Amazing Play Days

Somehow it seems we've been able to keep ourselves 

entertained both indoors and out, regardless of winter

weather. Here are some samples from Jan. and Feb.

Evan designs an indoor tent.  He now has double the
building materials he had before Christmas.

Well, it's all framed up. Ready for furnishings.

An indoor man cave, with skylight for the TV.

Evan is willing to share his man cave.  Ryan is matching
Star Wars cards very adeptly.

Claire and Grandma toil away creating rubbings from kits
Jennifer and Amanda once played with. We have everything from
Barbie to monsters.

A good afternoon's work.

Some of Claire's favorites.

Ryan is quite a design man, too.  You notice, he gravitates toward
most things big bro and sis like. But he's his own man.

Evan and Ryan turn our dormant garden space into a fort.
They use a tarp, two sleeping bags, a quilt, and four blankets
to create impenetrable walls. Or force fields. 

Evan got Grandma into lawn bowling.

He did let her go first. 

Evan shows us how it's done.

Claire is creating a magnetic zoo of animals with a kit I got at . . .
you guessed it -- the Coalition.

Animals with magnetic personalities.
Like Claire.

Ryan and Evan love to wage battle with spinning tops.
They can do some mind-boggling attacks.

I didn't really believe Evan and Ryan could use every piece in
building their balancing tower.  Here's the next-to-last piece.

Ryan gets to add the last piece.  No pressure.

Amazing success!

This is a castle craft kit with working catapult that we gave Claire
for Christmas. She had started painting it the very next day and
her finished product shows great diligence and attention to detail.

The "girls" love to create outfits with our magnetic figures.

Evan and Ryan set the stage for an epic confrontation between
good and evil.  

Naturally, they put me in charge of the evil characters and
proceeded to wipe me out. I mean crushed!

I had wondered if it was time to get rid of the old Fisher-Price
playhouses and people.  No NO NO! That's our VILLAGE!

As long as they like it, it will be here.

Evan had been playing basketball with Grandpa non-stop, but
paused to check out the village.

Not only is Evan more knowledgeable about basketball teams
and players than any second grader I know, his skills are far
advanced for that age.  And I know, because I remember barely
knowing what dribbling was when I was 8.

Here's Evan a.k.a. Zion.

I'll close with this picture of Ryan doing what all

red-blooded American boys always try to do.

Why, dig to China, of course!

Stay tuned for more action!

Holiday Happenings 2018 Part 2: Christmas in Atlanta

Judy and I both come from families where large

gatherings are automatic at Christmas. I remember

going to Mama Loyd's every Christmas Eve of my

life until I moved from Atlanta after college.

As Buddy, Caryn, and I grew up, friends became a

regular part of Christmas get-togethers, often including

a game of RISK or musical revues. 

Whenever possible, we prevail upon a friend to snap

a memory shot of our full family.  Sometimes that wasn't

possible.  In this one from 1998, one important person is

missing.  Judy!  She volunteered to take the picture.

In it are my Mama and Daddy, my sister Caryn, her 

husband Steve, their two daughters Brantley and Lindsey,

my brother Buddy (Ellis), me, and our daughters Jennifer

and Amanda. I won't attempt to tell you which is which.

Either you know them or you don't.

Mama lived another ten wonderful years after that,

passing away the day after Valentine's Day in 2009. 

She parted with us just two months before Brianna,

our first grandchild, was born.  I like to think that they

waved at each other coming and going to and from 

heaven (it's not THAT sacrilegious).  In short order

Claire arrived, and less than two years later came

Hunter and Evan. Daddy was able to see and hold all

four of them before his passing in 2012.

Below: Christmas 2009, Grandpa Loyd meets

Claire and Brianna.  Notice Mama's photo on the

piano, a reminder that she was with us, too.

I wonder what Claire and Grandpa Loyd were talking about.

Christmas 2011.  Hunter and Evan have joined us now.

Grandpa Loyd with his four (first four) grandchildren

and their parents.

 Christmas 2012, Daddy's last Christmas.

My, how the kids have grown!

Here it is Christmas 2018, 20 years after that first photo.

Mama and Daddy are with us in spirit only, but I can

only imagine their joy at how the family has grown.

This is 5 year-old Ryan's first Christmas in Atlanta,

and as for baby Bennett, has just turned five MONTHS

old since this picture was taken. Our number is 19.

And the third grade teacher in me says, 

"And that's a PRIME number!"

 For readers who may not know all of us by sight,

here are Amanda, Stephen, Ken, Judy, Bri, and Hunter.

Here are Jennifer, Judy, Ken, Matt, Ryan, Claire, and Evan.

At Christmas and always, Judy and I count our blessings.

2019 is sure to be overflowing with them once again.

Holiday Happenings 2018 Part 1

Us Loyds have a long-standing tradition of stretching

our holidays w-a-y out. Even longer than the traditional

twelve days of Christmas. Buddy, Caryn, and I have 

probably been accused of becoming teachers just for

the two week break (don't knock it).

Let's look at a few special moments in the week leading

up to Christmas.

One day it was just perfect for the Kirby kids to roast marshmallows
in the chiminea.  We burned up a ton of pine cones, too!

For the 42nd Christmas in a row, Judy and I snared a tree in the wild.
This one was a "rescue" tree.  The railroad had tried to mow it down
last year, but just pushed it over.  I straightened it and with a year of
good rain, it survived. Until ... well, you know ...

These Christmas stampers had not seen action for 10 years--
since I retired from teaching.  But I knew the right time for
them would come.  And this was the day.

