How many countries can you name?

I found this over at my friend Karen's blog. Now I will be the first to tell you that testing is not a true marker of one's intelligence. Especially when it's timed! Ugh.

Anyhoo, how many can you name? Come on, it's FUN!

68

Jail Time

When I was little, my parents had this framed picture hanging on the wall. My siblings and I would gather around it and whisper the implications of such a thing.

Mom and dad-- in JAIL!!! Horse thieves! I didn't know they could ride a horse! And they robbed both a bank and a train?! I wonder how they escaped.

So many questions, such big imaginations. It all had to be true too. After all, we did live in Colorado for a short while and mom and dad never denied this actually happening.

I am also rather certain that the $4,000 reward must have crossed all of our minds... whether we'd admit it publicly or not. That is a lot of moolah to a 6 year old kid.

I think it is also safe to say that none of us were very good at math back in the day. Either that or we thought it fit in perfectly with the fact that mom and dad seemed very old. Did you see the date of pardon down at the bottom? Yup, that says 1896!

Good times, people. Good times...

I am still so tempted to get a picture like that made of David and me. Hmmm... I wonder if we'd be worth more reward than just $4,000.

The truth, please?

I know I have shared this precious picture of Tank with y'all before. But have I shown you the rest of the story?

Do you believe what you see here?

Or is this the real truth?

Methinks he would make a great politician one day! I just need to teach him to not allow controversial pictures of himself to be taken...

This did make me do some thinking. Do my boys think I favor one of them over the other?


I am the second of five children... 3 girls, 1 boy, then 1 girl. My parents never really played favorites-- although I did feel that my brother got preferential treatment sometimes just because he was the only boy!

But the tradeoff for him having his own room, getting to go to grandma and grandpa's (just him, by himself with no other siblings!) and getting the easy job of taking out the trash (while I was on dishwashing duty-- every day, while trash is only twice a week) is that he did get stuck with the scary rooms in the house and he didn't have anyone to talk to at night. But I digress...


All three of my boys have very different personalities. Depending on the situation, some are easier to get along with than others. I do wonder how they'll look back on their childhood and wonder what kind of a mommy they think I was... or am...

Will they feel injustice about some things-- like who whined, who hit, who rubbed yogurt on the wall and who had to clean it up? Will they have selective memory? Will they think I have a favorite?

While I don't worry about this, I do wonder about it. Life isn't always fair and my children don't need to be coddled about their self-esteem (blah blah blah), but it is a good idea to consider and reevaluate the family dynamics every now and then. To stop looking at the kids as a group (brothers, 3 boys, my little men!) but as individuals. Very unique. Very loved.


So what was it like growing up in your house? What is it like today?

Fun Friends (even if they're girls!)

While we are a BOY house, we do have girls over to play... we don't discriminate when it comes to FUN!

And can you believe this is my third post today?! Trying to make up for disappearing earlier this week, I suppose.

Non-yawn poetry

Life just gets busy sometimes-- so busy that I had forgotten how lovely a poem could be.

One of my favorite writers is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow... The Wreck of the Hesperus, The Village Blacksmith, Paul Revere's Ride, Hiawatha... I first enjoyed all of these when I was in 5th grade.

I found this new-to-me poem by Longfellow and thought I'd share. It totally makes me think of my boys and how fleeting their childhood really is!

THE CASTLE-BUILDER
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A gentle boy, with soft and silken locks,
A dreamy boy, with brown and tender eyes,
A castle-builder, with his wooden blocks,
And towers that touch imaginary skies.

A fearless rider on his father's knee,
An eager listener unto stories told
At the Round Table of the nursery,
Of heroes and adventures manifold.

There will be other towers for thee to build;
There will be other steeds for thee to ride;
There will be other legends, and all filled
With greater marvels and more glorified.

Build on, and make thy castles high and fair,
Rising and reaching upward to the skies;
Listening to voices in the upper air,
Nor lose thy simple faith in mysteries.

