Take a hike!

(clicking on pictures will enlarge them)

Three energetic little children arrived at my house this morning all dressed in clean clothes and ready for the day.  From "no where" the thought entered my mind to take them to the Seiberling Nature Realm, part of the Summit County Metro Parks System.  I'm ashamed to say that though this particular conservation park is only about 10 miles away, I've never been to it before!  I was in for a very pleasant surprise!

(If you click to enlarge this picture, you will see a little guy posing)

Thankfully we had  Dora the Explorer Elylah to guide us with a map...

and watch the signs along the way...

And I was glad we packed a little lunch to bring along...

When we arrived at this spot, I encouraged Ethan and Elylah to take a long look around and say a prayer of thankfulness for all the beauty of the good earth that God created for us to enjoy...

The Visitor's Center was quite impressive.  Everything was nice and clean, air conditined, and very "hands on" for the children.  They could learn what the land in our area was like 200 years ago, and why we need to practice sustainable habits for the sake of our environment.

I loved the way they had little step stools so the kids could see

a teaching "recycling center"

a replica of a Great Blue Herron and nest

art created with recycled materials

The above four photos were taken from behind a one-way glass. We could see the wild life, but they couldn't see us!

I was very happy to think of something "free" to do today that was fun and would wear them out so they'd rest this afternoon.  One last "perk" we had on the way home...we had run out of water and everyone was very hot and thirsty.  I pulled up to a McDonald's drive through window and asked only for 3 glasses of ice water, and offered to pay for them.  The girl was so sweet and waved me on...

Our little field trip to the Nature Realm reminded me of the words of two great old hymns...

♫ Were the whole realm of nature mine

that be an offering far too small

love so amazing, so Divine

demands my soul, my life, my all. ♫

+++

♫ For the beauty of the earth

for the glory of the skies

for the love which from our birth

over and around us lies.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,

this our hymn of grateful praise! ♫

My week at a glance...

Sometimes at the end of the week I can't even remember what I did with my life.  I think that's why I get so caught up in documenting some of it before I totally forget!  Here's some meaningful-to-me events from the past 7 days:

❤Hubby and I attended a 50th wedding anniversary party for the parents of a friend of ours.  It was a casual, yet lovely get together and what a blessing to see another committed couple hang together through all of life's challenges.  Our friend played the piano and sang a song to honor her parents...

(photos enlarge when clicked)

❤Three of our grandchildren were in my care for about 27 hours this week, plus I had the baby an additional 6 hours.  I invited the granddaughter of someone I know to join us on Monday for 1/2 day too so Elylah could have a girl to play with for a change.  I don't do this for money, I do it for love.  And fun.  MY fun...

❤Some treasured grandchildren quotes of the week:

*Me: "Eva is really getting fat!"  Elylah:  "Yes Grandma.  Pretty soon she is going to be just like you!"

*Ethan:  "Grandma, can you take your skin off?"

*Ethan:  "Grandma, you have cracks in your eyes." Me:  "Cracks??"  Elylah: "Yes Grandma, those red lines."

❤I brought order to a small corner of our garage, yes I did!

❤On my day "off", hubby and I toured an inner city ministry that our church supports and we ate lunch at The Front Porch, their new cafe.  We are becoming more involved with local outreach and every time we go to one of these places my eyes get opened wider and my heart expands a little more, and I am humbled.  

❤I enjoyed sunny days and beautiful skies...

❤One day I pressed my mom into service and she and I took all three kids to my favorite Salvation Army store with the purpose in mind of finding some school clothes for Elylah, who starts Kindergarden later this month.  Then another day mom and I took just the baby and drove to a nearby city where a garage sale had advertised the required size 6 girls clothing.  We were not disappointed on either outing!  Name brand clothing in fantastic condition for roughly $1 per item.  Seriously she will be among the best dressed at her new school!

❤I enjoyed a breakfast outing with my friend who leaves next week to return to England.  We had a soul soothing time of sharing and prayer together.  (I forgot to take a new photo but here's a bad one from a couple of weeks ago...)

❤Other than this, not much going on around here!  What about you?

Moving on...

I've been on the vacation channel since May and had I known I would write so many posts about the subject, I would have been a little more organized!  It WAS a major "life between the buns" event and I kept thinking of things I wanted to document...Thank you gentle readers for bearing with me!  Sadly, our time at the beach  already seems like a distant, though very pleasant, memory!

The reality of my life since vacation has consisted of hubby being   under foot   home working very hard on his job search.  We would appreciate your continued prayers for us in that department!  Since I am babysitting 3 of our grands several days a week, I've tried to give him as much quiet space as I possibly can to do what he needs to do.  That means I've frequently piled the kids into their car seats and taken them out and about.  The other day we went to a couple of parks so I could   wear them out   give them a chance to romp and play.  I had to laugh when hubby called me about 1:30 pm and said he was just wondering what I was planning to do about lunch...silly man.

This past week, with the temperatures in the '90's and my son's and daughter-in-love's air conditioning being on the fritz, they all slept at our house for several nights.  I insisted, as I couldn't bear the thought of them roasting in this heat when we have plenty of space for them.  It seems like their A/C is fixed now and that's a good thing, because it sure is hot and humid in our parts.

What's going on with the rest of you??