Coffee at the Nursing Home

Yesterday I made over 17 dozen cookies. Today the kids and I took a whole bunch of them to coffee hour at the nursing home. Grace handed out napkins, Jacob handed out the cookies, Jadyn pushed Grant in the stroller and I was in charge of introductions. Some people really wanted to talk, some people clearly did not want to talk and then there were those who wanted to talk but I could in no way understand what they were saying. So that is when I was just smiling and shaking my head. I felt terrible but felt worse when I kept asking "Excuse me? Can you repeat that?" But let me tell you....my kids rocked! They were so amazingly great!!! They smiled, said hi, attempted small conversation and even ended up doing a puzzle with one lady. The aide told us that she was "having a bad day" because she could not find her purse (it was in her room all the time), so she brought in a puzzle for the lady to work and Grace went over to help her. Then Jacob got in on it and by the time they were finished Jadyn had even gotten in the mix. The aide came over to me and told me that the kids doing that made that lady's day. How awesome! To God be the glory! Then there was another man who apparently did not care for kids too much. A nurse came to me and told me that she was talking to him about the kids and the cookies and he told her that if he saw more kids like those, he would like kids. He said that they were so well behaved. Oh, thank you Lord! And thank you to my kids for being the way I know you can be - sweet, compassionate and loving. Of course, once we got home all the fighting began, but I was so thankful that while we were there they all got along and no one whined or complained. The funny thing was when I asked them if they were ready to go home, both Jacob and Grace said no. They wanted to finish the puzzle with that sweet lady. All in all, it was a great time but I was very drained afterwards. I don't know if it was all the smiling or what, but I was exhausted, and so very filled.