Heidi is at our
church women’s retreat this weekend. I’m
just coming off my first busy season at the new job as well as having started
my own side business of doing tax returns, so I was exhausted. I wasn’t up to making a lot of plans in
advance.
So I
reverted back quite a bit to my single days and just made a lot of “are you
free now?” invites. The one I did plan
in advance was hanging out with my nephew Michael. My alma mater, FPU, was having a kids’
athletics day this morning, so I had reached out to my sister-in-law Heather
about taking her and her three kids.
Heather wasn’t feeling well and didn’t feel up to coming along. When I offered to take the kids myself, she
asked me to just take my nephew Michael for some guy bonding time. Since Michael wouldn’t know anyone there if
his sisters weren’t going, I decided to ditch the event and just have us hang
out together.
I had
planned to run with Amy and Alicia before getting Michael, but Alicia bailed
and a glitch with a phone upgrade caused my alarm to not go off, so none of us
ran. So I used my time for some breakfast,
Bible reading and prayer. I went and
picked up Michael around 9:30.
Our first
stop was Target for a basketball pump, because my basketball was pretty flat. I gave him the money and had him count out
the cash we’d need to pay for it. I’ll
save counting and checking change for another day (he’s 7).
We got back
to my house and went out to do a little gardening first. I had him water Heidi’s garden and help me
cut off some dead roses. The roses are
in full bloom now, so he enjoyed getting to smell and admire them.
Then I
changed from jeans into basketball shorts and we went over to the nearest
school and found the way in to the outdoor basketball hoops. We were just taking turns shooting and
dribbling and passing, but Michael really wanted to play “Around the World,”
which is where you try to make baskets from various spots around the key. Now, I’m no basketball player, so I knew this
would not be the most productive use of our time on the court, but that’s what
he really wanted to play, so we played.
And since we’re both pretty lousy at shooting, it took FOREVER. I am so grateful to two people in my life for
the skills to finish that horrid game: Leroy, my high school basketball coach
and Alicia, my running friend who gave me some shooting coaching three years
ago when I agreed to be the kindergarten coach for our church’s basketball
outreach program.
We had a kid
show up on a scooter who was just hanging around, so I started talking to him
and introduced Michael and myself. His
name was Jordan, and he was 10 years old.
I invited him to join us. Michael
suggested we start over (he was at position 3 and I was at 7, out of 13), but I
told him Jordan could catch up. And
catch up Jordan did. I just barely
stayed ahead of him. After Jordan
finished, Michael was still at position 4 and getting nowhere near the basket,
so I told him we had to go. At some
point during the hour plus we were on the court, he told me he has never made a
basket from that point, and that’s always where he gets stuck when he plays at
recess. Horrible game, but I did have
fun getting out on the court again and playing some ball with my nephew.
We came back
to the house and I cut up some watermelon for us since he was drooling over
it. Then I had him help me cook up some
quesadillas for lunch. He was super
excited to get to help dole out the cheese and flip the quesadilla. My crowning moment was when he told me that
mine were better than his mom’s! I also
loved how polite but serious he was in having no interest in trying mine when I
doctored it up with some spices and fancier cheese.
Heidi had
made some quinoa-based chocolate brownies.
I like them, but kids can tell they’re healthy, so Michael wasn’t a
fan. But I had some cherry tomatoes and
he was crazy about those, so those counted for dessert in his mind.
Then I introduced
him to the game of Qwirkle. He was just
barely able to mentally get his head around the rules. We didn’t keep score, because I figured I’d
cream him, but he held his own in getting Qwirkles. I should have kept score, though, because he
was certain he one just by nature of using up his last tiles before I used
mine.
I took him
home around 2:30 and sent a bags of cut-up watermelon and cherry tomatoes for
him to share with his sisters. When I
got back, I realized that I could use some more exercise, so I sent my friend
Amy a text message asking about taking her 10yo son Noah out to play some
basketball. As the youngest and
least-coordinated of three boys, he would definitely appreciate it.
As it turns
out, Noah was off getting a haircut with his grandpa, but his sister Aislynn
was available. So I told Amy I’d pick
her up to do a craft project at my house.
Amy hates the mess of crafts, and Aislynn is in a major craft craze
these days. I decided to also invite
Katelyn, one of Aislynn’s church friends (who’s also like another niece to me)
to join us, so I picked up both girls and brought them back to the house. I cut up some poster board and showed them
what we were doing. We cut out dozens of
small pieces of construction paper and started gluing them to the poster board
to make various pictures (combination of Picasso and mod podge). Katelyn made an American flag, Aislynn made a
park scene and I made a flower. They
were both a little stumped on creativity, so before we started our second one,
I took them outside to look at my roses and to let them each pick one to take
home.
Then we
headed back inside where they each made their own flowers and I made an “I
[heart] U” sign to welcome Heidi home tomorrow.
I was really happy with how all the artwork turned out. I had done a craft like this in elementary
school and had been wanting to try it again.
Then I had the
girls go outside again with some paper and colored pencils to draw a few
flowers until I had to take them home.
We dropped Katelyn off and then I stayed and had dinner at Aislynn’s
house.
It was a fun
and full day. Each of the kids said so
many ridiculous and funny things that just made me smile at their innocence,
but my favorite had to be one of Aislynn’s.
Upon seeing my guest room where I keep craft supplies, Aislynn blurts
out: "We don't have a guest room.
But we will when Jaden [oldest brother, 14yo] moves out, and that will
be so great!" So glad having the
cool-factor of having a guest room trumps having her brother around, and that she's
already planning his exit. It was all I
could do not to bust up laughing.