Santa's workshop and three hard-working elves are busy creating.

Evan's creation.

Claire's creation.

Ryan's creation.

Even the sand pile took on a festive note.

Hunter and Bri came all the way from Georgia to get their presents
early. Hunter is a master at Legos, so this should be no problem for him.

Bri leans on her new plush pillow while reviewing a treasure
trove of new books.

It was just four days before Christmas, but we had saved two
stockings full of ornaments for Bri and Hunter to add to our yard.

Welcome to the North Pole.

It started like this three weeks earlier.  Five stockings full of
ornaments for five grandchildren.

Evan and Ryan decorated the back entrance.

Claire did most of the front yard, which Bri and Hunter added to.

You know I'm always up for a new game. At our old property we
made up a game where the children had to follow a trail of orange
cones over our whole 10 acres to locate the missing toys. Here,
we had a smaller area to work with, so I changed it to "The Grinch
Stole Christmas." 

Santa's helpers, with their sleds have to search all over, to find the
red and green balls which represent all the children's toys.
This wasn't as easy as it sounds!  Some were hidden in Mrs.
Frisby's cinderblock house!

Before heading back to Georgia, Bri gave us a taste of her latest
gymnastics routine. She wowed us, even with limited space--
and no balance beam.

Hunter was equally impressive with a performance of his latest,
longest, and most complex "form" in Tae kwon-do.  As a teacher,
the positive learning aspects to these activities just leaps out at me.
Memory, coordination, and self-confidence are just a few benefits.

The Kirbys got their presents on actual Christmas Day. Claire
loves her pillow.

Ryan is excited by his Magnetic Ninja Turtles kit.

And Evan is thrilled with his RISK game.  It wasn't that easy to find,
but it was worth it. Fun for the whole family. AND risk!

Ryan may be too young to appreciate it, but he's holding a
Chinese-English New Testament.  Claire and Evan also received
one.  Perhaps one day some of them will want to study Chinese.
Perhaps not . . .

Claire had recently had a medieval times celebration in her
school class, so this castle craft kit was ideal for her.

Then there were even more presents at Granny and Granddaddy's
house just across the street.  Um, nothing for you, Grandma.

With a fine Christmas lunch devoured and all presents opened,
admired, and packed up, there was still Grandma and Grandpa's
play yard for entertainment.  Ryan mastered the Sit-and-Spin today.
The same one his mother spun on about 35 years ago.

So those are some of our holiday happenings.  But Part 2

would be days later when we headed for Atlanta. Coming soon.

Mary, Did You Know?

I have loved Mark Lowry’s “Mary Did You Know?” ever since I first heard it years ago. I’m glad it has become a modern Christmas classic and that its meaning-laden lyrics are so widely spread abroad at this season.

The song asks many poignant questions of Mary. In fact, I counted SEVENTEEN questions! You’d better check for yourself, just in case.

Of course, the implication is that Mary couldn’t have imagined all the life-giving and life-changing events that were to come through her child. No human could have imagined it all, even after visitation by an angel.

But God certainly prepared Mary and gave her assurances through that angel.

In Luke 1: 28-33, the angel told her:

“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you. . . . Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.  You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Her trust in this remarkable revelation is clear from her response: “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” In the same chapter she visits her cousin Elizabeth, who will soon bear the son who will be John the Baptist. Her wonderful pronouncement of praise at her growing understanding is called the magnificat in the Latin Vulgate translation. That word begins her “hymn” with “My soul glorifies (or magnifies) the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

I’m very thankful that Mary’s very thoughts and words have been preserved as a testimony to us through God’s Word, the Bible.  Have you ever wondered how the gospel writers knew such intimate details of Jesus’s birth, not to mention his three years of ministry that led Him to the cross? Luke 2:51 says “But his mother (Mary) treasured all these things in her heart.” 

The disciple John tells of Christ’s charge to him from the cross, that on that day John became a son to Mary and she became a mother to him. “And from that time on the disciple took her into his home.” What a blessing to both John and Mary.  We don’t know how many years they had, but this may explain why John is the only gospel writer who told of Jesus’s very first miracle—changing water to wine at the wedding at Cana.  Not only was Mary present that day, but it was at her urging that the miracle took place.

Mary, do you know?  I believe she knew all she needed to know.  As tragic and heart-rending as it was for her to see her son Jesus crucified, that meant she was the ONLY person privileged to know our Lord through his entire earthly existence. She had seen simple shepherds and wise kings kneel and worship at his manger bed. She had heard Simeon and Anna prophesy and bless him at the temple.

I would love to know everything else that Mary DID know.  It would be fascinating.  As John said at the close of his gospel, “Jesus did many other things as well.  If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”  What an amazing statement.  And I don’t doubt its truth.

In our lifetime we can never know all that Mary knew.  But thank God, we can know all we NEED to know.  That God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

If you haven’t really gotten in the Christmas spirit yet, I suggest you take time to re-read any of the gospels in the next few days.  Not just the Christmas story, but the whole Good News. 

                                

  *****************************************

Here are the lyrics to “Mary Did You Know?” if you’re interested:

Mary, Did You Know? By Mark Lowry

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know
That your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered
Will soon deliver you

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will calm a storm with His hand?
Did you know
That your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little baby
You've kissed the face of God

Mary, did you know?
The blind will see
The deaf will hear
And the dead will live again
The lame will leap
The dumb will speak
The praises of the Lamb

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know
That your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding
Is the Great I Am

Oh Mary did you know?