Wednesday night picnic August 24

 The last family picnic of the season--we're sitting at a picnic table with Bob and Pat Borean in the foreground and a few others enjoying hot dogs, baked beans, macaroni salad, chips, watermelon, cookies and lemon-ade. You can see us in the second photo too, Bob in the navy shirt on the white chair.  Games for the kids, always fun to watch.

  

Right here in Ohio, there are crazy folks

'Shoot the president': School cancels assassination party game for kids after public outcry | 18 Feb 2019 | A college running a community arts center in Ohio was forced to stop advertising a party game where kids are instructed to 'eliminate' the president with toy guns, after it sparked national outrage. [If there was national outrage, I didn’t see it in Columbus.]  The game entitled 'President' had been advertised as a part of NERF gun-themed party organized by the Olmsted Performing Arts community center in Berea, a suburb of Cleveland. "There is one president with body guards. Everyone else tries to eliminate or shoot the president," read the description of the game on the center's website, since deleted.

https://fox8.com/2019/02/14/shoot-the-president-party-game-at-local-performing-arts-center-raises-concern-in-community/

There doesn’t seem to be evidence that Democrats in the arts center came up with this “game,” but I can’t imagine that Republicans did.

Baldwin Wallace acquired Olmsted Performing Arts on January 1, 2019.  Of course, an apology was issued to “anyone who was offended.” Here’s my suggestion for an apology:  “BW believes this game is offensive and dangerous, we’ve removed the staffer who planned it and we apologize to all, especially the president and his family.”

BibleOpoly

We had lunch at our friends' home yesterday and then we divided into teams and played BibleOpoly. Lots of fun and laughter, as we paid rent, took offerings, went to purgatory/meditation, the abyss, passed Go, bought property in Tyre and Corinth, while we bought materials to build our churches.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bibleopoly-Board-Game/11035061

My mother was ahead of her time

" 'Gamification' means turning something that previously was not a game (for example, learning to use a library) into one. The idea is that by adding fun to a previously dull task you can increase participation and learning." (ACRL, Keeping up with gamification) Ah ha! My mother was ahead of the curve on this one. Whenever she was assigning or teaching a new task she would say, "Let's make a game out of this." I was no dummy--I knew I'd be spending an hour or two of MY PLAY TIME wiping down stairs, mowing the lawn or digging potatoes. To this day I don't like games. But I pulled the same line on my children.

I'm not sure she how called it a game, but she divided our  rather large lawn on Hannah Avenue in Mt. Morris into four sections, and assigned it for mowing by our size, strength and age.  Eventually, as my oldest sister moved out, and my younger brother got bigger, I think the two of us probably took over most of that, and eventually it was all his. Until I found this photo of Stan mowing the lawn, I thought we always used a push mower.  When he and I were quite young and we lived in Forreston, she'd give us a tool and turn us loose on the yard to dig dandelions.  She'd sort of make a contest out out that, but also gave us a penny per plant dug up. There was no way to make snapping beans or pitting cherries into a game; we just had to suck it up and do it.  I don't recall ever being asked to help with canning; she probably thought that was too dangerous, or it was just easier to do it herself. 

 http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-children-need-chores-1426262655

Stanley mowing the "back 40" in summer 1953

Face time, not Facebook

Today's surprising conversation at the coffee shop at Coffee Spills, where I record that sort of trivia.

When I'm 64

John Lennon and Paul McCartney's love song When I'm 64 was sung last night at a birthday dinner for Carol, who is now 64. When people in their 20s write or sing about age, they probably don't expect to ever actually be there because it is so far off (some having a better grasp of this than others, obviously). Sharon and Eric hosted the party and we played Apples to Apples after dinner which was lots of fun, especially for me and the birthday girl who really don't enjoy games much. Certain readers of this blog wouldn't like the game because the players use words and make comparisons, but we all had a lot of laughs.

3193 Euchre Ministry?

Our church newsletter has a notice for signing up for a group to play euchre. It is a small group for the over-30s, and they'll gather for prayer requests, short devotions and then an evening of fun and relaxation playing their favorite card games. Sounds tempting--I'm always looking for good clean fun with a few prayers thrown in, but I'm just really awful at cards. I consider euchre the national passtime of Indiana. When I first married into the family, we lived and socialized in Indianapolis. If you didn't know euchre, well, you were just an object of pity. Each time we play, my patient husband has to reexplain all the rules, and I still goof up. Also, I hate to compete. I don't like for anyone to lose, which is a bit of a problem with games. There are winners, but not without losers.