(left to right) Kira, Kaya, and Kiri

My daughter, Kiri, and my two lovely granddaughters, Kaya and Kira, are here for the summer.

Kaya is about to turn ten and she’s almost as tall as I am. Which means that she’s going to be way taller that either I or my five foot five daughter. She’s the meticulous sort, who approaches every project we do with studied concern.

Kira is seven and cute, cute cute. And unlike her older sister, she’s the kind who throws herself into arts, crafts, and music, and exercise with abandon.

As a former teacher, empty time reminds me of the old saying: “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” So I came up with a schedule for the summer. Our days begins with breakfast, then clean-up, an art or craft, followed by some outdoor activity, then quiet time, reading, followed by writing in their journals. Then Mom comes home from work and plays with them until bedtime.

Yesterday we decided to explore the water and shores around the pier. I took the scenic route which gave us the opportunity to talk about any subject the kids wanted to discuss. Kaya, the serious one, brought up dying. Does it hurt? What do you see after you die?

I told her that if you love Jesus, He’s right there when you move from this world to the heavenly world.

“But does it hurt?” insists Kaya.

“Sometimes, ” I answered, “but with lots of people, they simply go to sleep, like your grandparents who were very old when they passed on.

We parked in Fairhaven and walked about half a mile to the pier. The next two and a half hours the girls spent getting wet, building rock towers, exploring under the pier, and finding some remnants of a homeless person’s camp, and getting very sandy and dirty.

Kaya wants to go back soon and explore the homeless person’s place again. Hmm, maybe I can distract her.

In two days, their cousins are going to be here for a whole week. My house will have to accommodate  three more kids and two more adults, ten in all. Pray for me! We’ll go to Whidbey Island and hike around Deception Pass and maybe even climb an old lighthouse. More about that next week.

It’s wonderful to share my life with my precious children and grandchildren. I hope that I leave them a legacy of faith and of love and connectedness.

I remember when I was in labor with my first born and I had found a scripture verse to focus on during those long painful hours. Psalm 127 says,

“Children are a gift from the Lord;

They are a reward from Him.

Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.

How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!

I birthed three children, and now I have nine grandchildren.

My quiver is full of arrows from God!