Funny Bone

One of the things that makes life easier is a sense of humor.  Many times, it is hard to see the humor in a difficult situation while you are in the midst of it.  However,  if you can distance yourself from the  difficulty for a moment, many times, the objective view can be amusing.  Sometimes distance only comes with time. 

One of my goals is to cultivate a sense of humor in my children.  People who cannot laugh at themselves really take themselves too seriously.  At least, that is my oh-so-humble opinion.  :)

There are some amusing things that do not really need distance to appreciate them.  Daniel’s jokes, for instance.  The kids have, for some time, enjoyed riddles, jokes, and the terrible puns that they find on the back of Laffy Taffy.  Example:  “How do you keep a lion from charging?”   Answer: “Take away his credit cards.”  You get the idea.  A parent can only take so many lame jokes in one day, especially when you are all trapped in the cab of the truck together.

Daniel has taken this method of amusement to a whole new level.  He makes up his own jokes.  It really is funny to hear the riddles with which he treats us.  Most of his jokes have a similar theme – either something is crossing the road (what do you expect from an evangelist’s kid?) or they are jumping on top of something else.  Another point to note is that no matter what my answer is, it is always deemed correct, no matter how absurd it is.  When the other family members try to answer, their answers are always wrong (unless he has specifically directed the joke to them).  It is nothing short of blatant nepotism and favoritism.  It cracks me up!

Here are some actual jokes that he told recently.

Daniel:  “Why did the bison cross the road?”

Me:  (looking in the back seat and noticing that his shirt and tie were all askew) “Because he wanted his mama to button his shirt and put on his tie.”

Daniel:  “Yeth!” (he has a slight lisp on his s’s) “Okay, now this one is for Daddy – Why did the ice cube jump on top of the Popsicle?”

Paul:  “Hmmm… Why did the ice cube jump on top of the Popsicle?”

Daniel: “Yeth!  That’s right! Daddy got it!”  (This is where I start laughing, since Paul didn’t even attempt to answer the question and still managed to get it right.)

Daniel: “Okay, this one is for Mama.  Why did the carrot cross the road with the Popsicle (Popsicles are also a recurring theme)?”

Me:  “Um, because they were both orange.”

Daniel:  “Yeth!  Now this one is for everyone – Esther, Abigail, Josiah, Daddy, and Mama, and I can answer it if no one else knows the answer!”  Once again, I crack up at the totally crazy way he entertains us.

And on and on it goes, until we can’t take any more.  We have to limit him to about a dozen jokes, or it just gets out of control.  Like I said, you can only take so many jokes, especially when you have to make up all the answers on the fly.  But I love the fact that he is learning to appreciate humor.  It will come in handy.  Although at this point, I would still advise him to keep his day job.  :)

A Mama Moment

The other day, as I was busy in the church building, my youngest child, Daniel, kept interrupting my work to tattle, complain, and in general, inform me of all the perceived evils of his short life.

I listened the first several times, expressed my sympathy (not very sincerely, I am afraid) and tried to finish my work.  The interruptions continued, and actually increased in number to the point that I knew I would never finish what I was working on unless they stopped altogether.  It takes time for this mama’s brain to refocus once the train of thought gets derailed… several times.

In desperation, I told him that he was too tired to handle life, and that he needed to go back to the trailer and lie down on my bed.  I would be over in a little while.  Sniffling, he obeyed, and I breathed a sigh of relief when peace reigned supreme.

About twenty minutes later, I had finished what I was working on, and went back over to the trailer.  I cleaned up the kitchen, then moved on to the bedroom where I had a towering mountain of laundry to fold.  I noticed that the pillows had been rearranged, but chalked it up to the busy munchkins who live in our home.  Then I noticed this:

Two little feet sticking out from underneath the pillows.  My eyes nearly bugged out of my head!  I had totally forgotten about Daniel!  Ever been there?  Sure enough, he had come back, laid down on the bed, and fallen fast asleep.

Apparently he had piled the pillows on top of himself to keep warm (the AC is right over our bed) and would have been totally invisible except for those two little feet sticking out at the bottom! :)

Upon closer inspection, I could just barely see his head sticking out near the top of the bed.  He slept like a little turtle for hours!  He must have been exhausted!  And the best part was, when he woke up, he was his usual, happy little self again.  Love this little guy!

