Saturday, August 20, 2011

A Sweet Day


I met with a woman from our church this morning for a few hours to discuss the future of the prayer team that we’re part of.  It’s always good to start the day seeking God’s will in all aspects of our lives.  I don’t get out of bed in the morning until I’ve had a nice long talk with God, but I will confess, I often read the news on the internet before I read the Bible.  It’s a habit I hope soon to break.

Kory tinkered around in the garage while Kaleb played with a friend and the morning just passed by before we knew it.  Kaleb and I had lunch out on the deck as the fog finally burned off by then.  I just love our deck and the view over the valley and hills beyond.  I feel so blessed to live here.

Kaleb and I went for a bike ride this afternoon.  It was only down the street a mile or so but I needed to get a blueberry pie recipe from my friend, Wendy.  As we were leaving our driveway, I saw a large garden snake napping in the sun.  I was ahead of Kaleb so I stopped to wait for him and show him how big it was.  While I was standing there, a great horned owl swooped out of the tree I was near and went a little further away into another tree.  Obviously I wasn’t the only one that spotted that snake.  Kaleb and I stood at a distance for a while, hoping to see some “wild America” kind of action in our driveway, but Kaleb got antsy so we took off.  When we came back, however, the owl was there, chomping down on the snake, and when it heard us coming, it flew off into the woods with the snake in it’s clutches.  Afterwards, I felt bad I didn’t scare the snake out of the driveway so it wasn’t such an easy target for that hungry owl.  Such is life.  Rather, death.

We picked up our Honda from the repair shop today and Kaleb insisted I stop by Wal-mart because he had $17 burning a hole in his pocket.  He bought this fancy spinning top that was the object of his obsession yesterday in earning all that money.  He saw others he wants so he was pestering me again today for odd jobs to do.  He washed the car and did an amazingly good job, so maybe that will become a weekly source of cash for him from now on.  He has a fire under his butt to get some money, so it’s nice to see this side of him, as often he’s just sitting on the couch reading a book.  Kory made him practice casting the fishing pole a bit before he’d take him out fishing again as I guess they spent the bulk of their time yesterday just untangling the line after Kaleb tried to throw it in the water.  It wasn’t much different at home as Kaleb “caught” several branches in nearby trees.  I’m thinking the passion for taking Kaleb fishing may be dwindling in Kory’s heart once the reality of how they spend their time there sinks in.

I made a yummy pasta dinner tonight which we ate out on the deck.  We have no afternoon sun, but the heat of the day still made it nice to be outside.  Afterwards we drove out to Anacortes to attend a free concert in the park.

Each Friday night this summer Anacortes has had a concert in the park and we just found out about them.  What a treat it was tonight with the sun low on the horizon shining on the blue water all around us.  Kids were skipping stones in the water, adults were lounging in their chairs.  Vendors were selling food and drinks and the music filled the air.  After a while folks started dancing and swaying to the R&B band playing and Kaleb brought me one heart shaped rock after another that he found down at the beach (see photo below of him in orange).  His “ultimate beach find” tonight was a rock that had been split perfectly in half and the heart shape was in the discoloration inside the rock.  Totally cool.  And even more amazing, he found only one half of the rock at first, with the heart pattern inside, so he went looking for the other half, and he found it.  What a treasure.

After about an hour Kaleb came and crawled in my lap, wrapped himself up in a blanket and proceeded to fall asleep.  Kory brought a lounge chair so he was kicked back enjoying the music while Kaleb and I were on the blanket in front of him.  The whole scene was like being in a movie as the sun slowly set and the sky painted itself shades of pink, hovering over the blue waters.  Kayaks and small boats glided past, seals poked their heads out occasionally to check on the kids skipping stones.  Friends were chatting away, sharing a meal, dancing.  It was magical. 

When the concert was over I laid down on my back and watched the stars come out while Kory went to get the car.  What a wonderful summer day.

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