Me David

That is an affectionate little name we sometimes call David. It came about because the kids were visiting with our elderly neighbors. David had never gone over before, so they asked his name. He responded proudly, "Me David". That is what our neighbor calls him and so we have adopted it also.

So, none of that really has anything to do with this post, but this post is about David. I was in a bit of an unusual situation last night. Because all 5 older kids were participating in their annual soccer camp, I was alone on the playground with David. I had a good time taking pictures. Sorry, you'll have to indulge me a little.




I never pass up an opportunity for "school":


All of the following pictures were David's idea. He posed and asked me to take them. Cute. As for the clothes, well, at least he dresses himself:

(Sam loved playing soccer by the way. I guess he was feeling pretty grown up. Usually it's the "older kids" and the "little boys" and this was his first time to feel the freedom of being an "older kid". Hopefully tonight I'll actually get some pictures of the kids playing soccer... the real reason we are there).

We need a "chaos plant"

Accidentally forgot to water my plant before I left for the beach. So it was a very sad, droopy plant that I came home to. I immediately watered it, but the poor thing did not improve for days. Finally a couple hearty leaves began to stand themselves back upright against all odds. Since it wasn't completely dead, I felt it necessary to clean out and cut back all the dead leaves in order to improve its chances of survival.
Tina came in to observe and help. She asked me what kind of plant it was. I told her it was a peace lily. She shook her head sadly,

"Well, that's why it's dying. There isn't enough peace in this house for it."

Amen.

A servant's heart

Just wanted to get this written down so I wouldn't forget.



While we were at the beach we had to squeeze in around the table and if you were sitting in the chairs that were near the wall, it was very hard to get out. Jokingly, John told one of the kids to just stand up and step on David's head. David obediently put his head down and closed his eyes. My Mom said, "He really has a servant's heart, doesn't he?" Then my brother-in-law shared about what had happened earlier that same day. My brother-in-law was holding my nephew in a chair on the beach. He told my nephew not to put his feet up in the chair because they were sandy. David overheard this, got a bucket, walked down to the ocean, filled the bucket with water and carried it back. He then poured the water over his cousin's feet to wash the sand off. The only reason for him to do this was that he wished to serve his cousin. Nobody asked him to do it.



Sitting with Taryn, keeping her company while she did her schoolwork:

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:10-11

Kids' play

I walk into the living room this morning and seriously this is exactly what I found.

David in his little house:

The boys with their "computers", clipboards, and delivery schedule on the wall:

The girls making up an interpretive dance:

Kids are such fun.

The little van that could

We are celebrating the blessing of a new-to-us, 15-passenger van.

So I thought it would be fitting to honor the van which has been with my husband even longer than I have.

The van is still running and with 246,000 miles, John is feeling the need to run it at least to 250,000, just to say he could. This is a 1991 van. It does not have working air conditioning. The automatic locks do not work. The speedometer sticks, so you are never really sure how fast you're going. The ignition does not work... basically the key turns on all the electrical stuff and then you have to hot-wire the car to start the engine. The paint has fallen off, the body rusted. The interior covering overhead had unstuck and was hanging down in a canopy. John remedied this by tearing it down.

The kids told us that whenever we hit a nice big bump (which really doesn't have to be that big since the shocks are worn out too) dust falls on their heads. We all had a good laugh when the kids were telling us about how they can't look up in the van for fear of dust falling on them. We immediately thought of Winnie-the-Pooh as he told Piglet about jagulars:

'That's what Jagulars always do,' said Pooh, much interested. 'When you look up, they drop on you,'
'I'm looking down,' cried Piglet loudly.

But this van has been the primary transportation for our family since our accident back in November. It has never once failed to start. It has never once caused us to be stranded. We have driven it to Dalton and to the beach and to gymnastics meets, not to mention all the running about town I do each week. It has been the best van ever. We are very grateful for God's blessing.

A smart Dragon

I asked Sam why he was dressed the way he was. I wondered if he didn't have somebody to play with and had to be the knight and the dragon (actually I called him a dinosaur and was promptly corrected) at the same time.

No, he told me. He was just a smart dragon and that's why he had all that stuff.

An achievement of greatness or lameness?

This is my 100th blog post. Took me 263 days to do it, but I guess it's still something of an achievement (if this is how I want to be remembered, of course):




Drawn by Rebekah in 2005. My friend pointed out that at least we're both smiling in her picture.

(Very) Simple Pleasures

A good friend has just endeared herself to my heart even more by giving me a rare and precious gift. I'm sure you can't possibly guess what it was, so I'll just tell you.


~~A Pencil Sharpener~~


A wonderful, old, metal, sturdy, practically noiseless, double-barreled pencil sharpener.



Good-bye electric sharpener. Good-bye small manual sharpeners (not that we know where any of you are). We have something far superior.

Despite my crazy, over-the-top reaction to this newfound wonder, I am not the only one excited by it. These are all actual conversations or comments which I have overheard in the last weeks since my friend gave the sharpener to me.




Sam excitedly beckoning to David: "Come on David. Let's go sharpen pencils."





Me: "Where is your sister? I haven't seen her for awhile."
Taryn: "She's downstairs sharpening pencils."





One child to the other: "No! You can only sharpen one pencil and then you go to the back of the line, so everybody gets a turn."





Taryn: "Mommy, I hurt my hand sharpening pencils."
Me: "How'd you manage that?"
Taryn: "I gave myself a blister."





So there you have it. This, my friends, is why people think homeschoolers are unsocialized and weird. But seriously, check out the point on this one:

Overheard

(Pictures have nothing to do with today's post)



I need to do these posts more often. I forget all the funny things they say. And the things that I jotted down notes about so I wouldn't forget are so completely cryptic they are no help whatsoever. Which is why the kids asked me when I was trying to remember something,


"Did you lose it in your mind, Mommy?" Yeah, something like that.





One night as we were praying out loud together before bedtime one of the kids prayed, "We pray that Daddy's issues would go away." (it was meant to be allergies)

I can't rememer what was the prompt for this conversation but this how Taryn described "school in heaven":
All history is reading a book.
All science is reading a book.
And all math is kindergarten.

Tina had gotten hurt and I put my arm around her as she was still whimpering and asked if she was going to make it. She stopped crying and said matter-of-factly, "Of course. Tina-s always make it"

As one of the kids was leaning over to put their arm around me: "Mmm, you smell good mama. You smell like someone else."

So, Sam likes to argue. He'll argue with anyone about anything. The normal conclusion was made that he would make a good lawyer some day. Then Joseph said, "He'd make a good president." We asked for clarification and he added, "you know how the president argues with the people all the time." There you have a political commentary by a 10 year old.