GRAND-PARENTING FROM A DISTANCE

I’m blessed to have 10 grandchildren, ages 9 years and younger. They are the joys of my heart and I could easily enjoy being that grandmother who bakes big, fat cookies and  spends each afternoon  sharing precious moments  with her babies. Unfortunately,  my grandchildren are scattered across many miles and though I am blessed to have some wonderful ‘Grammy-time’ memories with them, I just don’t get to see them as much as I like.

Being in the mission field during some of their growing up years and now anticipating our return to a mission country literally across the globe from my sweet ones, finding a way to keep our relationships growing and intimate is very important. We must grab all the opportunities possible to make sure that when we DO get to be together, there is a closeness already established.

I know I am not the only one who has a distance challenge with their grandchildren so a while back I posted a question on my FACEBOOK  page and asked my readers to share their ideas of how to stay in touch with their grandchildren across the miles.  Here are some of the ideas that were shared, along with some I’ve collected and used along the way:

 

IDEAS FOR STAYING CLOSE

 * Phone Calls*

* Email Notes ~ eCards ~ Faxes *

* SKYPE ~ Video Chat Program *

* iPhone4 Face-Time *

* Family Website *

* FACEBOOK ~ Social Network *

* Record Songs, Rhymes and Read-Aloud Stories *

{Lullabies for litte ones, Stories that were your own child’s favorites, Praise Songs}

* Start a Hobby or Collection together *

{Periodically adding new items to your grandchild’s assortment}

* Create A Family Newsletter *

{This is a great idea for one of your grandchildren to head up – let them be responsible for collecting poems, drawings, photos, articles, calendars, book and movie reviews, upcoming events, announcements, etc.}

* Write Letters *

{Enclose stamps, prepaid postcards, and self-addressed, stamped envelopes with a packet of stationery, ink pad, rubber stamp, and stickers}

* Send Greeting Cards *

{Add stickers, gum, comics, coloring book pages, small puzzles, collector’s cards, paper dolls, personalized memo pads, pencil sets, etc}

* Mail Taped Messages back and forth *

* Play a Game – ie checkers, chess — by mail *

* Watch a Sporting Event or Television Show together over the phone *

* Share Recipes *

{Bake samples and send by priority mail; tuck a copy of the recipe inside the box}

* Clip Pictures, Cartoons, Articles *

{Pick areas of your grandchild’s interests to encourage ongoing communication}

* Videotape Important Events *

{Take video of your new home, places you visit, messages to them, etc. and email or post privately on YouTube}

 

These are wonderful ideas for keeping in touch with those special little people in your life. If you have another idea, please be sure to share in the comments section below!

Can’t wait to hear your ideas!

 

 

 

  

{Some of the ideas on this list come from the book, Ready or Not, You’re A Grandparent by Debra Evans}

 

BAKED POTATO SOUP

With spring upon us and the winter ‘soup season’ ending, we were happy to have just one more day of chilly weather to enjoy a pot of warm, creamy goodness. This hearty soup fills the bill perfectly with it’s chunky ingredients, real butter, rich cream, and crumbled bacon. This soup is not the one you’ll choose for it’s low calorie properties but it is oh, so worth it!

 

 BAKED POTATO SOUP

 

5 #’s Unpeeled, New Potatoes {sliced or cubed}

5 ~ 14 1/2 ounce cans Chicken Broth

1 # Butter

1 bunch of Celery, chopped

2 bunches Green Onions, chopped

1/2 cup Flour

3 quarts Half /Half  ~ If thicker soup is desired, reduce to 2 qts

1 # Bacon

1 pint Sour Cream

1 # mild Cheddar Cheese, grated

Salt and Pepper, to taste

 

Boil potatoes in chicken broth until cooked but still firm. While potatoes are boiling, saute celery and 3/4 amount of onions in butter. Stir in flour and enough chicken broth from potatoes to reach a smooth consistency. Drain broth from potatoes into a container and set potatoes aside. Alternately add equal amounts of broth and half/half to the sauteed celery and green onion mixture as it thickens. Then add potatoes to mixture and simmer on low heat. Fry bacon until crispy in a separate pan. Drain bacon and crumble. Put 1/2 of bacon in soup and set the remaining bacon aside. When ready to serve, top bowl of potato soup with grated cheese, sour cream, bacon and green onions.

