Morning from the Marsh on Bolivar...

OK, Millie, so I've been slack about writing on my blog. Forgive me again. I'll do better, I promise. 

Life is too fast these days and moving much too quickly for me to stay on top of all my doings. Summer is running across the pages of the calendar and I don't get everything done I want to accomplish in any given day.

Still writing for The Beach Triton and two stories due today to beat deadline for printing.  Have the ideas now and will get that done asap. Jan, hold up the presses, please. I'll get right on the stories and get them in to you by close of business today.

Rather bad news at the eye doctor day before yesterday. Been having some bad headaches and Ted made an appointment and insisted I keep it. Left eye has lost ground over the years and the surgery I had on it in fourth grade was unsuccessful, which we already knew. New news was that perhaps treatment could have helped saved some of the sight in it. Was diagnosed as "legally blind" in that  eye with only 20/200 vision and eligible for some help and an extra tax exemption. Good right eye that has always had 20/20 vision now reduced to 20/70 (not good) and is tiring because of doing all the work for two eyes. The doctor explained that the brain sends out the signals for the eyes to see. Left eye won't so strain goes to right eye thus causing the headaches.

Got new, much more powerful glasses and a big black pirate eye patch for the left eye to help reduce the stress by having it try to work. Moral to friends and family – keep those eye doctor appointments and listen to what he or she says.  Great fun for friends with eye patch jokes...My Mom...the Pirate, Captain Wig Eye (courtesy of Brent), Aaaarggggg (in many different versions), Captain MaMa of the Seven Seas, and so forth. Creative friends and family of mine...

Decided I am way tired of being without my faithful dog, Anchor, and found one available from the same kennel where my original one was born and reared in Waverly, Tennessee. Ordered a direct descendant of Anchor from Kodiak, a pure bred Siberian Samoyed, and Steve, my son in law, will pick up and bring him down around the first of August. Attaching a pic of the quite beautiful and charming "Mr. Green," his unofficial name in the kennel, along with his brother. Kennel owner puts colored collars on new puppies to help tell them apart and owners choose "real" names when they are picked up or delivered. There's nothing quite like a Samoyed ball of fur that grows into a wonderful family pet that is not dirty and does not shed. Read up on the breed and you will love "the smiling dogs," too.

(Mr. Green is the sleepy looking pal on the left looking at the picture. His brother is on the right and more awake looking).

We've found a much larger and more comfortable home here on the Gulf to have until we can build again. Marsh cabin is nice enough, and we appreciate the use of it, but small for the three of us. Plans are to relocate by the first of the month with everyone's blessing. Will miss my view of the marsh and all of its inhabitants, but will still be on the gorgeous Gulf. Thank God for good people who care. We need room for family and friends to come and visit and for us to have enough space to do our own things such as reading and games.

Steven begins high school in late August and we are gearing up for that. Today, Ted has Steven and his good friend, Diego, studying the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution. Ever the educator, he doesn't want them to get out of practice during the summer months. Steven is enrolled in the AP or Fast Track program for college and will carry a full load, plus his music, in a few weeks now.

For now, we are enjoying the beach and the lazy, hazy days of summer. 

Until the next page turns,

Brenda

If you have had a change in your address since last Christmas (and many have), please send me a quick email giving me that change along with a current telephone number. 

brendacannonhenley@yahoo.com. Thanks so much. Ours remains Post Office Box 323, Port Bolivar, Texas 77650.  New home phone is (409) 684-7285.

Fun things to do with kids during summer months

I shared last week’s column with some of my friends to get their feedback and I was pleasantly surprised at what I learned. Adults really must work at having fun and educational things planned to do with their children and some families really are getting good at improvising.

It amazes me that the very people we love the most often get our least attention, resources and time. With rising gasoline costs and expensive airline tickets, many of our family members and friends are finding themselves staying home for the balance of the summer and making do with cost efficiency entertainment and outings. Along with the four ideas I listed last week, here are six others that might give families ideas for summer adventures and wonderful memories.

I mentioned turning off the TV for an entire evening, and even though that will strike some as a novel idea, it is a good one. It is frightening how important the television and video games have become in some families. Every room has its own TV and every child has one or more game machines to play day and night. Sitting and watching TV is entertaining, and sometimes educational, but it doesn’t foster quality together time and interaction. I know of at least five families who have planned what they term “family night” once each week when there are usually no guests or outsiders in the home. The concept is growing. Some families choose to play board games, others cook together and share the meal with each member leading the team for one night. The leader chooses the menu, helps to buy the groceries, sets the table and cooks what can be done practically.

