Promises

I love listening to my 2 older boys (most of the time) as they converse with each other in the back seat of the van. There are times, when the potty talk breaks through or they are just being loud & obnoxious, but more often than not, I hear things that make me smile or make me proud at what they know & believe.

From Tuesday afternoon while we were listening to the song, Who Built the Ark? Noah, Noah.

Joshua: “Did you know that the Garden {of Eden} got washed away with the flood.”

Ethan: “Why did God do that?”

Joshua: “Because there were bad people.”

Ethan: “But there are still bad people.”

Joshua: “God promised never to flood the earth again. God keeps his promises.”

Ethan: “Olivia doesn’t keep her promises sometimes.”

Ethan then said something else, but I couldn’t hear it totally. It had something to do with Joshua mostly keeping his promises.

Love it!

 

 

At Breakfast

Ethan, while eating some frozen blueberries, asks, “What are blueberries made out of?”

I respond, “Blueberries. Blueberries are just blueberries.”

Josh pops his head into the room to get in on the conversation and add his knowledge, “Atoms. Blueberries are made of atoms.”

Ethan, who has recently studied Genesis with us and knows that we came from Adam, says, “Dust…so I’m eating dust?”

funny baby stuff

Noah has a many things he does that are funny, especially at least at this age when his cuteness overshadows his activities. Imagine your 5 year old doing this same thing day in & day out.

Here is one example:

Noah loves to bring me 2 items to “put together.” They are always A. an action figure, or some type of toy character ranging from an inmovable miniature pirate to a Little Person or Junior from Veggie Tales with no arms or legs, just a hole in the bottom and then B. a vehicle of some sort…a hot wheels car, a train, a fire engine.

He brings the two items he has chosen from the toy area and stands by me, holds up one item in each hand and says in his baby language “Please sit this character on this vehicle and make it stick together, so that I may roll it across the floor, while making car noises, and make sure it sticks together well enough so that it doesn’t fall off after 5 seconds of motion.”

As you can imagine, making a character & a vehicle stick together that aren’t meant to go together originally can be very challenging. Sometimes I luck out & it just so happens to “fit” and other times, there is no way in the world it’s going to work. At these times I act like I’m trying my hardest, complete with groans and grunts and finally “give up” and say “it’s not working” which seems to somehow satisfy him.

Luckily today was a good day for fitting 2 things (an Imaginex character & Thomas the Tank Engine) that are NOT meant to go together, work together just fine. He was very pleased.

 

Ever heard of a belly button shirt?

For some reason, Joshua & Ethan…now mostly Ethan refer to a bare-chest of theirs as “wearing or in my belly button.”

This morning, Ethan came into my room at 6 am. I wanted to lie there for a few more minutes so I told him to climb in next to me. Five minutes later, Joshua came in our room and said, “Ethan, do you want to go downstairs?”

Ethan replied, “No, I’m in my belly button.” 

I don’t know why, but I suppose he must have been hot under his blankets during the night & removed his PJ shirt. 

Miss me?

Wondering if I had dropped off the edge of the planet somehow?

Nope…

It’s just that we had a 6th child, who just happened to be a BOY, who is just so extremely active, that it’s just crazy around here. I know I can’t blame it all on poor 17 month-old Noah, but he certainly adds another chunk of energy needed to our busy life.

Sometimes I wonder how to fit one more thing into my day.

But, I’m going to try, somehow, to blog every now & then…even if it’s just a little blurb from our family’s fun (read crazy) life together.

 

 

Funny boy talk…it just never stops.

6:48am

Ethan: “Did you know that if you eat a ‘sousand’ (1000) bags of carrots you’ll get fat?”

Josh: “No, you’ll get sick.”

__________

 Josh: “If you drink too many Cokes you get dumb.”

Me: “Dumb?”

Josh: “I don’t know the right word.”

Me: “Do you mean fat?”

Josh: “No, I mean guilty.”

The next day as I was retelling Jon, Josh overheard me and said, “I really meant drunk.”

