I come downstairs wearing this new dress today. Chloe gasps. She grasps both of my hands in hers and stares up at me. Her eyes are dancing. With a huge smile she exclaims, "MOMMY! You look like you have the power to make things grow in this dress!"
I took that as a compliment of the highest order. In our house, superheroes rule the world.
I asked her if I should do our gardening work in this dress if I it gives off such an aura and she said, "No. We wouldn't want it to get all dirty."
To have such power and not be able to wield it...such a shame.
Last night at dinner, Bennett decides it was time to tell us all about his interesting, little problem he had at lunch that day. It's important to know here, that at school, saving seats at lunch is a no-no. So, in order to sit with his friends, he tries to pick an undesirable location and hope nobody else chooses to follow him. Which is a slight problem because he seems to be a people magnet at school and everyone wants to sit at "Bennett's Table". The problem is, his friends always buy lunch and he always brings his lunch, so by time his friends are finished going thru the lunch line, his table is normally always full. And you can only sit 5 to a table. There. Now that the back drop is set, you'll better understand his story.
"So", he says with a playful grin on his face, "let me tell you about my little lunch problem at school today. I picked this table that I didn't think anyone would want to sit at. Then all of the sudden this girl I know (name with-held, but he admires her beautiful artwork and she sits at his table in class) comes to sit by me. Then her friend comes to sit by her. Then her friend comes to sit next her. Then before I know it, all the seats are full of girls and there's no room for my friends!" He says this like he's frustrated by it, but he has a huge smile on his face the whole time. "So, I had to sit at a table full of girls at lunch!"
"Oh boy! I bet you had fun!" I say.
Trying to blow it off, "Well, it wasn't all that bad. At least I got to play with my friends (meaning boys) at recess."
Then his thankful during dinner was, "I'm glad I still had a good lunch even though I had to sit at a table full of girls."
A whole audience full of giggly, little girls to laugh at his every joke and facial expression. I imagine he thought he was in heaven with all the attention!
The other night at dinner Bennett exclaims, "I know how to pinch people's heads off."
Blank stares from the rest of the family ensue. Quite unsure what the appropriate response should be.
"Ya. Uncle John taught me how to put my two fingers up to my eye like this (demonstration of forefinger and thumb about an inch apart in progress), then put their head in between my fingers like this (while focused on Daddy), and then SMOOCH! He made me practice on you Dad."
Thanks Uncle John.
When Gavin was 2 and 3 he loved to "church talk". We'd come home from church and ask him about what he learned then he'd ask us what we learned. He's always been a very deep thinker, even from toddlerhood. That precious time of church talking turned into asking all sorts of questions about the world around him and morphed into a mini learning session on life. The phrase stuck and now anytime any of us wants to go have a discussion together we ask the other person if they'd like to "church talk" with us.
Normally every night after dinner, while the kids are doing their chores, Chuck and I go "church talk" upstairs in our room or in the front room. We enjoy going over the day's events, highs and lows with each other and just having a wee bit of alone time together.
Thus was the routine after last night's dinner. Chuck and I retreated up to our room. It was very cold, so cuddling up on our bed with a nice warm quilt seemed the logical method of encouraging a comfy 'church talk' time. As soon as the kids found us (a whole 5 minutes later), they each wedged themselves in whatever open space they could find between us on our bed.
All 5 of us, cuddled up all snug as a bug, laying there for an hour church talking it up. It was heaven. Everyone had a question about something. We enjoyed sharing our differing opinions about each subject. The kids would ask our opinion about something and decide whether or not they believed it the same way. It was such a remarkable time. I so wish God could have taken a snap shot from heaven...then I could keep the moment alive in my head.
It's these unplanned moments of time together, opening our hearts, fears, concerns, beliefs, opinions, lives up to each other that truly fills me up. Church talk is the best.
Today I chose to wear a skirt and t-shirt. The t-shirt is fitted. I was working around the kitchen, doing lots of bending over and evidently my shirt had risen up a bit. A little of my tummy was showing. Bennett walked by me and discreetly made me aware of my 'problem'.
"Mom," he said in a hushed tone, "I think you've out-grown your shirt. I think you're too big for it now. You might want to go put another one on." He was slightly embarrassed by my exposed torso, evidently.
I laughed it off and pulled my shirt back down and told him I would take his advice under consideration.
Then I went and consulted Daddy and asked him if he thinks I'm 'too big for my shirt'. Daddy squelched any fear that may have been rising in my self-conscious frame of mind. Bennett has yet to realize how delicate the female psyche is when the words 'too big', 'clothes', and 'body' are all used in one sentence.
Phone calls, like emails, are always nice to get. But....I have a problem with both of them at the moment.
I don't know when exactly this phenomenon began, but I have been getting a call from the library at least once a day for the past several weeks alerting me to the fact that the book(s) I placed on hold are now available for pick-up. My in-box is also filled with like emails.
The saddest part of this whole scenario is that when the library calls, it's not even a live person I get to talk to, but an automated system. If I'm not going to get any calls all day long and then the one call I do get is not even from a person...that is a sad state of affairs. Who looks forward to an automated caller? Who looks forward to an email that says "please do not reply"?
This fact begs me to ask several questions:
1. why am I putting so many library books on hold?
2. is the library my only friend?
3. why do they call and email me?
4. why do we read so much?
5. why do I look forward to these calls and emails?
6. why can't they pay a live person to make these mundane phone calls?
7. isn't there anything else to blog about instead of something so insignificant?
8. why is the library the only 'person' that wants to 'talk' to me?
Despite all that...I still love my library and all the communication we share back and forth. It's an on-going relationship. I'm sure we'll grow closer in time. Or maybe I'll just have to work there and revamp the whole auto-mated caller thing.
I come downstairs wearing this new dress today. Chloe gasps. She grasps both of my hands in hers and stares up at me. Her eyes are dancing. With a huge smile she exclaims, "MOMMY! You look like you have the power to make things grow in this dress!"