Other families choose somewhere in the local community to go together. A friend’s family went to the local water park last week and took a planned picnic dinner to share after the kids tired of playing in the various fountains and water toys. Every member of the family went on this adventure and enjoyed themselves, including the pre-teens and teens.

Here’s an idea that all may not have the opportunity of participating in because of where you live. Two years ago I covered the story in Beaumont of an inner city group growing a simple fruit and vegetable garden on a small plot of land on a busy street. The kids decided to share the bounty with senior citizens who lived in the neighborhood. According to the sponsor of the project, the kids had such fun and the adults who received the fruit and vegetables were thrilled to be included. The kids took real pride in their work and kept the entire area free of weeds, watered and harvested as needed. I went over and took several photographs of the kids with their cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, onions, beans, squash and a watermelon or two.

While they worked to grow the garden, they learned a lot about life. The kids also shared team building skills, responsibility and the beauty of sharing.

If you’ve never taken the time to take your daughter or your son fishing, now is the time to do it. Purchase an inexpensive rod and reel, some bait and pack a cooler with chilled drinks and head to the nearest stream, lake, bayou or the Gulf shore to have the fun of a lifetime. It is not about the number or kind of fish you catch. It is not even about keeping the ones you catch. It is about the wonderful excitement of fishing together. It is an adventure pitting the fisherman against the fish, not to mention the crabs, eels and other unusual things you will land in the Gulf waters. Here at our house, we practice the “kiss and release” rule for most fish, but there are a few that make for good eating if you have someone willing to clean and fillet them for the table.

My husband, Ted, and I took Callie Grace, my nine-year-old granddaughter who lives in Groves, and Steven, who lives in Orlinda, Tenn. fishing in our boat on the Intracoastal Canal last Saturday. We had such fun with our picnic and cold drinks from the cooler on board. Callie wanted to catch fish, but she did not have an extreme amount of patience at first. She thought that as soon as you dropped the line in the water, a fish should bite the bait and let you catch it.

When she did catch her first fish, it was a fighting gafttop that did not want to be caught. It fought, twisted and turned all the way to the side of the boat. Callie was doing the best she could to contain her excitement, but she finally said, “PaPa Ted, hurry and take this fish off my line. He is walking all over the water.” We all had a good laugh at Callie’s description of the fish’s behavior. She was proud of her fishing skills and couldn’t wait to tell everyone at church what she’d done.

The kids will never forget the summer adventures and neither will the adults involved.

One thing that is more difficult for families to accomplish in the busy summer months is simply eating meals together. How many homes use the dining room or kitchen table to store everything from incoming mail, catalogs, hats and sports equipment, raincoats and umbrellas, flower pots to books and tapes? One family I happened to visit recently said that they had not eaten a meal together as a family sitting at the kitchen table in months. I thought that was a sad fact.

Mealtimes are good times to share the day’s activities, who’s doing what and when, things learned and dreams to reach. I fondly recall meals around my grandmother’s kitchen table when everyone took the time to catch up on each other’s lives. Big decisions were made around those pieces of wood and great investments were made in the lives of those gathered around for a meal. Take time to cook and eat together, even if it is only one meal a day.

As much as quality group family time is needed in the day and age in which we live, special one-on-one time is also needed with each person. Plan those valuable moments to share with one child at a time when at all possible. If you are having several grandchildren visit during the summer, try to plan the visits so that each child has a day or two of alone time with the grandparents. You learn secrets, fears, goals and dreams of each child and can have a very special time to store for your own memories.

Make those summer investments very carefully for good long-term results.

Beating the "I'm bored" and "What's To Do?" summer questions...

School days have been over long enough now for the kids around the house to be using the age-old “I’m bored” and “I have nothing to do” or “What can we do today?” conversations. I’ve always taught that busy kids are better kids and that boys and girls with nothing constructive to do get into more trouble than kids whose families plan fun things to do.

