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 “kids-watching” 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’m here for only a moment in time. But soon I came to the realization that 11 days was a marathon rather than a sprint.
To maintain “order,” 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 “Finding Dory.” 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’ 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.
The kids have been on their devices a lot. They watched many episodes of “Liv and Maddie,” 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 “Spirit of Capitalism.” 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 “domino-falling” design with the Qwirkle pieces. It works!
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 “Camp Yeh Yeh Dinner Scores” rating chart for the kids to evaluate my dinners each day. The average so far is close to a perfect score of 4!
I realized that I can still do this and do it somewhat well. I’ll be watching Greg and Heather’s kids for about 5 days in November—that should be a “walk in the park!” We believe that God always gives “second chances” 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.
Tomorrow I’m planning to make my signature Boston fried rice for Lau and Daniel’s homecoming. On Saturday, I get a haircut after almost 7 weeks—being retired means having straggly hair is okay. On Sunday night, I’m on a red-eye to Chicago and then next Thursday, a trip to the Boston to speak two times. It’s back from being full-time Yeh Yeh to being a Baptist minister again.