A “10” for Everyone
What a joy it was on Monday evening to meet excited grandchildren at the county fair. They came running with arms outstretched—so fast that I was a bit afraid their hugs would knock me down. I assure you that the hugs were worth the momentary apprehension. They couldn’t wait to show us the ribbons they had earned for their artwork, models, and baked goods.
If you are blessed with a county fair, it can be a great place to give your children a place to display their artwork, crafts, and cooking. Many of you may also show farm animals or garden vegetables or flowers. As we walked around the fair with our daughter’s family, she expressed her surprise that more parents don’t give their children an opportunity to enter their creations in the fair. It is definitely work for both child and parent (our 11-year-old granddaughter got up a long time before her usual waking hour to bake goodies to enter), but it is fairly simple to enter an art or craft project that was completed during the past school year.
The fair was a regular late summer activity in both Ray’s and my childhood and something we always enjoyed. My mother volunteered to oversee the sewing entries for many years. I enjoyed taking our children to my hometown’s county fair to visit Mother there and see her in her beautiful booth.
Our grandchildren were excited to visit the petting zoo after showing us their fair entries.
We enjoyed listening to an excellent Christian band playing on the arena stage. Three members of the band are homeschool graduates we have known since they were children. All of them have acted in many plays of the Homeschool Dramatic Society. We are grateful that a Christian presence is welcome in our area. Our music teacher had told us that morning that he had led a prayer at the fair the evening before.
Of course, the midway was a main highlight for the grandchildren. Ray and I joined them there until our bodies told us it was time to go home about 9:00 p.m. Ray enjoyed watching the children have fun and sweetly carried around my heavy purse with our water bottles and snacks. As you can see, I had a blast riding with the grandchildren!
The view from the Ferris wheel was beautiful . . .
. . . especially the view of the moon in the nighttime sky.
I also enjoyed walking hand-in-hand from one kiddie ride to another with our four-year-old grandson who was too short to ride many things his older siblings could ride. He was too short to go down this slide by himself, too, but tall enough to go down it in his Little’s lap. Wow! FUN SLIDE was an apt name!
What a wonderful multi-generational experience we all had at the fair. The combination of ages worked great. Each person had the opportunity to experience their “10.” In a way, it was like what you do every day if you are homeschooling children of various ages or what happens during a family vacation. Aren’t those wonderful days when everyone can look back and relish the opportunity to experience their own “10” and see the joy of the others experiencing theirs?
Two are better than one
because they have a good return for their labor;
for if either of them falls,
the one will lift up his companion.
But woe to the one who falls
when there is not another to lift him up!
Furthermore, if two lie down together
they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?Â
And if one can overpower him who is alone,
two can resist him.
A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12