Scotter spent Saturday morning with Poppa.
He was half way through his feeding and just up from his nap in this picture, so pardon the “just hurry up and take the picture so I can eat” look.
Wednesday night Papa Foutz came into town on his way home from blessing our new little neice Amelia in Boston. His three days here were a delight. I have to admit to being a bit nervous about how things would pan out between the two of us, as we would be spending most of the day together as Tom would have to work. I decided to just treat him as I would my own dad. The tactic worked seamlessly. I didn’t put on any airs, and neither did he. We trampsed around Cleveland like father and daughter, I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more.
Thursday we took advantage of the sunshine in the morning and cleaned out the garage, raked the leaves, winterized the yard, and set up a compost heap. Yes! a compost heap, I’ve been wanting to start one since we moved here, but uncertain about how, I never did. Stan ingeniously used some plastic chicken fencing and stakes we had around. It’s nothing fancy, but just the trick for corralling leaves and providing a designated spot for throwing organic waste. We’ll see how it does. I’m exited! Thursday night, while I was at rehearsal, Stan and Tom set up the downstairs to be a more functional rec/media room- moving around the furniture and setting up an old TV we acquired so that we could play stuff from our iphones on it. (Leave it to the Foutzes to come up with such techy wonders!) Now I can do my yoga from the big screen.
Friday we went to the Art Museum first thing. Stan has been studying art history in his free time. (More on that in a bit.) We enjoyed sharing interpretations and asking questions. I loved how Stan was so open about what he did and didn’t enjoy. Scotland enjoyed himself, looking at fine art and people watching. I was thrilled to find some new works amongst the galleries I’ve visited several times, as well as see paintings I’ve seen several times through someone else’s eyes. I was amazed how after our visit I noticed the sky more- wondering what sort of sky I would choose to paint if given a canvas.
Over the past few years not only has Stan studied Art History but Opera, orchestral music, and broadway musicals. In an effort to seek after anything virtuous, lovely, praiseworthy or of good report. He’s subscribed to this lecture series that is essentially a college course on the above topics with video and PDF worksheets. I was inspired by his aspiration to seek out the beautiful, and decided that I am going to make a new goal to attend every new exhibition that comes to the art museum for the rest of the time I’m here in Cleveland. I’m really excited about it. A Rembrandt exhibition is coming in February!
Poppa Foutz with his compost pile
After our cultured morning we headed off to the outskirts of Chagrin Falls to pick up, of all things, Alpaca manure. This is another “to do” I’ve had on my list for years. We got a whole truck load for free and came home and layered it over the garden. A friend said that the raised beds he used alpaca manure in grew plants three times the size of the beds without. So that’s what I’m hoping for- I’ll let you know how it goes. Again, I was thrilled that Stan was ‘game’ for this exciting pursuit, as I’m afraid his son has been less than enthusiastic anytime I’ve brought it up.
Freshly laid alpaca dung
For dinner we went to Hoggies for pulled pork and cornbread. We joked about how we became more and more debased as the day went along. Then we returned home and Stan and Tom told mission stories, many of which neither had heard. We laughed and delighted in the warmth of family.
Scotland loved being with his Grandpa. He gave him lots of smiles and jabbered on with him. It was so nice to have Stan here, because Scotland was completely himself. Sleeping in his own crib and maintaining (for the most part) his normal schedule, he was happy and playful the whole time.
