Pronoun-cements

Dividing up our food at McDonald's, I poured smoothies into everyone's cups. Skyler watched the process carefully, then addressed everyone. "There is Sethie's, and Mommy's, and Daddy's, and Anaya's, and me's."

"Mine," I corrected automatically.

"No," he corrected emphatically, "I alweddy said you."

Ad-ditional joy

We've spent the last 6 weeks in Florida staying in a condo that unfortunately had three TVs. I let the kids watch a little bit now and then, usually watching with them to be sure I knew what they were seeing. Once when a McDonald's commercial came on, squawking something about the box that joy comes in, I confronted that declaration by asking a few questions such as, "Is that really where joy comes from? Where does our joy come from?" Based on the kids' enthusiastic and accurate answers, that joy comes from Jesus and not food, I felt pretty confident that they were being impacted only minimally by the ad.

Or maybe not. Yesterday, returning to Tennessee from Florida, we stopped at a McDonald's. As I stood in line to get our salad, fruit smoothies and French fries, Anaya came to me. "Mommy," she pleaded, "can you get one of the toys that comes," she paused, searching for words, "that comes from the box that joy comes in?"

Aww...

This morning Skyler crawled into bed beside me. "Mommy," he exclaimed, snuggling up to me, "if I found a mommy who was better than you...I would still keep you."

Heavenly hell for Mommy!

I've been trying to help the kids understand how wonderful heaven will be. When they get hurt, I often remind them, "In heaven you won't get owies." Or when they are hungry/hot/tired, we all rejoice that someday we will be in a place where nothing bad will ever happen to us. In heaven we will be reunited with our dear parrot Edie, in heaven we will have all the fun we ever want, etc. In general, they are understanding that heaven is the place where all dreams come true.

We've also been reading through The Bible Story books by Arthur Maxwell, and the kids love the stories. They are getting all caught up in the dramas of Bible characters and are able to ask thought-provoking questions and make insightful remarks. And other remarks...

Last week we were reading about Abraham taking Hagar as a second wife. I stopped mid-story and asked, "Do you think that was a good idea?"

"Nooooo..." chorused my obedient students.

"How do you think I would feel if Daddy got another wife?"

"You wouldn't yike it," came back the wise replies.

"But," Seth put in sagely, "in heaven he can have two wives."

Vegetarian chicken meets vegetarian bear?

Skyler came to me this morning with a crayon and a piece of construction paper. "Mommy, I want to wite a stowy," he announced. "I need you to wite it for me."

I obediently took the paper and crayon and wrote as he dictated. "I was going on a camp. I saw a bear. I thought it was a statue bear, but it was a weal bear! I wan away! But then I yooked, and I saw it was a vegetawian bear and it wasn't going to eat me."

Alias...

"Mommy, what is your weal name?" Skyler asked me the other day.

"My real name is Nicole," I answered.

"But what is Daddy's weal name?" he persisted.

"Alan."

Skyler was still not satisfied. "But," he paused, "who is named 'Honey'?"

Our unstable family

Haven't had time to blog lately--we've been feverishly packing up our whole house (for the third time in one year) in preparation to leave for 3 months this summer. We finally launched our trip to Florida this week, breaking the drive into two days (five hours and six hours, respectively).

Even so, it was too long for Seth. On the first evening, he finally had enough. "Mommy," he complained, "we've been driving for ever. When are we going to find a stable?"