Parental Jobs
I spent about 3 weeks on the basement windows (it took 3 weeks because I usually couldn’t do anything on weekdays).  My sons got used to heading to the basement to help me with the windows.  The older one wanted to hammer and tape things together, while the younger one wanted to cut apart the cardboard box with the hacksaw.

After the windows were done, I overheard the boys playing upstairs one evening.  I forget what they had (stuffed animals or boxelder bugs (yes, they like playing with live bugs) or what), but they had a pretend family.

What I heard was this:
“I’m the daddy, and I’m working in the basement.”
So that’s the picture they have of something daddies do.

Then I heard this:
“I’m the mommy, and I’m talking on the phone.”
I have no clue where they got that idea.

Dinner
The other night, I had dinner responsibilities so that my wife could nap.  She had a late lunch and was tired, so she postponed her dinner in favor of rest.  The boys and I were hungry and not tired, so we ate.  Dinner consisted of pancakes and eggs (leftover from earlier that day) for them and hamburger and fries (also leftover from earlier that day) for me.  I also broke out the chips and salsa.

The boys are particular about their syrup now.  They want the syrup in a bowl so it doesn’t get all over the plate.  That way they can dip whatever piece of food – preferably pancake, although I did see a piece of popcorn in there later – in the syrup and it won’t contaminate the rest of the food.  So I obliged them and poured a bit of syrup into bowls, one bowl per child.

I had to step out of the dining room into the kitchen for some reason – drink refill or put something away.  The kids were about halfway through their dinner.  When I came back, the older child informed me that the other child drank all his syrup out of his bowl.  I looked at his bowl and, sure enough, the syrup was gone.  Well, as gone as syrup can be.  It doesn’t drain very easily.

Needless to say, we didn’t have dessert that evening.

“My son, eat honey, for it is good, Yes, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste;”
- Proverbs 24:13

A couple of weeks ago, we went to a local orchard to pick raspberries and apples.  There is not much in food-land that is better than fresh raspberries.  Good fresh blueberries may come close, but raspberries are the winner.

Afterward, while my wife was paying for things at the orchard store, I took the kids to the playground.  They went first to a kid-sized wooden train – the type that they can climb in and play on but it doesn’t go anywhere.  I thought it looked like a good place for pictures, so I asked the kids to look at me and smile.  The oldest child was not cooperating – he was holding his hand and making an unhappy face.  So I asked him what was wrong and he said “Owie” (or is that spelled “owee”?).  That’s all he would say, repeatedly.

I noticed things flying around him, so I told both of them to get out of the train and come over by me.  The hurt child asked me what they were, so I looked and said they were wasps.  At that point, he realized that he had been stung by a wasp and he started crying in earnest.  So picture time was over as soon as it had started, kind of like the season for the (insert name of losing team here).

My wife had bought cider and doughnuts at the orchard store, so when we walked over to her, each child had a cup of cider and a doughnut waiting for him.  That helped calm everyone down.  She asked why all the fuss, so I explained what happened, and she went back into the store to get some ice.

While she was in there, she told the workers what had happened.  Not long after she brought the ice back, we saw one worker drive by in a Gator-type vehicle, carrying a can of Raid.  Then another worker walked by, carrying a can of wasp spray.  There were a few people doing nothing but taking care of wasps, it looked like.  So that seemed like good customer service response at least.

“Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, {and} fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.”
- Genesis 1:11

Here are some random events from the past couple months of our lives:

Our younger child woke up early, about an hour before anybody else wanted to be awake.  I told him “Hey, you’re supposed to be asleep.”
His response: “But I’m not!”

“Is the sun setting?” my younger asked at 7:00 P.M.
“No,” I replied, “the sun sets in two hours.”
Ten seconds later: “Is it two hours yet?”
“No, because the sun isn’t setting.”

I brought glasses of chocolate milk to dinner, at the request of both children.  The younger one looked at the glass of milk and exclaimed “It’s beautiful!”

The kids were not behaving well with their drinks at lunch.  From the other room, I heard my wife say “No! You don’t put that in your glass.  Only straws can go in your glasses.”  And the older child added “and ice cubes too“.

One of our children was using the bathroom.  When he came out, I asked him if he flushed the potty and washed his hands.  He said he’d be right back.  I heard water running and then, when he came back, he said as he reached for me with not-quite-dry hands “Don’t smell my hands” before I had a chance to ask him anything.  So I, being the insightful parent that I am, immediately smelled his hands and told him to go back and wash with soap.  This next time when he came back, he told me to smell his hands.  And this time they smelled like soap.

“and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
- John 8:32

You may well know the saga of Floaty.  Here is an update to the story: we have a new fish.

We decided that since we had the fishbowl cleaned and filled and we had a supply of fish food, we might as well get some fish to go along with everything.  So we had to look for fish that were suitable for a bowl (instead of a tank).  We were in a store that happens to sell fish, and the children always like looking at them even though we don’t buy any.  But now we have bought some.

