August 4, 2016<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today is the last full day of watching Sagey, Stor, and Caney while Lauren and Daniel are in Amsterdam celebrating their 15th<\/sup> wedding anniversary. Unlike in past \u201ckids-watching\u201d times, this one was extended and l o n g! At first, it was keeping the way things are in this household with the thought that I\u2019m here for only a moment in time. But soon I came to the realization that 11 days was a marathon rather than a sprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To maintain \u201corder,\u201d I kept things simple and within reach. Eating meals at home achieved the goal of ending hunger without the challenges of hunting for vegan food. We did go to Veggie Grill before watching \u201cFinding Dory.\u201d And on the next day, we ate at Veggie Grill again with Jackie Chou and kids (Madison, Parker, Quincy and Jacob) before spending some wonderful outdoor activities at the Corte Madera town park playground. The hit was the climbing wall that stretched the older kids\u2019 agility. Sage spent a day with Po Po in her office as a volunteer and I took Stor and Caney to Lawrence Hall of Science where they enjoyed climbing on the whale and DNA structures the most. Physical exertion is what they do best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The kids have been on their devices a lot. They watched many episodes of \u201cLiv and Maddie,\u201d a Disney sitcom with Dove Cameron playing the roles of twin sisters. The situations that the show portrays reveal good values of growing up in America. Sage and I bought a Monopoly game as a way to teach her about the \u201cSpirit of Capitalism.\u201d I bought over Qwirkle and only Sagey would play with me. We played twice not keeping scores except how many Qwirkles (6 in a row) we got. Afterwards, we would make a \u201cdomino-falling\u201d design with the Qwirkle pieces. It works!<\/p>\n\n\n\n On this last full day, I will be finishing up pretty much all of the food that Lauren purchased for us plus augmenting with some more fruits and ice cream. Daniel and Lauren created a \u201cCamp Yeh Yeh Dinner Scores\u201d rating chart for the kids to evaluate my dinners each day. The average so far is close to a perfect score of 4!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I realized that I can still do this and do it somewhat well. I\u2019ll be watching Greg and Heather\u2019s kids for about 5 days in November\u2014that should be a \u201cwalk in the park!\u201d We believe that God always gives \u201csecond chances\u201d throughout life. And if I may have made any unforgivable mistakes raising Greg and Lauren, I am grateful for this second chance of helping raise up the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tomorrow I\u2019m planning to make my signature Boston fried rice for Lau and Daniel\u2019s homecoming. On Saturday, I get a haircut after almost 7 weeks\u2014being retired means having straggly hair is okay. On Sunday night, I\u2019m on a red-eye to Chicago and then next Thursday, a trip to the Boston to speak two times. It\u2019s back from being full-time Yeh Yeh to being a Baptist minister again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" August 4, 2016 Today is the last full day of watching Sagey, Stor, and Caney while Lauren and Daniel are in Amsterdam celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary. Unlike in past