Choices

Last week the kids spent hours playing with a set of nesting balls. Five sizes, ten halves with a rattly ball in the middle. The little guy watched, patiently, amused, as the elementary and middle school age kids were entertained by his baby toy.

They lined them up on the table, hiding the rattle ball under one half. "Guess which one the ball is under." Random guesses, sometimes getting it on the first try, sometimes on the very last option. The correct guesser hides it next. Close your eyes while the ball is hidden, then open them and make a guess.

Life can be like that.

Close your eyes, then make your best guess.

Should I take this job?
Should we move to this house?
Should we buy/rent/sell/stay?
What will happen if we go/don't go?
How can I know I am doing the right thing?
When will be a good time to take that step?

I did not take photos of their game, but we played Life also, with similar lessons in choice

As the kids played, they added levels of difficulty, hiding multiple alphabet blocks under some. The one with the most wins. Then, they added another little ball. The balls were subtracted from the number of blocks.

Choices.
Unknowns.
Subtractions.
Fear holds you back. What if? What if I don't?

Choices get more complex as you get older.
What do you want for lunch, macaroni and cheese or peanut butter and jam, become career choices or how will we survive?

The best we can do is ask, pray, make the wisest choice we understand. Move forward. We'll never know what could have been. We do know where we are today.

Close your eyes. Make your choice, as best as you know. Life.

Two Cool Summer Fun Ideas

Need some fresh ideas for summer fun? Put together some creative people and ideas are bound to flow. One asks, instead of a water fight, how about a paint fight? The idea grows. I listen, wondering just how far these ideas will take flight.

A trip to the store for washable paints, squirt guns, face paint (for drama), cheap shorts and flip-flops. Dad's old t-shirts, destined for the rag bag will work as wearable paint targets.

They dilute the paint with water in soda bottles rescued from the recycling bin - next time, they will use more paint. Without funnels the squirt guns are tricky to fill, but they figure it out. (Need to put funnels on the list for such occasions). Cardboard pieces are set up as shelters, in theory anyway.

Ready. Set. Go!

Eventually, they escalate to bigger guns, the type that attach a small soda bottle to the high powered squirt gun. They aren't wet enough. Yet.

An afternoon made for memories.

The battle aftermath.

Another idea: the game, Qwirkle

Have you played this game? Good for a variety of ages and abilities - the brilliant and the not so brilliant. I have not managed to win - yet. What category does that put me in? Oh well, the game is fun without a victory.  Lots of color and a different look to each game as the blocks are combined in sets of color or shapes. A great game to build creative thinking skills. And have fun.
Amazon has Qwirkle, sometimes Target (not affiliate link, just FYI).

Listen to the Quiet Voice

I like to win.

I like life to go smoothly.

You are probably laughing right now.

Me too. I know better, but I still get frustrated when I don't win or life's road is rough and bumpy, with tough surprises around the corner.

When I wanted to put one photo on my blog post, the message came up, "Ooops, you're out of space. There is no more room." Argh. Last week our daughter helped me out of the same hole, and I thought we'd fixed it. My computer skills are in the barely-get-by category. Somehow I raised kids who are computer literate - must get that from their dad. They try to help me. Now that most of them are living in their own homes, it is harder to understand by remote. They are patient with me. More patient than I am with my computer.

It's aggravating. My computer, a machine, tests my patience. And I fail. Miserably. Sometimes to tears.

The quiet words, the quiet voice drifts through my head.

Be grateful for everything.

Even an uncooperative, misbehaving computer?

Yes.

I am vividly reminded of my need for grace and mercy. And patience.

I am reminded how much I appreciate each of our children (not just for computer skills).

I am grateful to have a computer and an avenue for writing.

Grateful to realize my whining is incredibly insignificant.

Grateful for a pleasant evening gathered around our table, laughing, drinking hot chocolate, challenging each other in happy games.

Grateful we have a warm, snug house, the snow outside.

Grateful we have cupboards full of food.

Grateful we can smile and laugh and talk together.

Grateful for family fun.

Grateful for time to relax and play and enjoy.

In all of this, I win, and life travels smoothly. Just like I like, grateful and awake to the joy.

(even weeds look pretty in the snow)

Linking with Ann Voskamp, listing One Thousand Gifts.
link to my list

Colorful Possibilities

Our thirty-three year Lego collection: ready for planes and ships and helicopters and race cars and trucks and building hours of fun. It may look like a mess, but think of it as a pile of possibilities...

One of the reasons I love to walk through a home improvement store or a craft store or even a grocery store is to enjoy the sheer potential of the raw materials, the creative possibilities.  You and I could walk together through the same aisles, yet we would come up with different ideas, varied inspirations. Isn't that exciting?  Keeps things interesting.

What do you see here?  A messy pile, or...?

(Dump it all out on a sheet - makes picking up much easier)

Story Cubes

We picked these up when we were Christmas shopping, and I admit I kept them for myself as a writing prompt, a warm-up exercise, like running through scales on the piano, and just for fun.  We have used them as an impromptu game, either taking turns with the cubes to keep the story going, or comparing ideas of how we would create a story from the symbols on the cubes. Nine dice with fifty-four images makes for a whole lot of idea possibilities.

A roll of the dice...
I had trouble with the scales, but here is my first attempt.
A man jumped out the open door of the plane and floated to the ground with his parachute. He landed on a lawn near a fountain.  After he unclipped the parachute, he walked to the closed door of the house and listened.  Looking through the keyhole of the lock with one eye, he saw a little boy sleeping on the couch, his hand on the open book, a scale next to him weighted down with chocolates.
Hmmm, that doesn't really work, does it.

Second attempt: The plane listed heavily to the side like a pair of old-fashioned scales with all the weight on one side.  The pilot ejected from his seat like a fountain shooting out water.  As he fell toward the ground, his hand locked on to the catch to open the parachute.  He thought of all the times in class he had slept when his eye should have been studying the open book before him.  The procedures came back to him, though, even now, and he knew the proper steps to take in order to land safely.
There, that at least makes sense.

Next roll...
The clouds drifted across the moon as the storm built up.  The teacher closed the schoolhouse door behind her and looked up at the sky, questioningly.  Quickly, she put the apple and the letter into her bag and smiled as she felt the toy parachute man she had confiscated from Jimmy that day.  She would have to remember to give it back to him tomorrow. She hurried to her car and the rain drops began to fall.  As she turned the car onto the road, the lightning, attracted to the schoolhouse like a magnet, zapped the sky.  One second later the thunder applauded as the storm broke like a scattered handful of dice rolling across a wooden table.

As my husband said, this is like life.  What may seem just a random roll of the dice, with a bunch of jumbled circumstances, really can fall into place and make sense.