 __________

While driving home from school Ethan said, “A poem by Ethan ‘lastname’. Gum some-times rhymes.”

_________

 While playing with a ball made out of aluminum foil. “Mom, did you know that plastic is made out of wood. So this is wood.”

 __________

I was driving and listening to Josh & Ethan potty talking in the backseat of the van and promptly asked them to stop.

Ethan: “God, I love you with my heart! Is that better?”

Gardening Words of Wisdom

Spent some more time in the garden this beautiful afternoon preparing the soil to plant my potatoes tomorrow. I can’t tell you how therapeutic it is for my soul to dig in the dirt.

But that is not my “words of wisdom” for you. Instead they come from a conversation between Josh, Ethan & me and from conversations between Josh & myself.

__________

Josh & Ethan have a nearly daily conversation (that also involves my input) about how old the other will be at a given age. Today it started out with the age of 6.

Josh: “When Ethan is 6, how old will I be?” Me: “8.” Josh: “See Ethan!”

Ethan: “When I’m 12, how old will Joshua be?” Me: “14.” Ethan: “See Josh!” (For some reason Ethan thinks that at some point he will bypass Joshua in age.)

Ethan: “When I’m 50, how old will Joshua be?” Me: “52.” Josh: “See Ethan!”

Part of me wonders if they’ll still be doing this when they are 50 and 52. Hmmm?

__________

A few minutes later.

Josh: “You know that the shovel is the most important garden tool, because you can’t dig good holes without it.” Me: “Yep, you’re right!”

Josh: “You have to dig a big hole in order to bury somebody.” Me: “You have to bury people 6 feet under the ground.”

Josh: “Mr. Blane said it doesn’t clog up the water if you bury one horse, but it would if you buried lots of horses.”

__________

A few more minutes later.

Josh: “Mom, there’s an earwig in this hole. Why are they called earwigs?” Me: “I’m not sure.”

Josh: “Are they mean?” Me: “I’m not sure if they really pinch or not.” Josh: “They do…on your ears. That’s why they are called earwigs.”

Me: “So, they only pinch your ears?” Josh: “Yep, because they are the most important part of your body.” Me: “Well, not really, because you can’t live without a brain or heart, but you could live without an ear.”

Josh: “Nope, you can’t, because you couldn’t hear God talking to you.”

Remembering Joel

This past Friday our family lost a husband, father, son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, friend.

Joel, you were greatly loved and will be greatly missed.

In honor of your life, I wanted to write an acrostic to give those who didn’t know you a glimpse into your too-short life.

J – Jovial – Whenever Joel was around there was sure to be laughter as well. He loved to tell jokes and stories. A funny post appeared almost daily from him on Facebook.

O – Outgoing – Joel never seemed to lack for friends, whether in the real world or the cyber world. (444 FB friends) He was an easy person to talk with. A giver of great hugs.

E – Energetic – Joel lived life exuberantly. A quote from his sister, Trisha: “For all the adventures you swept me into, challenges you gave me, and even the tricks you played. I wanted to thank you for making my formative years something that I will never forget and for helping to shape me into who I am today. You were and always will be an integral part of who I am and who I will become. I learned so many things from you, both the correct and incorrect ways to do a lot of them rofl. “

L – Loyal & Loving – Although Joel made some mistakes, what I most saw in him was love for his family. He was an awesome husband to Kim and an incredible father to Aidan and Kethri.

RIP Joel – We miss you and look forward to the great reunion one day.

Boy Talk

Overheard from the back seat of my van this afternoon.

Ethan: “I can do anything I want.”

Josh: “You can’t play the DS without asking.”

Ethan: “It’s my game.” (He got a preschool Sesame Street game for Christmas.)

Josh: “You still have to ask to play it. It’s going to rot your brain out.”

Ethan: “I’ll get a rotten brain I don’t ask?”

Josh: “No, from playing too much.”

Ethan: “Oh, Mr. Poopy Pants.”

And that was the end…for now.

Hannah’s Photo Shop – part 2

Hannah has a definite talent for adding unique features to our pictures and for finding quotes that go perfectly with them.