ShinnDig!
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Life is more than music and piano lessons...
Life is more than music and piano lessons...: "Families That Hit Pine Cones Together
Life is more than music and piano lessons...
It is said that families that pray together stay together. I think it�s almost equally true that families that play together stay together. If play time is the glue of family life, our family is a sticky crew!
One scorching August day we were trying to escape the heat by retreating to a summer cabin rental at Diamond Lake, high in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. Our little league star, Garin, suggested that we play baseball.
�But we don�t have a ball up here,� I objected.
�We don�t need a ball. We can use pine cones,� answered Garin.
�Where would we play? There�s no clearing big enough,� I countered.
�We can play in the driveway if you move the car.� Garin always was a problem solver.
�Alright,� I groaned. �Come on. Everybody out to the driveway.� I pouted while moving the car. I always was a bad loser.
The driveway to our cabin, you understand, was not the nicely paved driveway you find in subdivisions. Instead, it was more like a wild bear trail, weaving its way between 200-foot pines and spruce and white fur, bordered on the west by Diamond Lake and on the right by the country road. I had visions of the Cincinnati Reds playing the World Series on a motorcycle track. �The boat trailer will be first base,� declared Garin with the authority that only comes with entrepreneurs. �The back of the car will be second, and the outhouse will be third. Let�s use this squirrel hole for home plate. �
So we did.
Mom said to start the game without her. She would be there in a minute. Garin was first up, naturally. He tripled off the Blue Spruce. Conveniently at third, used the opportunity to hurry Mom out of the game by pounding the rhy"