Sunday Morning Milestone

Every mother dreams of the day when her children are able to dress themselves to go to church on Sunday morning.  My three eldest children are quite capable of dressing themselves without supervision, although they still need a collar turned down here, and a sash tied there. 

I am pleased to announce that my youngest child is now able to put his church clothes on by himself.  Here he is – ready for Sunday School!

He is so pleased with himself!

Ahhh!  I have arrived!  Now I can spend an extra twenty minutes getting myself ready.  :)

So Great Salvation

Last we was a frenzy of activity, since we were home for a few days.  I made a list and was checking it twice, trying to make sure that I completed all the necessary items before leaving town for a few months.

Winter clothes were removed from the trailer, summer clothes were dug out of storage bins in the house and placed in the trailer.  Junk was discarded, too-small items were given a new home, school books were switched out for the approaching school year (I really don’t even want to think about school starting yet), papers were graded, new clothes were sewn…  You get the picture.  The kids, reveling in their summer vacation, were everywhere at once, dragging out toys and games, and generally making a huge mess wherever they went.  It was absolute chaos!  Add to that, our church was hosting our annual missions conference that week, too. 

It was one crazy schedule.  There were times that I sighed within myself and wished for one whole uninterrupted day to get some things done.  Thursday was especially hectic, and my attitude was one of despair as we hustled out the door to go to church that evening.  I still had so much to accomplish, and I didn’t even seem close to getting it all done.  I am ashamed to say that I thought about staying home.  However, I went.  I decided that I would honor the Lord and just let the house be a disaster, if that’s how it ended.  I am so glad I did.

That night, in the invitation, Daniel, my youngest, asked me if he should go forward.  “Why?” I whispered.  His serious little face looked up at me and said, “I need to get saved!”  My heart leapt for joy, and I sat down and held a whispered conference with him, asking why he thought he needed to be saved, what is sin, and was he a sinner.  He answered each question with understanding, and I told him we would wait and talk with Daddy(who was playing the piano) after the service.  I knew Paul would want to be a part of this precious time. Accordingly, he talked to Paul, who quizzed him over the same things and was satisfied with his understanding and answers.  Then Daniel bowed his head and prayed the sweetest little prayer, asking Jesus to forgive his sin and come into his heart.  Tears of joy ran down my cheeks and I hugged him tightly, thanking God that salvation is so simple that even a little child can comprehend it. 

The next evening, since it was to be our last night at church for several months, Daniel was baptized.  It was hilarious!  The water was quite deep, so the pastor had placed a stool in the baptistery, but it floated away when he turned his back to reach for Daniel.  He picked up Daniel, who was quite excited until he saw how deep the water was, and the baptism proceeded.  Daniel had such a death grip on the pastor’s arm that he could hardly extricate himself.  In the end, Daniel was baptized, and we praise the Lord for this first step of obedience.

Excitement and anticipation

Explanation of what will happen in the baptistery

Getting ready to go in the water

Uh-oh!  This is pretty deep!

There is no way I am letting go of Pastor’s arm!

Down into the water!

My sweet boy!  I am so proud of him!

Spring Offerings

I love the advent of spring with all of its beautiful flowers and gradually warmer weather.  After the drab and barren winter landscapes, the buds, and bright blooms bring fresh life and hope. 

The Bradford Pear trees are glorious to look at, but dreadful to smell.  The kids have decided that they smell like  old fish.  Ewwww!   I am rather inclined to agree!

You can tell Abigail didn’t really care for the fragrance of the Bradford pear blossoms!  It cracks me up to see her picking flowers and holding stuffed animals while toting her sling-shot around in her hammer-holster!  She can be quite dangerous!  :)

Daniel, not to be outdone by his sister, wanted to pick some flowers for Mama, too.  The problem is, he isn’t quite tall enough!  He first tried to climb  the tree.  That didn’t last long.  Then he tried jumping and reaching for the lower branches, all to no avail.  I had pity on him and pulled a branch down to where he could reach it, but the stems were too tough for him to break, so he moved on to greener pastures.  Dandelions…

His little self-satisfied smirk makes me laugh!  He was quite pleased.  Looking closely at the flowers that were given to me, I was amazed at the ethereal beauty of these common blooms.  What a lovely gift from God!  Purity and simplicity all around us, available for our enjoyment!

