The Fruit of the Spirit is not a Banana

In the beginning of January, Honor was invited to the birthday party of one of her best little friends at church. the party was at one of those ceramic places where the kids get to choose something to paint and then it is glossed and returned to them a week later.  Honor made a dog. She loved that dog.

Thursday, as I was helping the day program clients with the horses, Ariana came running outside. This is only allowed under the strictest emergencies.

Ariana: "Mommy! Come quick!  Samuel broke Honor's dog."

Yep. That is an emergency.

I quickly excused myself and walked inside to find Honor.  Samuel was sitting on the couch, crying.

Samuel: "It was an accident! I didn't mean to!"

Mommy: "I know, Honey. Where is Honor?"

Samuel: "Downstairs."

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting to find when Ariana came to get me.  Certainly I was expecting a fight of some sort. That is typical of children who have lost their favorite toy. I was expecting something along the lines of Honor screaming at, and maybe even hitting, her younger brother. I was not expecting to find Honor quietly sweeping up the shattered pieces of her dog. Connor and Ariana stood hovering over her in uncertainty, knowing they needed to grieve with her, but not sure how to help ease her pain. As I got closer, huge teardrops poured from her eyes, but not a word was spoken until I enveloped her in my arms.

Mommy: "Oh, Honey. I am so sorry!  I know how much that dog meant to you."

Honor: "It took me two hours to paint this dog. I was so careful with her collar. I did my very best and now it's broken!"

Mommy: "What happened?"

Honor: "Well, I was playing with her on the costume box, but before I could put her away, I was distracted by something upstairs. I didn't know Samuel was coming down here! And then he picked it up and accidentally dropped it.  I shouldn't have left it out!"

I hugged her for a while and tried to soothe away her pain, but eventually it had to come to an end.

Mommy: "Sweetie, you know you need to forgive Samuel, right?"

Honor: "I don't think I can right now, Mommy."

Mommy: "I know it is hard, but you need to do it. Not for Samuel, but for you. If you do not forgive him, you will feel worse, I promise you that.  Would it make it easier if you knew that he is upstairs crying right now? He feels really bad."

Honor: "He is?"

I shook my head yes and finished sweeping up the mess for her.  She followed me upstairs and immediately forgave Samuel.  Not a word was spoken about the incident since.

Honor continually amazes me in the simple ways she exhibits the love of Christ. Her maturity level exceeds many adults I know. I can only pray that as she grows older, the fruit in her life continues to grow as well.

Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Bullseye!

We have been bowling a few times as a family. We have played darts a few times as a family. We have a Wii. There is a bowling game on the Wii.

Connor: "Bullseye!"

Mommy: "No, Honey, it is called a 'strike'."

Connor: "No, Mom, that's in baseball."

Mommy: "It's in bowling too."

Connor shrugs and continues the game. I return to the other room where I attempt to get some work done. 

Two minutes later...

Connor: "Bullseye!"


It's as if I run my life with the mute button pressed...

Not to be morbid, but...

Am I the only one who thinks about what songs I want played at my funeral?  I never really thought about the songs I wanted played at my wedding until after I was engaged, but I've always thought about what songs I want at my funeral.  "How Great Thou Art" is a must. Also, if my family could stand it, I'd sure like "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes...but that would be hard to find I think. I'm adding this song into the mix. It sure fits how I feel every morning when I do chores and every night after the kids go to bed...and how I'm sure I'll feel as I get to meet my Savior face to face.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPwYyj6uR1U

Boys and Their Toys

After working through my morning farm chores, I had to use the restroom. REALLY badly.  So I rushed into the hall bathroom..and stopped dead. The wall behind the toilet (and the toilet itself) was dripping wet. I immediately called upon the nearest male to answer for this atrocity. 

"CONNOR!!!  Did you PEE on the wall in here??????"

"No!"

"SAM-U-EL!!! Get in here!"

Samuel came forward slowly, recognizing that my tone was not as pleased as he perhaps expected.

"Samuel, did you pee on the wall???"

"Um...yes."

"WHY????!!!!!!!!!  Why would you DO that???"

"I wanted to see how far I could get my pee to go up."

He also got a chance to see how far up his arms could reach as I made him scrub every last inch of the bathroom for the next 30 minutes...