Same thought pattern is true with church and school environments. If teachers are prepared and have enough lined up for the kids to do to keep their interest, chances are that the classrooms on Sunday and through the week will be active, fun, learning places instead of places where bad behavior flourishes. For several years, our staff had more than 3,000 kids in our children’s church in Atlanta and we used the concept of “team-teaching,” where one adult would quickly take over from another to provide visual, musical, interactive concepts to keep the kids on their toes. What did it cost? The answer includes a lot of work and a lot of prayer, but not necessarily a lot of money. We always operated on a tight budget in the work of the church.

We demanded the top in musicians and teaching personnel. Our pianist and organist were among the very best the large church had to offer. No one, including the adults, came into that large auditorium to play. No one worked in Super Church because they simply wanted to avoid going to the regular services of the growing church. The volunteers came to work, to provide interesting teaching and a fun-filled day long to be remembered by the church kids who came to the services with their parents and the bus kids who rode in on one of the 53 bus routes all over the Atlanta area. We saw remarkable results with the lives of children being changed, which automatically saw the lives of the moms and dads become different. The child was the ticket into the home to deal with the parent who did not have an interest in spiritual matters.

The same is true in our homes, and believe me, I am writing this column from experience today. I have reared three children of my own and have some seven precious grandchildren whom I keep just as often as I can arrange to do so. And, that’s not counting my years of working in Forrest Hills Baptist Church and in a national ministry where we put our practice into teaching other church workers how to motivate and train children.

Steven, my eldest grandson is now visiting from Tennessee and Brendan will be arriving in the next few days from Georgia. Callie Grace, a local Groves resident, was here last week for three days of fishing, swimming and playing on the beach. I do admit I have a huge resource by living on the Gulf of Mexico, which provides hours of playtime with little money involved other than food and cold drinks to share. The packing of the picnic basket and cooler each day is only one of the happy chores we share before leaving for the beach.

Even if you don’t live on the beach, spending a day in its relaxing atmosphere can change not only the lives of the children in your family, but the lives of the adults as well. Everyone needs a break from the office or plant and from the work of the home. Don’t forget towels and sunscreen and come and share our fun. The biggest expense you’ll likely encounter is gas for the car and food for the stomachs. But, oh, what memories you’ll be making for a lifetime. Don’t forget to include the camera to record your adventures and a pail or bucket for all the things you’ll catch in the surf. Steven and Callie caught a collection of crabs of all sizes before they released them at the end of the day.

What are some things you can do with your kids, neighbor kids or relatives during the summer hours especially? Have you thought of gathering them around you and telling them a story? Younger children especially loved stories and older family members really do have a yearning to learn about their family history. Throw in a few photographs and a few collected artifacts and you’re set to go for a good couple of hours. Every adult has the potential to be a really good storyteller if they only practice their craft. You can also take advantage of free story times at the local libraries. Choose a visual to really cap off the time together. No cost involved here with this fun-time treat.

Plan a simple picnic. We have to eat anyway, so why not make it something special? The food choices do not have to be elaborate. Make a few sandwiches or a good salad, some cookies and plenty to drink and head out to a local park, the side of a stream. Half the fun is packing the picnic basket and cooler, spreading the colorful cloth and simply being together. If you find you’re in a really big hurry, stop by a fast food restaurant and pick up the treats to share.

Here’s an idea I caught in a television program the other morning. Plan a fun “stay-cation” for your family. With the high cost of gasoline, much of our travel will be eliminated for this summer. Rather than “vacate,” your home or lawn, plan to stay there and enjoy a special event. Decorate one room or a patio or porch with a theme, make some food to go along with the idea and gather the family for an outing without leaving home. I have in mind a summer luau on the back deck with leis for each neck, some fruit from the islands, music from our stereo and decorations I have on hand from another event. Take pictures and make a photo album together to ensure the kids don’t forget the stay-cation together.

This idea might not go over so well at first, but after you’ve tried it once, the family will likely come around to your way of thinking. Turn off the TV for one night and do something together as a family. Play a board game, a round of cards or listen to music. Choose questions from a prepared stack and let each family member or guest answer the one they pick. Play an old fashioned game of charades. Use a theme to make it more interesting. For instance, I made a group of nursery rhyme characters to use in charades and each family member and guest has to act out one or more the choices. What fun we had playing charades and no cost was involved at all since I used the backside of cards I already had.

Plan quality time to spend with your children. It is far better to build boys than to mend men. Works for girls, too.