Take time to smell the dandelions!  I’d hold off on sniffing the Bradford Pears, though!  :)

Fun with Cupcakes

My two older children had a church activity last week, leaving the younger two sitting at home despondantly.  I had a motherly moment of “Awww… They need to have something special to do while their siblings are bowling and eating pizza.”  I landed on the idea of making cupcakes.  I would allow them to decorate the cupcakes (shudder)  and eat some. 

What excitement reigned when I unveiled my surprise!  I gave them each some icing and sprinkles, and they set to work.

I had to remind Daniel not to lick the knife…

Esther was quite good at putting the icing on the cupcakes, but Daniel fretted over getting it on his hands, especially since he was not allowed to lick it off his fingers!

They were not the most artistic cupcakes I have ever seen, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?

And they were quite tasty!

I love the fact that we had a fun time together.  One day, they will all be gone (sniff) and I guess Paul and I will have to make the cupcakes by ourselves! :)

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Right on the heels of my birthday comes Daniel’s special day.  This has been a crazy week for our family, having just arrived back in town.  It seems that this time of year has extra extra-curricular activites – practices, hunting, birthdays, holidays, etc.  I am scrambling to get all my regular duties done, and as if that wasn’t enough to keep me busy, I have taken on a few projects of my own.  I will write more about these next week!

We are so thankful for Daniel. He is a ray of sunshine in our lives, and is such a happy-go-lucky little guy (most of the time). We celebrated his birthday last night due to some schedule conflicts, but who really cares when you get cake, ice cream, and presents!

Here is his cake, a delicious confection of chocolate.  He wanted a train cake, which I had been planning to do, but since it takes hours to ice it, I opted out of that at the last minute due to a lack of time. This is just a simple two-layer cake.  It has a creamy homemade chocolate icing, and a hot fudge/crushed oreo filling, reminiscent of those wonderful Dairy Queen ice cream cakes.  It was a real sugar overload! :)

Then after cake and ice cream, it was time for presents, of course…

He was thrilled with the homemade cards that his brother and sisters gave him, and the Lincoln Logs were also a hit!

The crowning joy of his evening, though, was his new Beanie Baby, Max.

My baby is four now. Sniff!  Where has the time gone?  We love you, Daniel! Happy Birthday!

Diggin’ Daniel

Last week, we were able to spend a few days with Paul’s parents while we were between meetings.  The kids spent a lot of time gathering eggs and feeding the chickens.  The chickens are largely free-range, so they like to eat grubs and worms.  After finding this out, the kids were all about digging worms and grubs out of the garden area (since no plants were still growing there, this was actually okay).  At any given point in the day, you could find at least one of the kids with a shovel in hand and a bucket full of worms close by.

Daniel was cracking us up as he dug.  The shovel was taller than he was, and he hefted if while huffing and puffing, and occasionally stopping to say, “Whew!”  He actually found several worms, to his great delight.

Every kid needs to be able to get down and dig in the dirt for worms.  It builds character or something like that! :)

October Days

We are on the trail again, after several months of being in Mississippi.  It has been an epic trip, with us traveling all the way to Minnesota!  It was a long drive, but we were able to break up the trip with a stop in Missouri, where we saw some college friends.  I always enjoy our infrequent visits with college friends. 

Paul is participating in a men’s retreat this weekend, and I am going to be part of a teen girls’ activity: Cupcake Wars!  I think this weekend will be exciting for all of us! 

The weather here is quite a bit cooler than the weather in MS, and I was delighted to see that we are here in the beginning of the fall color.  We have some fall foliage in MS, but nothing makes brilliant color like the extreme northern temperatures.  The days are cool, and the nights cooler, but the skies are blazing blue, and the contrast of the leaves is breathtaking!

I took the kids outside yesterday to get a few pictures.  That went as well as it ever does, with as many chin shots, closed eyes, open mouths, and weird looks as usual.  I was persistent, though, and ended up with a few good shots.

This was the best of the group shots.  Love the nose wrinkle, Josiah.  Also love that squinty, cheesy face, Abigail.  They are both classic

This is my not-so-little-anymore man.  Love his sweetness.

Little Miss Mischief – I’m afraid she is very much like her mother… :)

Here is the little Pixie-Pie.  What a sweet thing she is!

And the Munchkin Man – he is ornery beyond belief.  Can’t you just see the little boy-ness just oozing out of him?

Just a few pictures of the kids enjoying the farm animals, and the lovely weather. 

Hope you all enjoy your fall weather!