The days are getting longer and the weather is getting milder. Winter may not be done with us but as the days get longer thoughts of spring come more frequently. It is hard to believe two months of 2007 are already in the books!
HAPPY SICK BOY. Poor Nate is afflicted with an ear infection and pink eye. Saturday he looked so bad you could mistake him for a raccoon. With the exception of the eye drops he has really been taking the whole thing well. But putting in the eye drops is a whole other matter. I think demons enter the boy when he sees us with the bottle of drops. It takes both of us to hold him down. This happens three times a day. We have tried to help him through this by letting him watch as Vicki put contact solution in my eyes and pretended to give eye drops to his bear. But when he sees that bottle come toward his eyes all reason goes out the window. After one wrestling match yesterday Vicki said something about wishing there was alcohol in the house.
Vicki kept Nate home from church Sunday morning. At one point he came into the kitchen where Vicki was and announced that he felt better. Taking in his appearance Vicki said, “Well, you don’t look any better.” Confused Nate asked, “I’m not better?” At this Vicki sent him to the bathroom to check himself out in the mirror. He was horrified at what he saw.
LEARNING THE ROPES. I must brag on Ben. His basketball game really is improving. It’s not that he is any better dribbling or that his shot is more accurate (he lacks confidence here although he did score), he is playing smarter. I think he is starting to figure out a little of how the game works. I noticed him paying more attention to what was going on around him Saturday. For example, he is intentionally moving into position to rebound more than he used to. Ben’s team consists of boys from kindergarten to the third grade and I am glad to see him actually contribute to the game with his older counterparts.
Jenna is doing well in her game too. She too plays in the K-3 division, but most of the girls on her team are her age. The neat thing is to see them work together as a team.
A BEAR IS A BOY’S BEST FRIEND. I have mentioned Ben’s bear before, but what happened this weekend must be recorded. He took Bear with him Friday night when he spent the night with Mom and Aunt Mar. In the rush to get to an 8:00 am ball game the next morning he left Bear at their house. This wasn’t discovered until he went to bed Saturday night. Vicki was tucking him in that night and got him to use George as a substitute. He didn’t complain about this, but he had big crocodile tears running down his cheeks when Vicki turned out the light.
Ben and Bear were reunited the next morning at church (he had called Mom to make sure she wouldn’t forget to bring it). Mom had Bear in a plastic bag in the pew beside her when Ben and I sat down for the morning worship. Right after we sat down I saw Ben move around out of the corner of my eye. When I looked he was hunched over Bear, he had pulled Bear’s head out of the bag and was giving it a quick, secret hug. When I asked him about this he just gave me a bashful grin.
FUND RAISER UPDATE. A few weeks ago I reported on Morgan Swann’s attempt to help children in Africa orphaned by AIDS by raising 12 million pennies. According to our church’s worship folder last Sunday she has collected about 600,000 coins--quite impressive! She was featured in a nice article in the Robertson County Times last week, and reaching a larger audience, her project is also mentioned on Alan Jackson’s web site (look in the AJ News section). Morgan still has quite a ways to go to reach her goal, but she has made a lot of progress in the last six weeks. Way to go Morgan!
Joe
