I love the smell of new homes, too. That new construction smell just makes me so happy. I used to plan my runs in high school through new neighborhoods so I could walk through them and smell that construction smell. About a year ago the lot next to us turned into a beautiful home after about 4 months which was the ultimate treat for me because I got to see daily progress. It went up fast. And it went up beautifully. My friend Megan built her house in the neighborhood this past year and there have been a few remodels as well. I was nosy with them all and would stop by and peek in on the progress. Each neighbor was great and let the neighborhood walk through once everything was complete. It's really great living in a place where people understand my need to see the finished product.
When Kyle and I were taken to the home of some Virginia Friends just a little over a mile of away that was under construction, the bug bit me again. I had to chuckle because I had passed by this home many times already going on runs whenever I got tired of the river trail. Until then I had no idea I knew the people who were building it. This was a really fun home to watch.
One evening, after being particularly forgetful and arriving to my dear friend Jennie's bridal shower an entire DAY late (yes, you read that correctly), I found myself with a little extra time. The House was not far from the bridal shower, so I decided to check up on the progress. I walked around the outside and admitted to myself I was really curious about the basement and what Sister W. had planned for it. The lighting, the fixtures, the storage and cabinetry...and the carpet. I was really interested in the carpet. I'm in the market for carpet so I've been paying extra attention to that lately.
Down the hill I walked to peak into the basement. I noticed a man who looked to be enjoying his retirement years walking down the path to their home and I waved. He smiled and approached me, "You know the W's?" he asked. Startled and not expecting to meet someone else who knew them, I laughed and said, "Why yes I do! Apparently you do, too!" We had fun connecting the dots about when and how we knew the family and then I asked the man what he did.
"You ever heard of that crazy guy who builds merry-go-rounds to generate electricity in Africa?"
I actually did. I saw a special on it in between conference sessions a session or two (or three?) ago.
"Well, that's me! You should bring your kids over to my garage sometime. I keep a merry-go-round in it."I instantly thought of Cade who is wild about inventions and science and discovery and knew he'd be all over it. He gave me his card and we exchanged goodbyes. After a few tries of getting our schedules to mesh between vacations, going out of towns, etc, we finally found that today actually worked!
Talk about the best FHE activity ever. I was so sad that I didn't get pictures. No camera-- not even my phone-- it was dead. But boy the kids had fun pushing it to see how many watts of electricity they could get up to. {For the record, with Cade pushing it was 80. When I was pushing I got it up to 150. I'm not bragging or anything.} For the first 5 minutes of the fun Ruby kept whining and I couldn't figure out why. She wouldn't sit on it to ride, or stand and hold on. Finally when Brother Markum was explaining something to the kids, we noticed Ruby had started pushing it. Oohhh! That's what she wanted to do. She LOVED pushing it.
Brother Markum was really great at explaining to the kids at their level how the merry-go-round worked and the other ideas that he and the students and BYU had tried out. He was really kind to listen to Cade and his invention ideas, too. He gave the kids photo-something beads that change color in the sun (they LOVED that).
It's really inspiring meeting someone who saw a need and then met it. It all started on his mission to Africa. Brother Markum noticed two key things the schools were missing: Fun and Light. So he came up with the ingenious idea of letting the kids play to get them light so they could go home and study. It is apparent that this man loves the people of Africa so much. In fact, he was working on a science experiment when we arrived. He was using solar attracting material on his driveway to try and heat water to 180*-- a way to make safe drinking water for the Africans.
I was chuckling to myself that it just goes to show that you never know what can happen as a result of random choices-- I never thought that missing Jennie's shower and house-stalking would lead to my kids getting to meet a "Real Life Inventor" as Cade called it, and their very own test tide on the invention. But I am very glad we did. It was an evening of awesomeness.
Once we got home I was spent-- that 1.7 miles of driving really took its toll on me. (Or perhaps it was the entire day of oppressive heat that finally got to me?) Nothing sounded very good for dinner and before I could even ask out loud, "Kids, what sounds good for dinner?" Sweet Savannah announced she was making dinner.
Curious, I took her up on it and in five minutes she had it ready: Two pyrex bowls -- one filled with Life and the other Honey nut cheerios, and a carton of milk. She set the table with bowls and spoons and beckoned us to the dinner table.
Yes, we had cereal for dinner.
I'd say it was an awesome day.
Aaaaand just when we thought the day was over, Melody and Jon and the kids stopped by for a impromptu swimming session for 15 minutes as their FHE activity. Naturally my kids had to join in, so if was a fun way to end the evening.
Now for the ultimate laugh-- we had a closing prayer and song in our family room with Melody's family. Savannah asked Luke to pick the closing song. He answered, "Dat song dat Tyluh likes." And what song was that? "Tell Me Why" by David Aruchuletta.
Unfortunately none of us knew the words to the song, because otherwise we would have totally sung it. Luke was totally devastated that we instead sang "I Am a Child of God."
Can you blame the kid?
{To learn more about Ben Markum's merry-go-round, watch this brief video. If you are not inspired, your heart is a cold, black rock and you need some anti-Grinchy-Scrooge therapy. Just saying.}
No comments:
Post a Comment