My Uncle Kenny lives right here in town…and my aunt and two of my married cousins. Seems like everyone is running in different directions much of the time…but we try to get together off and on (although not enough). It’s comforting that even though we don’t have any of our immediate family in town…we DO have family in town.
I always call Uncle Kenny to come over when I make my potato soup or fried chicken. He LOVES my potato soup and my fried chicken. And…he’s a chiropractor, so I go visit him and get occasional adjustments (for the family price of free…although I usually take him a jar of potato soup or some cookies!).
Last week Matt and I had a soccer banquet to go to. Uncle Kenny has told us to bring the boys over anytime when we needed to go somewhere…but I’ve hated to take advantage of that too much. (Plus…we really just don’t have that many places to go!) I called and asked if he’d keep the boys while we went to the banquet…and since it was during dinner time I offered to bring a big pot of potato soup.
Uncle Kenny chuckled and said that while he loved my potato soup…why didn’t I just take the night off from cooking and he’d cook up some burgers for the boys? Wow. Well, okay.
We saw him at church the Sunday before the banquet and he went on and on about how excited he was about the boys coming for the night. He made it sound like we were HONORING HIM by LETTING him watch our boys for us.
They had a blast with their Uncle Kenny that night. They downed the burgers and chips and cookies (who wouldn’t have a blast with a menu like that!?)…then they watched a movie until we got back to pick them up. I’m not kidding…we walked in the living room…and all four of them were sitting all in a row on the couch like four silent little angels. Wow…Uncle Kenny must have magic powers (either that, or they were in a sugar stupor). :)
Uncle Kenny talked about how much fun it was and about how good they were and about how we’d have to do it again sometime.
I’m so grateful to have him in town and that he is so willing to love on our boys (and us). And…I really want to take an important lesson from our experience that night: Whenever we offer to serve someone by babysitting or otherwise…I want to make the recipients feel like it is our privilege to serve them…like Uncle Kenny made us feel. What a tremendous gift.
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What are you grateful for this Gratituesday? Read the guidelines here, then come link up with us and share how God is working in your life!
NOTE: Next week we’ll take a break from Gratituesday (although please feel free to have a grateful day next Tuesday! ;) ) We’ll pick back up with Gratituesday on Dec. 30. For our final Gratituesday of the year…I’d love for us all to share How God Was Great in 2008! Please make plans to join us for the How God Was Great in 2008 edition of Gratituesday on Dec. 30!
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Oh how nice to have a boysitter. Sounds like they all had a great time!
You are so blessed to have family close, even if it is extended family. We have some friends that are “like” family, but it isn’t the same.
Toni
We never would have had any dates were it not for friends who would help us out in our time of need. We know that we’ll be on the giving end now that they’re on the babysitting needs side of things. Plus The Girl is now old enough to start babysitting. Our friends feel great about having a capable, trustworthy sitter and The Girl feels great about having a little extra cash!
Aw, I’m thankful for your Uncle Kenny too! What a fun night for your boys!
I wrote about my Mom in my Gratituesday post, but I couldn’t get by at ALL without my Mother-In-Law. She watches our kids all the time, so we can do simple things like grocery shop or just get out for a meal together – and she helps me run my business so I can keep it afloat. It’s entirely possible I would be insane by now without her :-)