10 Ways to Spend a Summer Day with the Children or Grandchildren

Summers "On Layton" have taken on a new excitement.

From the mid-1970's to the early '90's my boys busied this yard on Layton with bikes, bugs, basketballs, and plenty of buddies. And then there were a few decades of silence.

But 2014 has brought a new crop of children. . . the sons and daughters of my sons. It's exhilarating, although often wearying, to be back in the business of creatively making every day interesting and fun. (By the way, that's just another thing I love about God . . . He gives us second chances.)

Entertainment and fun were far from my primary goals as a mother in those early decades. The name of the game then was survival! But I've graduated. I bear the title "Grandma," and that title inherently carries with it the desire to excel in the eyes of my grandchildren as a fun-maker. How can I make every day they are here memorable? What can we do that will cause even a hard-to-please nine-year-old to say, "That was really a great day, Mama Jo!"

All my grandkids with Great-grandpa Joe on a Super Summer 2014 Day.

  

So "Master of Fun" is one of my primary goals these days. It's a worthy calling for a retiree, and I'm sticking to it.

But there is an added dimension that makes each  "fun" day with my grandchildren memorable. God says in Deuteronomy 6:5-7, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."                

So woven into our play time are reminders of who God is, how much He loves them and has sacrificed for them, and how He has a great plan and purpose for their lives. The highest goal is to see these children into God's Kingdom . . . and we've had plenty of fun this summer as we do that.

10 THINGS WE DID THIS SUMMER THAT "SCORED" . . . IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE:

1. We read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis. Then we found the videos at the library and watched them several times.


2. On Tuesday and Wednesday throughout the summer Regal Theater in Dickson shows a $1 movie at 9:30am. Walking with Dinosaurs is coming up in August.

3. We picked blueberries but missed the annual tractor ride to pick strawberries at Pallman's.

4. On Tuesdays kids can play mini-golf for free at Lahey's.

5. Our area parks are wonderful! Who doesn't love splash park at South Abington? Scott Township has a super slide affair at the end of Layton Road. And Waverly Community House takes the prize with their wooden consortium.

6. Back porch board games. Monopoly is our all-time favoite.

7. Kids Bowl Free at Idle Hour Bowling Lanes is a wonderful program. Each week we receive new coupons for the kids to bowl two free games every day! Shoes must be rented. The program goes on all summer. Idle Hour also has a glow-in-the-dark mini golf that the boys enjoyed.

8. House projects that can involve the skills and strength of the children cultivate a good work ethic. This summer we cleared a part of our yard of undergrowth and had to rake rocks, reseed, and hay. Good exercise. Good learning.

9. Local camps and vacation Bible schools are well planned and creative . . . and they fulfill both of my summer goals with the children. This year we enrolled in Evangelical Free Church's Bible Camp at the Joe Terry Center in Montdale. What a fantastic day camp! Baseball players from the Rail Riders, animals from Pocono Environmental, a juggler ala smoke and swords, games, inflatable water slide, and on and on. Local churches really do a marvelous job. In addition, there are local day camps like Big Blue Soccer Camp at Baptist Bible College that my grandson loves.



10. Our piece d'resistance each summer is the annual camping trip with the entire extended family to Knoebel's Amusement Park. Roller coasters and bumper cars are the favorites, but nothing tops the whole family around an evening camp fire with s'mores, songs, and stories.

GERSHWIN WROTE, "SUMMERTIME AND THE LIVIN' IS EASY."
BUT I SAY, "SUMMERTIME AND THE GRANDMOTHERIN' IS FUN" . . .

And that's the way it is this July . . . On Layton.

   

Feature Blog: On Layton: The View from My Front Porch - PAHomepage.com

Feature Blog: On Layton: The View from My Front Porch - PAHomepage.com

A Friend of "On Layton" Publishes Her First Novel

Cindy Noonan, Clarks Summit resident and
author of Dark Enough to See the Stars.

Cindy Noonan, a Clarks Summit resident and a member of my writers' group, published her first novel in June with Helping Hands Press. Of course, our group is thrilled for her. She may be the mother of the novel, but those of us in the writers' enclave feel like the mid-wives who helped to bring it into the world. Consequently, we want to brag on the baby a bit.

Fortunately, bragging on the novel is not an exercise in blindly extolling the merits of the book just because we offered help with comma placement and plot development. The novel can stand for itself in quality and readability.

Dark Enough to See the Stars is an historical fiction story of a boy's escape from slavery on a plantation in Maryland. The heart-wrenching separation of young Moses from his mother, who is being sold South, propels the initial action of the book as he squeezes Mama's pillowy arms for the last time at the railroad station and takes off into the frightening unknown of life on the run from the slave catchers.

The reader follows Moses across the border into Pennsylvania and freedom, only to discover that slave catchers roam the countryside in search of escaped slaves, even in this "free" state. He spends days in "hidey-holes" in logs and caves, traveling by night. Moses is aided by abolitionists in Pennsylvania and New York who transport him secretly from mills, to barns, to homes with hidden cubby holes and safety. Always, he follows the North Star, the ever-present guide and comfort Mama told him would be his direction to freedom in Canada.

Moses' adventures along the Susquehanna River and other familiar places in PA and NY bring home state geography and history alive for the reader. Cindy spent several years writing the novel, due in no small part to her extensive research into the places, people, and events of the Underground Railroad. The result is a novel that will be a living history lesson, not only for the young adult reader but also for anyone interested in the making of freedom in America.

The novel offers admiration for the black slaves who faced beatings and torture, the dissolution of their family units, and a relentless daily cycle of fear. The novel also offers inspiration for anyone facing the difficulties of life. It reassures us that in the trials of life, there is hope. Life's dark moments only served to highlight direction and hope.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, "Trouble is in the land . . . But I know, somehow, that only when it's dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working . . ."....


Author Cindy Noonan has given us a novel of worth and value because she has given history a heartbeat.

Visit Cindy's website to purchase a book: www.cindynoonan.com or visit her page on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Enough-Stars-Cindy-Noonan-ebook/dp/B00KRPWHLS/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405389068&sr=1-1&keywords=cindy+noonan


The first four chapters of the Dark Enough to See the Stars are available at http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Enough-Stars-Cindy-Noonan/dp/1622085345/ref=la_B00KRT5RAC_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405389383&sr=1-1