The Flash!

In a house full of boys and pets, always expect the unexpected! This is our (declawed) kitty "Flash". I kept hearing a sound like a tapping noise and looked out front. It wasn't tapping, it was a dog barking. I looked closer and saw a grey flash of color and an orange Flash of color - running behind it! Flash not only chased the dog out of it's own yard across the street, he proceeded to walk, ever so slowly, back to our yard, and when the grey mangy fluff approached him again, Flash chased him BACK into his yard and resumed his walk of honor home, tail all fuzzed out.

Guest Writer - Author Joshua S.

Today I have the privledge of presenting Josh S.'s version of the story The Seven Chairs (Original work by By Harris Burdick)Josh has never read the original story, only was given the title and photo to prompt him.


The Seven Chairs

by Josh S (age 12 1/2)


Chapter 1

There was a painter that mixed a chemical with paint. It was a magical chemical that would give a unique power. The painter was named Chance Heart. There were seven chairs.
The first chair was painted white. The chair could shrink as small as an atom. The second chair could liquidate and it was painted blue. The third chair was very wise and was colored black. Finally the seventh chair was green and could shape shift.
Chance made a booth to sell his chairs. Each chair was worth $60.00.
The first five people had bought 1,5,3,6, and 7 chairs. What powers they had. They just knew they had powers. Also they did not know that they would go unconscious when they sat in them.
The rest of the chairs were bought and the people didn’t even know they had powers.
Chapter 2

When everyone had sat in their chairs they all started to place where the wood of each chair came from.
The first chair went to the Great Rift Valley in Africa. The second chair went to the Missouri River in the United States. The seventh chair went to Hawaii. The fourth chair went to the Himalayas. And the fifth chair ended up in France. All of the rest got trapped in storms. None of the chairs were seen except for the fifth one. Two catholic men saw the chair with the woman on it.
The men took a rope and threw it on the chair. They pulled the chair down and took the woman to the hospital and the chair to a lab. When the people at the lab set the chair down it turned to dust and started flying away. The scientists chased after it but the dust was like acid. It would penetrate anything it touched. The dust hit a person took off all of his skin. All the rest of his body was everything but skin.
Chapter 3
The dust was looking for its person so it could keep going. The dust found the person and turned back into a chair. The chair grabbed the person and started back on its journey.
When all of the chairs reached their destinations the chairs gave powers to the people and turned back into a tree.
All of the people that got the powers formed a group in central Africa and went up into the clouds with their favorite items in their hands and disappeared.

Feeling like a balloon....

I love my sons. I love to read. Why do those two sentences repel each other? Like oil and water! I tell myself they need to see me reading so they can learn to love it. I read to them, take them to the library and bookstore, share books and discuss them with them, and much more in the name of learning to love reading. They see me returning to college to become a K-8 librarian. Truthfully, I love to read for myself. For some reason, they cannot refrain from asking me questions every other sentence I read - no matter what time of day or room I am in. The reality for me is that reading in my home is like being a helium balloon. It cannot resist rising up to where it belongs in creation, floating to a new realm, then get's yanked back down by its string that is held by a smiling little boy's hand - smiling and yanking it....

Boys and Pants - Ugh!

I don't know what it's like to dress a daughter, but what is it with boys and pants? I've got the "only wear when necessary over shorts" boy that peels them off the second we walk in the door. Then there's the "rip-knee boy" and the older "rip-knee, never changes them boy" and the ultimate "just-bought-yesterday but -they-don't-fit-buy-me-new-ones" boy. I think God should give you a "set" and the delivery nurse should say, "Here's your newborn son and here's your everlasting-grows-with-him-always-in-style-pants!"

Wow! I just popped over to Jane's blog and she's got the most amazing video on there (April 10 post) about God's Extravagant Love. Who couldn't use a heaping helping of it today? Check out http://www.daysofourlives-jane.blogspot.com/

Kindergarten Registration at last...hurray!Boo-Hoo

Today was registration for my last kindergartener. I used to think I would jump for joy the day my last child started school! Now, I have this huge sense of accomplishment and sadness all mixed together. I know my 5 1/2 year old is ready to be challenged and wanted to go last year, but he missed the age cut off by three weeks. I do a lot with him, library day, volunteer together in his 1st grad brother's class as often as possible, play games with him, take him to the MSU campus with me, and take him places that his other brother's can't go during the day. Now that his registration is complete, I feel like the sand is filling up in the bottom of the hourglass. We only have 6 weeks of one on one time left before all the boys are home for the summer. At least I can find solace in the fact that, come fall, he'll only be going every other day. Our school has a gathering for kindergarten parents after the kids say goodbye called "Boo-Hoo Coffee". I was invited last year and just smiled and went on with my day, happy that my son was thrilled to be in school. Inside, I snickered at the "clingy" parents that couldn't handle it.....guess I better reserve my seat for the next "Boo-Hoo!/

Anyone know why?

Why do we dye and hide eggs? Every holiday I try to reflect on the "why" of traditional things we do. We place a huge importance on the egg hunt at Easter. We boil, dye and hide the eggs. We do community and church egg hunts and go to extremes to make the "perfect" basket for each kid. It was snowing yesterday and I was so worried about the egg hunt at home and the one I was going to be helping with at church. How in the world would we manage an egg hunt indoors in our small building with that many kids and 400+ eggs? Everything turned out great. The snow melted and it was just cold and breezy. The children had a wonderful morning. But, I still can't connect the event of my Savior's resurrection to the eggs - anybody?

The little hider....

Do your kids ever hide from you? Do you have the feeling they are looking right at you thinking you must be dumber than a rock? We had another hiding incident with Wyatt today. He doesn't do it too often but when he does, he's gooooood at it. What do you do when they finally reappear? Spank them ? Praise them for revealing themselves? I have yet to nip this in the bud. I lean on the "act casual and let them know not to ever do that again". How about you? Ever have your kids hide on you? Or your cat? Nothing like feeling you've been taken down a notch that day, huh?