We were blessed to babysit our grandson, Landon last night while his parents went on a date. He arrived just in time for supper, which was made much more fun by his presence. Hearing a toddler point and say 'ketcup', then pouring him a glob and watching him dip his little green peas, one at a time - fun, messy entertainment! We played til he was good and worn out, then moved on to bathtime, and ended with nighttime rituals of prayer, singing, kissing all the stuffed animals goodnight and tucking him into the crib.

In spite of the monitor being quiet, about an hour later, I crept upstairs and took a peek. Seeing his little body stretched out in the crib, deep in sleep, snuggling a favorite toy - oh, such sweet stuff. Grandkids truly are a wonderful payback for putting up with your own kids for 20 something years.

So while we had 'Bubby', his parents went off for a carefree evening. When they got back to our house to retrieve their baby (the best part of grandparenting!), we asked how their evening went, where had they spent it? Leslie told us they started at Olive Garden, using a gift card for dinner. She told me they sat and enjoyed watching several families, who had their children along for the ride, pulling out toys and crackers and whatever, trying to entertain them while getting a biteful of food into their own mouths now and then. She said watching the other families made her quiet dinner even more pleasurable. I have to assume they weren't sitting too close!

Then we asked, 'so did you take in a movie, go to Barnes and Noble?' They told us they went to the dollar theatre but nothing really grabbed them or was playing at the right time, so they headed to Home Depot.

Home Depot? On a date? Ends up they were pricing dish washers, shutters, kitchen countertops, all the stuff dreams are made up of. They're in the beginning stages of house shopping, trying to find a house to buy, that they can afford now, but will fit their needs a bit down the road. Anything they've come up with needs a bit of TLC, so they decided to spend their evening dreaming, making plans, counting the cost of adding feathers to a little nest for them.

Such good stuff - when a life is made up of evenings where dates are spent dreaming at Home Depot. We were able, off the top of our heads, to tell them what a dishwasher and shutters cost, because we've been down that road many times. We've done a lot of dreaming. They're just at the start of it, and it was a blessing to us to watch over their little one while they walked up and down the aisles of the home fixup store, making plans, then coming home to tell us all about it. That which makes for a rich life, surely this is it.

Labels: Family Affair, Glimpse of the Heart