The feeder fish were the best price, but we went with two guppies – better quality fish for a slightly higher price.  The first fish went along with the capturing process, but the second one did not, and he ended on the floor.  The worker guy trapped him with the net (even though the fish was not going anywhere), picked him up through the net, and then put him in the container with the other fish.

On our way home, I noticed that one fish had a rip in his tail.  I assumed that the tail was damaged by the fall out of the net.  So I announced that I had named the fish “Finny” (not to be confused with Finley the Fish).  Then the older child wanted to name the other fish, so he came up with “Flip Flop Spin Flop”.

The fish made it through the first night, and the second day.  Then the morning after that, I glanced in the fish tank and told my wife that I renamed one of the fish: “Flip Flop Spin Flop” was now “Sinky”.  Not only had he sunk to the bottom, but he was upside-down, so it was rather obvious that something was wrong.

I changed my mind about which fish was the one that tried jumping to freedom.  I think it was Sinky, as he must have had internal injuries and Finny’s tail was probably that way before we even went to the store. Finny is still alive and is apparently happy, although it is hard to read his facial expressions.

“and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. ”
– Matthew 13:48

I was getting dinner ready the other day.  Sitting at the table in the dining room, I could hear the noises of the children playing happily in the adjoining living room.

Just as I was getting ready to wonder what was keeping them occupied so well, I was interrupted by the older child, who told me that it was snowing.  “Such a good imagination,” I thought.  He ran back into the living room and I thought I had better check to see why he said it was snowing.

I peeked in the living room and what I saw was the younger child hitting the seat of an upholstered chair with a ping-pong paddle.  “It’s snowing!” he was yelling as he hit the chair.  All the dust that was being forced from the chair was billowing up from the chair with each hit.  It was not a cloud of dust, but the chair is near a west-facing window, so at dinnertime there is a good stream of sunlight going right by the chair.  The sunlight accentuated the dust and the dust reminded the young children of snow.

We’ll have to vacuum soon.

“And as they were crying out and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into the air,”
- Acts 22:23

Since school has started recently, this post will relate an incident from the first day of school.

We took the older child to his first day of school, and his teacher’s name is Mrs. Thomas.  The younger child stayed home.  No, not by himself – someone else was watching him.  After the school day was complete, his brother told him some things about it.  Since the younger one has not yet attended school, and since he didn’t go that day, all he has is a mental picture drawn by himself using his own experiences.

The next day, as they were preparing to go to the next day of school, the younger one was inquisitive.

younger son: “Is brother going to school?”
mom: “Yes, he’s going to school.”
“Is his teacher Mrs. Thomas?”
“Yes, that’s his teacher.”
“Does she have wheels?”
(perplexed pause before answering) “No, she doesn’t have wheels.”

That’s when brother stepped in and sorted things out (laughing):
“No, she’s not Thomas the train.  Her name is Mrs. Thomas.”

The Thomas name and character are trademarks of Gullane (Thomas) Limited.  This blog is not associated with or approved by Gullane (Thomas) Limited.

“Whenever the living beings moved, the wheels moved with them. And whenever the living beings rose from the earth, the wheels rose {also.} ”
- Ezekiel 1:19

The Labor Day weekend was a relaxing one. The weather cooperated quite nicely, and one late afternoon I sat outside reading a magazine while the kids played in the large plastic tub better known as a kiddie pool. It was filled with water, of course, which made all the nearby vegetation jealous as they have not received much rain lately and were probably thirsty.

Part of my job as a parent is to ensure that the children share, play together, avoid injury, have fun, etc. So I would take breaks from my magazine to help them with the hose, pick some apples from the tree and throw them in the pool, or whatever. The older son wanted to bob for apples, so that’s what the apples were for. He made me go first, so I tried a couple of times and did get anything. He went next and spun the apple around so the stem was up, then he just bit the stem and pulled out the apple. The younger son didn’t want to play.

A little later, after I had read some more, I heard the older one telling me that his brother had dunked him in the pool. It is not uncommon for one of the two to do something not nice to the other, and then the other comes to me and complains. So when I heard that he had dunked him in the pool, I assumed it was a complaint and started to proceed down the let’s-play-nicely path. But I was mistaken, as they were both in a good mood.

It turned out that they were pretending to be at a dunk tank, as they had seen real-life dunk tanks in operation at both a local festival and a local fair. The kids had set a T-ball tee in the pool and a plastic chair next to the pool. One child would sit in the chair and the other would throw apples at the tee. If he hit the tee, the other child would slide himself off the chair and into the pool. So he wasn’t complaining, he just wanted me to watch the operation.

For those who were wondering, I did empty the pool by dumping its water into the closest flower bed. At least some of the plants also enjoyed their Labor Day holiday.

“Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree;”
– Genesis 18:4