Monday Night (Battleship) Madness
October 26, 2024 (Timewarp story from September 27, 2024)
Monday Night (Battleship) Madness
This was a Monday night. Most Mondays during the active public school year mean middle school youth group for Jillian and Anastasia. This has become the wash-at-the-laundromat-race for us too. One Monday, with laundry already done, Aunt Becca was able to ride along with us to middle school youth! It turned into a time of laughter, fun, and battleships! Lucas loves battleships!
Our church has a wonderful outdoor area with a little gazebo/shelter place with wooden seats outside of it that are just a little wider than a beam (Thea and Jaquline love the beam) and a fire pit area.
For me, it was the planning stage of our building mode so I was proudly showing off (okay, nervously, but Becca always appears to enjoy me trying to show her my visions etched in crooked pencil lines on a flat bit of paper).
Family time squished into our hectic schedules to give each other some encouragement. I can show off my sturdy triple bunk bed plans with storage to Christina’s requested heights. Louis probably won’t want me to actually build them – he only seems to remember the items I made at one point when I only had trash wood to work with. I’ve never liked my trash wood creations either. I’ve only worked with bought wood for the ones that lasted but that period in our lives was before Jaquline so long ago. It’s nice to chat with someone who has seen my good work and remembers it once in a while! Becca is so encouraging!
Lucas loves games! Battleships with all the tiny pegs is the only one of his legitimate war games that is easily portable. Our chess set is not. Risk is definitely not. His wars with random blocks do not count. Lucas has the skill to turn any group of objects (acorns, pinecones, rocks, lego bricks, jenga blocks) into military units with powers, skills, and formations (too many Epic History TV episodes watched).
Challenging Aunt Becca to battleships makes for a perfect evening in Lucas’ mind! Jaquline and Thea show off their beam skills on the wooden benches. Jaquline is just a bit beyond the middle school age group and she hadn’t been needed to pick up a shift that evening. Thea thinks she’s equal with Anastasia and Jillian, but then she thinks she’s able to do everything Christina and Rebeccah can do now that she can read.
It was “B3” and “Oh No!” and “I got one!” and “missed me!” and “you sunk by PT boat!” squeals that ricocheted off the surrounding trees. I smiled and at this point was working remotely.
Other voices rang out with, “did you see my passe leap?” and “this is my best turn” and “beam is harder on this wood” and “let’s do runs, Jaquline!” and “you go do runs, Thea” and “see, my best cartwheel!”
I love family! I love this stage of our building at our property and our growing of our crop of kiddos.
Christina and Kimberly have work and practice, respectfully, so are unable to play taxi for our middle school youth girls. I love Jillian’s leader! I want her to love discussion and to ask questions as she appears to do so based on her stories of what they talked about in youth. I want her to build close connections with trusted adults other than me. In addition, right now I need to wash clothes once a week at a laundromat – so the fact that the one we’ve used for 20 years sits across the street from my sister and niece is perfect for taxiing the girls while getting stuff done.
Thank you, Jesus, for family! Thank you, Jesus, for time and love and fun board games and gymnasts who like to workout and time chatting with my sister! Thank you, Jesus, for the leaders who volunteer to lead our youth forward toward a better relationship with You!
I’ll drive around a lot on Mondays for the moment, work, laundry, youth, (sometimes more laundry), grocery store, youth, Becca & Anastasia’s home, and finally home. And I’m so thankful for this!
Find what could be mundane to you; when you feel like complaining about it, look for an element in it that allows you to do something fun! I could look at being gone from home the entire day as tiring and drudgery. Instead, I choose to see the excitement of spending time with my family! What mundane task tempts you with complaining? Find the happiness in it and see how your mood lifts! (and if you are mom, you are the Chief Mood Officer of your family – remember that your mood lifts or lowers that of your children!) When I try, I choose joy!
Thank you for reading!
Type at you next time!
~Nancy Tart