(By the way, when Samuel had to confess to Daddy later in the day, Daddy wisely turned away before laughing at Samuel's explanation.  He dutifully scolded him with a straight face.)

...How was YOUR morning?

Wish I Would Have Caught It On Video--Part 2

We watched The Amazing Spiderman this evening.  Daddy and I let the kids watch the first part, but once Lizardman showed up, Honor decided it was too scary and the movie went off. (We agreed the the kids had seen all the cool, hero stuff and didn't need to see the monster parts...)

Though only witnessing his hand regrowing (as a human), Honor needed extra comfort before bed, so we went into my bedroom to talk. As I was praying with her, we heard what sounded like pounding on the glass side of my open window...except it is impossible to pound on my window as there is a "walk-out" basement door directly below it, leaving about a five-foot space between my window and the ground. This added to Honor's nervousness and we immediately left the room.

Ariana soon enlightened us to what the noise was.

"Connor was practicing his Spiderman jumps on the [glass] door downstairs."

Why do my children love hospitals so much???

Wish I Would Have Caught It On Video--Part 1

I made tuna fish sandwiches for dinner tonight. Three of my children like these. Samuel does not.  But, as is required, he sat at the table trying to psyche himself out to take a bite before being dismissed. After a while, he got up and got a glass of water. Before returning to his seat, he stopped to ask me a very serious question.

He backed up to me as I was putting leftovers away; his right hand pointing to the top of the back of his head, his left hand pointing closer to the hairline at his neck.

"Mom, are the eyes in the back of your head, here or here?"


Needless to say, I sat at the table and watched him closely as he took his mandatory bite.

Daddy...Dinner

Mommy: "Honor, please go let Daddy know that dinner is ready."

Honor and Samuel run into our bedroom.  Honor comes out, followed shortly by Samuel.

Mommy: "Is he coming?"

Honor: "Yep. I said the magic words."

Mommy: "Daddy, please come to dinner, I'm hungry?"

Samuel: "Your food is getting cold."

2:30 A.M.

I was having a nice dream. I don't remember what exactly, but I remember that it was good and I was very comfortable.

And then it happened.

"mom..."

Thinking it was part of my dream, I just added it right in there and continued to sleep soundly.

"Mom..."

Boy, my new Snoogle is comfortable.  It's like sleeping in a nest of clouds.

"MOM..." and a cold nose touches mine, because Ariana thinks she's a kitten and obviously the best way to wake up mama cat is to nuzzle her nose.  It did the trick.

"What is it, Ariana?" I whisper, trying hard not to wake up Daddy.

"I'm thirsty. I need a drink of water."

"Then. Go. Get. One."  My 2:30 a.m. mommy skills are not the most patient.

She leaves the room and turns on all the lights in the living room. Knowing that her cup is sitting there on the kitchen table, I give her a minute to drink and turn the lights back off before heading downstairs. 

Five minutes pass and the lights are still burning brightly in our bedroom.

I leave my Snoogle.

As I enter the living room, Ariana exits the bathroom. "What are you doing?"

"I had to go to the bathroom before I could drink my water."  (enter subtext of 'and play with things in there while I'm at it...')

"There's your water, Ariana. Drink up and get back to bed. Now."

She does. 

Of course, now I have to pee.  Got to love pregnancy.  And while I'm on the toilet, I think back to how much water I drank today because dehydration is a big thing for me and it's really bad when you're pregnant. I remember drinking 20 oz. in the morning before devotions and then heading over to Steph's. She was kind enough to give me a bottle of water because she was watching out for my baby's safety (and her unborn baby's...two days apart).  Then I drank a caffeine-free pop...because the kids dumped foam peanuts ALL over the basement where we do school and they broke into little pieces and I can't handle that mess so I needed sugar to calm me down.  Then I drank another 20 oz of water....maybe two.

Wait. 

Steph gave me a bottle of water.  Which reminded me of this Facebook status she wrote the day before:

I just caught Evie peeing on a 24-pack of water bottles sitting in our hallway. You'll be happy to know she inherited my sleep-walking tendencies

Um. Yeah.  Dehydration suddenly isn't sounding so bad.

How Considerate

I love that Ariana refuses to use the name "Dumbo" because his mom named him "Jumbo Jr." and that's his name. Anything else is just mean.