No Musical Instruments until You're Married!

Seth was snuggled up in a chair with Papa on Saturday evening. Papa recounted the following conversation to us. I've added some dramatic effect for fun:

"Papa.."

"Yes, Seth?"

"I know something that evun most 6th grade kids don't know."

"What's that?"

"Well...it's about the "S-word"."

I'm sure at this point, Papa is sweating a little bit. But my child proceeds in his confidence.

"You know...the 'S-word'--S...A...X! My mom and dad and Zac told me about it."

Now you know how to prevent teen pregnancy...keep your kids out of band!



"

Thanksgiving in Hot Springs

We had a great Thanksgiving down in Hot Springs with the McGregor family. As usual, it was a food and laugh fest. We had a smashing Thanksgiving dinner with salsa verde chicken enchiladas, tortilla soup, Spanish rice, refried beans, Mexican salad and out of this world sweet potato chips, followed by a sopapilla cheesecake. Mmm-mmm! It was even gluten-free (except for the cheesecake--the boys had GF chocolate cupcakes). On Friday, my parents took the boys to Mid America Museum. Dan and I went for a while, then we joined Scott at Hot Springs National Park and toured a bathhouse. Dan and I climbed Hot Springs Mountain (save your impressive points--it was only half a mile to the summit) and Scott studied up for his class in an Adirondack chair on the porch of the bathhouse.

Friday night was our annual Telephone Pictionary tournament, and this year did not fail to disappoint...Mom ended up having to run to the bathroom because she was laughing so hard. Zac was a full participant this year and Seth assisted me in the drawing. It doesn't take much for baser, bodily function humor to take over when Dan and Scott are involved, and this year's howler was an illustration by Zac--let's just say that it involved a prostate exam and a 10 year old boy's interpretation of that. Let your imagination run wild. After we recovered from laughing for about 10 minutes straight, we decided to call it a night...I don't think anything could have topped that.

It was a great, memory-making time with our family, and we were able to end the weekend with a great (but short) visit to Searcy, HU basketball game and more family love. We are very blessed!

Zac Harnden, Math Genius

Zac and his best friend Ben scored the highest in 4th grade in the Math Olympiad competition today! Way to go Zac!

A Pox on Rice Krispies

Seth came home today and when he got to his homework, everything set him off. He was fussy and couldn't concentrate. Twice he stormed upstairs after I got onto him and crawled into bed. I had to get him out of bed to finish his chores and homework.

Later he came to me with a confession.

"Mom," he said, "today Mrs. Britt (his teacher) gave me that rice bar."

I groaned. "Seth, you mean a Rice Krispie Treat?" (Background: about 3 months ago, poor Zac read a label for Seth at a church function and he missed the malt flavoring that is always on the Rice Krispie Treats. It's made from barley and contains gluten. This is one of the many reasons GF diets are hard to get right without some good education in the beginning.)

"Yes." He looked sheepish. "She read the label and said it didn't have any gluten, so I ate it."

Well, it all made sense now. That's how he gets when he eats gluten, sleepy and grouchy.

"Seth, it has barley in it. It doesn't have wheat. That's why she thought it was gluten-free. You can't ever eat it, even if someone tells you it's okay." Poor guy. He so wanted to believe.

Well, he'll survive. And the teacher was just trying to help, so I won't bring her in to this. Seth and Zac are getting quite capable at policing themselves these days. So I don't think he'll be making that mistake again.

But why, oh, why, does barley on Rice Krispie treats even have to be an issue? Is it really that critical an ingredient? Small aggrevations, I guess.

The View from Age 5

Blane's perspective never continues to amaze me.

"Mom, does God have to duck his head when He walks under the clouds?"

"Mom, can you fly higher than God?"

"Is God the biggest boss of everybody?"

"I think God weighs a ton."

And the kicker....

"Mom," he said one morning at breakfast, "does Grampy know how big God is now?"


"Yes, Blane," I replied in wonder, "I guess he does."