homily! And just about all of the hymns were not about God, but about America. 

I stopped at the wonderful local grocery store and there were cheap artichokes, so I introduced Nana and Papa to eating them whole. I'm not sure that they were impressed, but they tolerated it well. We had a very nice snacking lunch of olives and gouda and cherries. 

On the games front, there was more I Declare War and Trouble. Papa and Q played Horse, which he liked so much that it made it into nightly prayers. And they went to the barn to feed the horses.

We went tubing down the creek, which was sublimely beautiful, deliciously cold, and very relaxing--also we brought Q who experiences quiet as an invitation to talk. (I know my parents would say the same about me.) 

For supper, Nana made pork chops and lots of things and I made smitten kitchen's beach bean salad. It was fun to cook together.  

A wonderful bouquet from Blaze. 

Q is reading the Picture Bible on his own now. I asked him what part he's at. He told me, "The Israelites are invading a bunch of cities for no reason. What did those cities do anyway?" I love his facility with critique. 

He also asked to watch the rest of the presidential debate (he had fallen asleep after an hour). He observed (somewhat skeptically) that Trump really said our country is doing terribly. He also noticed Trump's way of talking about immigrants--and reflected that it began to make him feel scared of criminal immigrants overflowing the boarder. (Of course we talked about the problems of talking about immigrants in this way and how the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals!) 

Very full summer days.