Ten Random Things

Here are just a few things from my week:

1. Yesterday Hertsje was here in the afternoon. She wanted to make things. So we drew our American Girl Dolls. I made the outline of her doll and she colored it in. She also found some of our creations from last year to play with!

It's always fun for me to make stuff with her. I encouraged her to try drawing her doll herself, but she said she didn't know how.  But when she came this morning, she disappeared into the "art room" for a bit and came out with her very own drawing of BOTH of the American Girl Dolls!  She did an incredible job, and if I wasn't so tired I would go take a picture of it now to show you, but I am very tired presently, so I will not be doing that.

2. On Monday Broeder eagerly awaited the arrival of Hertsje and "the cousins" after school. He excitedly called out to all five of them saying "Guys! Guy! Guys! You aren't going to believe this! The toy room has been RUINED! It is now AN ART ROOM!!!" He said all this in a rather appalled sounding way, but today I did introduce him to the new set of large blocks I got just for him to play with in THE ART ROOM, because there isn't carpet in there so the blocks work better. There is a chance he will find it in his heart to forgive me for RUINING the toy room!

3. After preschool on Tuesday we took Broeder back to Meijer Gardens. He still hasn't seen all of it (neither have we!) but every time we go we do something new, and something old (always a visit to HIS big horse).  Tuesday we found a place he insisted was his clubhouse. He had us sit on the rocks that formed a little outdoor theater while he did a hand puppet show for us. In case you were wondering, that is me, Beppe, on the right while Pake is the hand on the left. There actually were some cute puppets in that little house, but he preferred using his hands. As you can imagine, Pake and I enjoyed the show!

The children's garden has so many adorable places to wander into. From the maze he could see some dragon sculptures that he quickly kissed and claimed as his own. There will come a day when we shall bring him there in the summer when there are CROWDS. That day just may be a bit difficult for this guy who pretty much has the whole place to himself this time of year!

4. Tuesday night Jonge had a Fall Ball baseball game.  It was a lovely night for it, and they won! But just look at what I have to put up with. Famke, giving me ears.

5. This was a VERY good game. In this picture Jonge is pitching, something he excels at. In the above picture he had just hit a line drive. I circled the ball for you so you can see it.

6. And this is Feintje, who loves baseball possibly even more than his brother.  Here he sits waiting for his brother's team to come up to bat. This picture was actually taken JUST BEFORE his brother hit a foul ball that sped right at Feintje's forehead. THANK GOD for a daddy with quick reflexes, who grabbed the ball just a fraction of a second before this boy would have been clobbered by a speeding baseball.
Oh, and that was only the FIRST foul ball his daddy caught. There was another about to take out a couple of grandparents. He caught that one too.
When the game was over Jonge said to his dad, "You got more action in that game than I did!"

7. This picture is from someday this week after school. It seems to be the "thing" to save some of your lunch or snack to share with cousins and neighbors when school is done for the day. Here they are sharing the wealth, picnic style. Someday they will outgrow this sort of thing and I will be sad. I do hope they remember the fun they all had together.
See Kado? He is the guy in the green shirt. At the baseball game talked about in the preceding pictures he greeted me, as I was grabbing our chairs from the hatch, by saying, "Is that a new hairstyle, or did the wind just blow it like that?" People, it wasn't windy AT ALL. These six grandchildren, they keep me humble.

8. Here sits THGGM, also known as Pake. This is where we sat to watch Broeder's hand puppet show. It's such a lovely setting. Anyway, THGGM was supposed to start his new work from home position on Monday of this week. That didn't happen. Then it was Tuesday. That also didn't happen. On Tuesday it was bumped to this coming Monday, so hopefully that will be his NEW start date. But until then, we certainly have been enjoying the extra days off!  The only problem he has had with this is that since he was going to be working again, he let all the water out of the pool. I don't know what it's been like this week where YOU live, but in West Michigan the weather would have been GREAT for floating around in a pool.  But when it comes to weather, here in Michigan there isn't all that much of it to complain about. The occasional tornado or straight-line winds, summer humidity, and winter snow/ice storms are about as bad as it gets. I think we shall stay right here and let hardier souls deal with the really bad stuff like hurricanes.
9. Last Friday I had my follow up appointment after what shall henceforth and forevermore be referred to as the liver scare of 2017. I'm not going to lie, it was WONDERFUL to have my doctor go on and on about the weight I have lost. He even went back as far as my records there go, and pointed out to me that I have lost SIXTY-THREE pounds since then. He also did some blood work, and my A1C dropped from 6.9 to 5.8 in just six months. So that's all good news. I even got to cut my diabetes meds down by half. Oh, and I even got a flu shot while I was there. Last year I didn't, but I didn't get the flu. THGGM did, and it was awful.
10. Did you notice that there are now TWO American Girl Dolls living at my house? Someday Hertsje will be old enough to bring her doll home (actually, someday her brother will be old enough for her to bring her doll home) and what would I do with no American Girl Doll to fuss about anymore? At least that's how I explained it to THGGM. Thankfully, he saw it my way, and I, a 59 year old grandmother who never was all that interested in dolls when she was a child, is the proud owner of Kit, the American Girl Doll from 1934. I really chose her because she has short hair, and, as mentioned above, I'm really not one to care about hair. Seriously, no matter how hard I try, I never seem to be able to have a hair-do. I have a hair-does, as in, this is just what my hair does, no matter what I (or the non-existent wind) do!

Well, that's ten things. I'm still tired, so I shall go to bed and read until the Kindle falls out of my hands. It's what I do. Or does. Whatever.