Driftwood, Grandkids, Pancakes ~ All Weekend Blessings

When we were at the beach last week, I not only hit upon treasures of seashells, rocks, and beach glass, I also found a beautiful piece of driftwood. It was actually a very big, thick, heavy, solid oak plank, and it was about seven feet long. It was beautifully worn and weathered gray. I found it down the beach far away from where we had set up camp, and I dragged it along the sand all the way back with me.
Raymond and his brother Donald were laughing at me, and Ray kept saying that I couldn't be serious about taking it home. I was! And when it came time to pack up and go home, I dragged the plank of driftwood over to Donald's truck and asked him if we could take it and as Raymond shook his head no, Donald said "Absolutely!", because that's how he rolls.
Ray just rolled his eyes, but he helped Donald load it into the car (the plank was so long it went from the back of the cargo area, up past the middle seat where Jayden and I were sitting, and up into the front seat, between Ray and Donald).
We drove to Donald's house where our car was parked and began to unload our things from Donald's car to put into our car. Ray was not thrilled about putting the big old driftwood into his car so Donald offered to bring it to us on Saturday as the guys would be golfing together.
I didn't know what I was going to do with the plank, but it was beautiful, and I was determined to find a use for it.
Well, when I got up Saturday morning, the guys had long ago left for golfing, and everyone else was already up and about too. I got on the computer and read blogs and commented for awhile, and then I made myself a breakfast treat (as my daughter Ellie had made her usual Saturday morning trip to Dunkin' Donuts and always very kindly gets me a wheat bagel) and I made myself a cup of coffee, and I was settling myself down to feast when something caught my eye. On the dining table was sitting something unusual, something I had never seen before. My eyesight is bad and I couldn't really tell what it was and I asked my daughters, "What is this?". My daughter Katie said, "Oh, it's something Uncle Donald made", and then it hit me! That's my driftwood!
I ran over to it and I could not believe my eyes, he had made for me a very beautiful, rustic looking shelf out of my driftwood plank, and he also gave me some beautiful shells to display on it. I seriously was so touched, I had tears in my eyes. And then my daughter Katie said, "Oh no, here we go again! Now she's going to start crying again, and now she's going to have to blog about this!"
And then she says in her Edith Bunker voice (she always uses her Edith Bunker voice when she's imitating me) and she does a little Saturday Night Live parody, "Oh girls, you are not going to believe what Donald made for me! He took my driftwood and made me a beautiful shelf! Oh girls, I'm all 'verklempt' here, I can't even talk about it anymore, I'm so overcome with emotion, so just talk amongst yourselves please, I'm just too verklempt to even speak right now!"
She's a pest! But she's absolutely right! I am overcome with emotion. I am so touched by this gift of his time and his effort.
And, he later told me that the shells were a 'peace offering' because he thought I might be mad that he had cut up my driftwood!
Well, girls, I am all 'verklempt', so please, talk amongst yourselves.

Here's my driftwood beauty:









I especially love the way the wood bows out here and the knot is so beautiful!




We all agreed that our outdoor sink would be a good home for Donald's driftwood shelf.





Some weekend fun!

"Jayden, what's going on?"

"Mia and Erik are hiding from me!"

Now what's going on?

Everyone's hiding from Grandma!

Mia cooking for Jayden.

I guess he liked it!

Pancakes for dinner!

Jayden's Chocolate Chip Mickey Mouse dessert pancake being made on the griddle. He loved it!

After dinner we had a sudden storm of thunder, lightening, hail, and rain, all while the sun was shining! It's been a crazy summer weather-wise! It's been a wonderful summer otherwise!



Have a great day everyone!