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Friday, November 1

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Our granddaughter Abby and her husband Nathaniel are expecting a baby in a few weeks (our 19th great grandchild). One day she mentioned to her sister Lydia that with a busy summer and fall, four other children, plus homeschooling, she was feeling rather unprepared for the baby.

Lydia and Aunt Deb decided to plan a “Bless Abby Day”. When Deb (our youngest daughter) told me about it, she asked if there was anything I wanted to do. I suggested that we babysit the children to give her the full day without children in the house. That meant she had a free morning, then several ladies (Deb, Lydia and Nathaniel’s mom) did some deep cleaning from 2-6 pm. I understand that Abby was quite happy with how the day turned out.

Abby brought the children about 9 am.

We told them they could have two hours to watch Paw Patrol, then we would take a one-hour lunch break, including going outside. I made mac and cheese, which they declared delicious.

After lunch Cerwin and Renee went to check on the mail.

She wanted to help carry mail, so Cerwin gave her a political advertisement. It was quite windy and he figured if that blew away, it wouldn’t’ matter. 🙂 That seemed to secure his place in her heart. She was quite friendly with him for the rest of the day.

Natalie wanted a leaf pile, but it turned out to be too windy for that. The leaves kept blowing away.

Anthony likes picking up leaves with Cerwin’s nut-picker-upper.

When they play in our yard, they almost always spend some time climbing our red maple tree. It is shaped for climbing.

After they got another hour to watch Paw Patrol, we took a long break by going to my family homestead to see the animals. They wanted to see the chickens, so Cerwin drove us to the farm (about 1/4 mile). I wanted his help to maneuver the second floor of the barn, because of several obstacles including a stairway hole. After our visit with the chickens, Cerwin drove home and we proceeded to see the steers, dog, calves, and heifers on the first floor.

Then we walked across the road to the dairy barn to see the cows.

After walking to the northside of the barn, we continued our walk home via the back driveway (see our house in the background).

We were all exhausted when we got home. Renee fell asleep on my lap while the others watched more Paw Patrol (they never tire of that) and made forts out of all the blankets in the children’s room.

Following supper Cerwin took them home (two miles) while I cleaned up and got ready to go to church where Marvin Negley (Maine) was preaching for our one-week revival meetings. It was good to sit and relax for the rest of the evening. 🙂