YIELD: 8-10 Servings

* Soup can be eaten right away but is especially yummy when it sits overnight

ENJOY!!

 

CONSIDER THE WILD FLOWERS

    While on our recent trip to Singapore, we were blessed to be able to spend a short morning strolling through their gorgeous and stunning “National Orchid Gardens“ … a tropical paradise  filled with every kind and color of orchid you can imagine. As we took in the amazing beauty around us, we  were simply awed  by the  abundant and undeniable evidence of God’s existence and power. This is one of the many photos I captured while there. I’ll save the other 1500 or so, for another time ~ smile.

    I hope you feel blessed in knowing how precious you are to the Creator and Sustainer of the beauty that surrounds us.

    Welcome Word-Filled Wednesday and Scripture & A Snapshot followers …  as always, I am blessed by your visit.

    {Note: If you’d like to view our photo galleries of our Singapore trip, please join us at Kendalls:OnMission. We’ll be looking forward to seeing you there}

11 STEP PROGRAM FOR THOSE THINKING OF HAVING KIDS

Life at our house is a bit crazy right now as we prepare for our move to Singapore so I’ve been a little behind in my posts.

If you’d like to follow our journey to Singapore, please go to Kendalls:OnMission. I hope you’ll enjoy reading about the adventure of our recent trip and that you will enjoy getting to know the country through our photographs.

In the meantime, I couldn’t resist reposting this very funny, yet real depiction of child-rearing.

 

11 Step Program for Those Thinking of Having Kids

 

Lesson 1
1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their…
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child’s breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel…
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can’t get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)
Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out…
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Time allowed for this – all morning.

Lesson 6
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don’t think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don’t look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week’s groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.
You are now ready to feed a nine-month-old baby.

Lesson 9
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. I know, you’re thinking “What’s Noggin?” Exactly the point.

Lesson 10
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying ‘mommy’ repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each ‘mommy’; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the ‘mommy’ tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

SURRENDER | Our New Adventure

Ever heard the phrase “Be Careful What you Pray For” ?

It’s always been amazing to me how God takes us at our word and is faithful to give us just what we ask for; especially if we are asking for something that will bring glory to His name. I love how he takes the imperfections of our hearts and the weaknesses of our humanity and does something bigger than we could ever imagine. Such is the case with me … with us {my family and I}.

My husband has been working on his Master’s Degree in Spiritual Formation/Direction ~ a passion that God laid on his heart a short while after we returned to the States to heal from the death of our son. We left the mission field to be closer to the comforting arms of our family and friends ~ not sure we’d ever be able to return to foreign mission work. Certain, at that time, that we’d more than likely not be willing to go again; not to a land far away. Our life in ministry has too often been me (us) declaring and I’m sure, God laughing {you’d think we’d learn}. Then it seems he goes about softening our hearts to be in line with HIS will and not ours. Such is the case with our hearts over the last few months.

Several months ago, while in the midst of his MA research project, my husband came across an ancient prayer. He brought a copy of it home, suggested I join him in praying it daily and then we sat back to watch what God would do with our open heart.  Here is the prayer …

 

A Prayer of Surrender

 Jesus, I am a humble, lowly servant.

Take me; all of me.

Add anything, take anything away;

at any cost, with any price.

Make me yours completely … wholly.

May I not be remembered for the way I wear my hair,

or for the shape of my face, or for the people I know,

or for the friends and crowds that I have addressed.

May I be known for loving you,

for carrying a dream,

for building bridges to the hurt, to the broken,

and to the lost in the world.

Make me what you would be

if you lived in person here where I do.

Make everything accomplished through my simple life

bring honor and glory to you.

Take my human flaws and failures,

and use them to remind those who know me

that only you are God, and I will always be {Put Your Name Here}

and … WHOLLY YOURS.

 

Thus began God’s calling and softening and blessing and opening our eyes to the project that He would have us to join Him in.

So …

We are moving to Singapore … to be a part of something that is bigger than we are and bigger than we could ever imagine. We are doing it with a faithful God who for some reason is entrusting these weak and imperfect servants to partner with Him in His amazing project.

This week we will travel to Singapore to get to know our new city, to meet the people there and to begin making preparations for our June 1 move. Can’t wait to share the journey that God is taking us on.

Your prayers are greatly appreciated!