(A slightly younger Christian building his own castle while imagining that these soup cans are blocks.)

Do y'all have any favorite poems from childhood?
I would love to introduce my boys to more poetry, especially the kind that would enthrall and capture their imagination.

While not exactly enthralling, I still have poems by Shel Silverstein running through my head. You might remember him from A Light in the Attic, The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends.

"Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too went for a ride in a flying shoe..." or "Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out..." :-)

He just made poetry fun for every kid. That's what I want it to be for my boys-- fun, interesting, memorable with a dash of silly sometimes

SuperStar!

*I* never could carry off the cheapy-party-favor-glasses look.

Now cheapy-party-favor-rotten-buck-teeth look I can do...

But this takes a certain amount of klass with a capital K! And he's got it!

Overheard this week

A few things that were uttered, exclaimed and stated around our house this past week:

"Quit trying to make Christian eat your evil breakfast!!!"
~Noah talking to Austin about the toffee crescent rolls that Austin made this morning. Christian just wasn't hungry... and that did not bode well with his oldest brother.


"Hey, is that chicken?! Like from a pig?"
~Noah peeking into the oven


"Put that machete down. See? That's what happens when you don't listen to mommy."
~Me, stated very matter of factly to 3yo Christian as he (lightly) bonked his head on the upswing of a rusted hatchet he was trying to hurl across the yard.

I called it a machete because I couldn't think of the right word, but it's a hatchet. No, it's not his hatchet... the kids found it when they were digging in the yard one day. Is it sad that I was saying this like it was a normal everyday occurrence instead of yelling it?

Any interesting sayings from your house?

3yo talking about daddy= hilarious

When we were eating breakfast yesterday, Dozer started pointing at a poster on our dining room wall and was laughing hysterically.

Mommy! hahahahaha! Come wook! It's daddy!!! HAHAHAHA!

Well, who could resist seeing what was so funny? So I walked on over there and crouched down to his level. He pointed to the poster of the Presidents of the United States.

Ahem. Well, I already knew this was going to be good.

Wook! It's daddy! Right heeow!!!

Nope, that's not daddy baby. That's Dwight D. Eisenhower!!!

And then I started busting a gut!

Sorry David. But this is the TRUTH and I did not set him up in ANY way!!! Bwahahahahaha!

Do y'all see a resemblance?

Don't worry, baby! You are waaaaay finer than Ike!

My Mommy

A picture of my mom from back in the day...

A more recent picture...

It's hard to believe that she's 61 years old now! But she's as beautiful as ever!

Many people think she's my sister... And I'm okay with that so long as people think she's my older sister and not my younger sister. ;)

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, MOMMY! I LOVE YOU!!!

Dear Mr. President...

We recently studied the US Constitution and the three branches of government in our homeschool. And lest ye think that it was an in-depth discussion, let me remind you that my children are 6 and 8 years old-- so adjust your expectations (and lesson plans) accordingly.

Let's just say that I kept it simple and on the elementary level.

My boys were particularly fascinated with the Executive Branch of government-- namely the office of President. But who wouldn't be?

They were not only impressed with his title of President of the United States of America, but the fact that he lives in that big white house, is the Commander-in-Chief of the entire military, and has a whole slew of people protecting him (not just any people but SECRET people!).

What if I combined this fascination with another love of theirs?! MAIL-- both sending and receiving!

* ding! ding! ding!* (That's the sound of me having a bright idea.)

Their assignment: write a letter to the President of the United States of America.

To expedite the process and encourage them to say more and say it well, I let them narrate their letters to me while...

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You can read the rest of this article at HeartoftheMatterOnline.


I would also appreciate your prays. I have been mucho sickola since Saturday night... about the same time David left for work. He'll be back home tonight... but tonight just seems so far away. I do have a dr appt this afternoon. The boys have been gorging themselves on toaster strudels, cereal and TV. And even got to level 68 of blasterball on the computer-- you know I'm sick when something like that happens!