Talk about word problems...

Recently when I plopped Anaya down to do her math, I explained her page of work and left her to get busy. Moments later she burst out, "Mommy, why do I have to do it this way? It's so boring. Why can't I make it a story?"

"How in the world would you make it a story?"

"Like this, Mommy!" She examined the next problem on her page. "It says 5 plus 2. Once upon a time there was a village with five people in it." Wide-eyed, she held up the fingers of one hand. "Then two more people moved to the village. They were a daddy and a little girl. The mommy had died," she added solemnly. "So now there were seven people in the village. See?"

Little prayer, big heart

I love Sethie's prayers! They're always straight from the heart, and usually focus some on God's power. Here's what he said tonight, pretty much word-for-word:

"Dear God, we love you so much we can't get enough of You. You are so big and kind. We don't understand how You can change hearts, but You can. We don't understand Your power! You made the trees and flowers. You made ev'ything in the world! We don't know how You can make ev'ything, but you can."

all before 10 am

This morning Seth looked up at me, concern in his big blue eyes. "Mommy, I think I need to be tooken to da doctor."

"Why?"

"Because I always don't know where I'm going, sometimes."

~~~~~

A little while later, Skyler showed me a twenty-dollar bill he discovered in the living room. "It's mine!"

"No, it's not," I said, taking it from him gently. "It's mine."

"But Mommy," he protested, pointing to the face on the front, "it has a boy on it!"

~~~~~

This morning while I was helping Anaya get dressed, she told me, "I'm getting new hair."

"Really," I responded. "How do you want your hair cut this time?"

"No, I'm not getting it cut," she corrected. "I'm getting new hair. I drew a picture of what I want it to look like, and I sent it to the people who are going to give me new hair." She was so poker-faced, I didn't know what was going on in her head. "They are going to send it to me soon."

A minute later she poked her head around the corner to me, with her nightgown over her head as "hair." "See, Mommy," she crowed, "I got new hair! It even has ponytails!" She scampered away laughing hysterically.

Morning is your time...the earth wakes up with you...

Time changes were not made with parents in mind. For example, it meant that Skyler bounded into our bedroom at 5:50 this morning. Alan snuggled him into bed beside him in hopes of another hour of sleep (I'd already returned the little guy to his bed about 1 am after he crawled in with us around midnight). No luck--he began snuffling loudly and waving his arms vigorously. So I lugged myself out of bed (noble woman that I am) and brought him out into the kitchen for breakfast.

"Mommy," he chirped a little while later, "why are you so tired?"

"Because I want to go to sleep."

"Den go to syeep."

"I can't. I have a little boy who is awake."

"But you can go to syeep. I will follow you to your woom."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"Don't worry, Mommy." He snuggled next to me. "You can go to syeep, and I will be wiz you."

Don't box me in

I came in the schoolroom this morning to see all three kids busy with scissors and typing paper. "Mommy," Anaya chirped, "Sethie and I are making boxes!"

"I'm not making a box," Skyler assured me. He paused and looked at his piece of paper. "I don't know what I'm making."

Who is the greatest?

My children get a pretty regular diet of Your Story Hour. (If you don't know what that is, check out http://www.yourstoryhour.org/.) A lot of these stories feature kids in school, sometimes even high school, so I guess shouldn't be surprised at some of the more mature content of their imaginary adventures.

Yesterday at supper the boys were pretending they were in high positions. "I am a king!" Seth boasted.

"Well," retorted Skyler, "I am a principal!"

So proud of my little guy!

Seth is reading now! It's still 2 weeks until his 5th birthday, and I haven't even really worked on teaching him to read. (I didn't think it would be good for his eyes to try at this age...but I guess it's too late now.) He's starting to sound out words. I love how he writes his name--completely backwards, with a huge curl on each end of the S. My little artist.

How to accidentally host a fundraising dinner

This past summer, we spent a couple of weeks in California at Weimar College, where we will be moving in January. Anaya had the opportunity to make some new friends, which she enjoyed immensely. I was sitting in the house when Anaya dashed inside with her two little friends, shouting, "We got a dollar!"

"Where did you get a dollar?" I asked.

"A man going past gave it to us."

"Why did a man give you a dollar?" Call me a pessimist, but I am a little suspicious of random strange men who hand out money to groups of little girls.

"He just read our sign." She held up a crayoned sign proclaiming, "Money and food for the poor." Having friends old enough to spell had been beneficial to my little philanthropist.

"What are you going to do with that money? He gave that to you so you could help the poor."

"We're going to keep it! I'm poor!" she shouted gleefully. "I don't have any money!" Her friends seemed to think there was nothing wrong with this suggestion, either.

"Well, no," I remonstrated. "You can't keep it. But we can figure out somewhere to send the money to really poor people."

Encouraged by the success of their fundraising venture, Anaya and her little friends launched an expanded campaign. Lunchtime was just beginning, so they darted to the cafeteria and canvassed tables asking for more money for the poor. Soon she was back, exulting over their success.

"Look, Mommy! We got lots of money!" she burst. "And now we're going to have a party!"

I counted 38 dollars from her eager hands. "A party? What do you mean?"

"Oh, I invited them all over to our house for a party," she informed me nonchalantly. "I told them we're going to have snacks and a movie."

"Anaya! We don't have any food, or a TV or VCR or anything."

"Yes, we do have snacks! We picked plums off the tree outside!"

"What about a movie?"

"Oh, I don't know." She shrugged off my obviously silly objections. "We'll figure out something."

Fortunately, her most significant donors didn't take her seriously, so we ended up with a haphazard group of about 8 children under the age of 10, eagerly munching plums and watching a YouTube video about children who raised money to educate children in India. And the fundraising campaigners cheerfully agreed to send their money to help children in an orphanage in Ethiopia.

Split personality

Anaya's dramas continue. (I know you're all shocked by this.) She loves acting out conversations between imaginary people. Last week I caught her acting out both sides of this one.

"Did you just shoot that wolf and kill it?"

"Yes, I did."

"Why did you do that? Don't you know that's one of God's creatures?"

"Well, I thought it was going to kill me. So I shot it."

"But it was my best friend!"

"Well, it's dead now."

Lately I look forward to listening to Seth's prayers at night. They are hilarious! And so straight from the heart.

"Dear Jesus. We love you. But we can't see you! We know you are so big. We know You are coming soon. But we don't know how soon. Your bwain is so much bigger than our bwain. You are so stwong, and we are not stwong. Thank You for being so stwong. We love You."