We had a BBQ on Monday for our non-existent Bible Study this year. The people in the Study exist, but the events of life conspired to make us bat about 4 for 30 in terms of the number of times we met. I think we might have a better contingency plan for next year, live reading Evening Prayer together in lieu of a trained Bible Study leader.
In any case, it was a fun BBQ. Actually, to be correct in terms of the Southern use of language: it was a fun cookout. We didn't actually eat BBQ, though we did talk about the merits of Virginia vs. North Carolina vs. Tennessee BBQ varieties. I am a cultural philistine in terms of BBQ, so I have a lot to learn I'm afraid.
There were five crazy kids in the under-4 category which provided very good entertainment. Some of the highlights:
*One little boy played fetch with another boy. He would throw the tennis ball and the other would retrieve it. Again, and again, and again. The one retrieving the ball has a fascination with dogs, which made it resemble the canine game even more.
*Tucker decided to consolidate all the other kid's lemonade into one big cup. Then he brought it over to another boy to give him a sip, though the end result was that he basically came over and gave the other boy a lemonade bath. Henry was a bit surprised, but was a good sport.
*Henry is turning into quite a dare devil. First he tried to ride this little push car down a set of steep steps, then took to marching around the fence of our large garden... I think maybe he thought if he kept marching around, the Walls of Jericho would fall down?
*The oldest child, a little girl, went to see the chickens upon arriving. There was one egg that she eagerly collected... and then proceeded to hold for about an hour. It was only when we were sitting down to eat that we noticed she was still clutching her treasure.
*Later in the evening, Austin took her dad to see our old well, where you can take the cover off and look down the hand dug, brick walled hole all the way to the bottom. She wanted to look too, and then told her dad that she really wanted to go down into it. Hmmmmm....
*I thought one of the funniest things on the adult side of things was our friend David describing his best job in Northern Virginia, one that was super hard to pry himself away to come to our area. Keep in mind that David is a religious historian, who just graduated from seminary. What was this job, you ask? Manager of a martial arts school. Bizarre.
Signing off for now....
