WHO'S SITTIN' WHO?

PURPLE BUTTON ELEMENT

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I'm babysitting this morning - its a terrifying prospect to me. See, our children are grown up now, will be providing us with grandchildren in this next decade, so I am 'out of the loop' on childsitting. Oh, I know, this will be good practice for that day...

I will be spending part of my morning with Zach. Zach is like a cat in that you can't 'get' him to like you, nor 'earn' his affections. He's like quicksilver, one moment demanding Mom to have me hold him, and on the other... It was Church, just a few Sundays ago. His Dad, being the youth Pastor, wanted to spend some quiet time in pre-service prayer. Janice, Zachs Mom, was at home with Zach's older brother James, suffering a bout of pink eye. I offered to watch Zach. WELL... you would have thought he was being abducted by monsters. He put the firehall to shame! I withered into my shoes, Zach won quiet prayer time with Dad and that was that... Quite humbling!

Kristin and Me

I had such a nice time yesterday, meeting Kristin, Darcy and Lily. I'm sure we were both a bit nervous and excited all at the same time, but for no real reason, after all, she is every bit as nice and interesting as she is every day for me chatting! Kristin exudes a shy and disarming manner and her family is very sweet. Lily is as cute as a button, and precocious, Darcy, well, he's Darcy, a very real and warm person. After the first 10 minutes it felt as if we have been friends for years.

The weather cooperated nicely. Other than being a bit humid the temperature was reasonable. Miles switched an evening with another teacher and we packed all our food up and went for a picnic. We had to beg a ride in their vehicle as our van is still in the auto-hospitow! :( It was a close squeeze, what with all the paraphenalia they had to stay at their rellies in Westbank, but we managed. We had cameras and watermelons shoved under our feet. We ate a cold meal (I made a ham and a roast beef (which shrunk to the size of a gerbil with cooking, either that or someone switched roasts on me in the oven) homemade buns and salad. Lily played on the equiptment at the park, stretched her legs a bit. It is an 8 or 9 hour drive from their home! They finally got away about 4 oclock...and I strongly suspect they stayed longer than their rellies would have liked...kinda caught that from the repeated cell calls...so we feel honoured they would want to spend that extra time with us. Thank you Kristin for spending the day with us, and I hope we will become OLD freinds over the coming years!

Make new friends, but keep the old;

Those are silver, these are gold.

New-made friendships, like new wine,

Age will mellow and refine.

Friendships that have stood the test -

Time and change - are surely best;

Brow may wrinkle, hair grow gray,

Friendship never knows decay.

For 'mid old friends, tried and true,

Once more we our youth renew.

But old friends, alas! may die,

New friends must their place supply.

Cherish friendship in your breast-

New is good, but old is best;

Make new friends, but keep the old;

Those are silver, these are gold.

- Joseph Parry

BARB'S TIP # 34

Scoring Against Cobwebs

This one looks fun:

Remove cobwebs from unreachable places. Wrap a tennis ball inside a dust cloth secured with a few rubber bands and toss at the distant cobweb.