Glory's Pretend Adventure

At dusk tonight, I went out to call Glory in for bed...she had been riding her tricycle in her pajamas, talking to herself all the while. I told her it was time to come in and she told me that she was only HALF way to where she was going, and that no, she couldn't continue on tomorrow, because she would forget where she was and have to start ALL over! As she reluctantly, yet obediently parks her wheels in the barn, I asked her where she was going and this is the glimps into her pretend adventure that I got: 

She was going to the "Safety House" because there was a BIG storm. She had been staying in a house with a Mama and a Papa and a lot of girls. Some of the girls had computers and some of them didn't. She did, so she could see her Mama and Papa. I asked her if she shared her computer with the girls that didn't have one, but she said that some of the other girls showed them if they found something that was really funny. :P (So much for my plug for sharing. ) They had to go to the "Safety House" because the big storm had almost broken the house. It pulled all the doors off...and blew all the sand out of the sandbox! The Mama and Papa fixed the house and built new doors and bought 5 new yards of sand. (and yes...I am PROUD that my 4 year old daughter knows to measure pretend sand in yards, but back to the story... :) The "Safety House" is called that because it stays up even in REALLY big storms. When God burns up the world it will be gone, but for regular storms it always stays good! And the next house beside the "Safety House" is a snow cone stand!....

My girl amazes me. :)

Rabbit Soup

When you grow up in "the country" (unlike myself), your worldveiw is a bit different than the typical American. Pascal, our cat, recently caught a small rabbit. While some of you think this is sad, then try to consider how much damage that one rabbit would do to our garden. If you are still feeling sad for the eventual loss of the rabbit then you may not want to read the rest of this post. 

So on with the story...

Glory and I saw Pascal carrying the live baby rabbit around and "playing" with it as cats generally do. I told Glory about why it was good for Pascal to catch and kill the rabbit; she seemed to understand. When Levi woke up he found his sister still watching Pascal and the rabbit. Glory kindly told him what was happening. He seemed content to sit and watch the game. 

Seeing that Pascal was enjoying the audience and making no attempt to kill the rabbit, I scolded him and told him that he should kill the rabbit soon or I would. Glory picks up on the intent of my statement and as I am walking away I hear her saying to Pascal something like, "Pascal, don't you want some rabbit soup?"

New camera...good excuse to add pictures. :)

This is us...except me...since I get to play with the camera and have no new pictures of myself. Enjoy! :)

Flip-flops

My dear daughter is determined that all weather is flip-flop weather. She started out the door this morning with her trusty green "flippies", only to find that it was 40* out there. She came in for warmer clothes and came up with this. :P

The Thumb Sucker

None of our children have ever really sucked on their thumb much. When Glory and Levi were little they used to munch on their fingers when there was not anything else near by. But now there is Daniel, and Daniel knows exactly how to use his thumb. Though we try not to let him suck on it continuously and therefore develop into a habit, it is still really fun to watch him.

Speechless

Every once in a while, one of our little people does something that leaves me completely without a worthy reply. For example, the other day while we were having a nice time rolling around on our new carpet-remnant area rug, getting out the last few sillies before bedtime. Glory, looking concerned, came over and said, "Mama, look!", showing me a mysterious gray gunk on the inside of her shirt tail. After putting bits and pieces of the saga together, I realized that this tale was to crazy to keep to myself, so I sent her to go show Taylor. This is what he heard:

"I was done with my gum." There is a long pause as Taylor finds the courage to ask what she did with it. And then, comes the obvious, if not logical answer..."so I stuck it in my belly button". :P

Sure enough, upon examination, where her belly button should have been, there could only be seen this odd gray glop. Choking back tears of laughter, we marched her to the bathroom. After a lot of Vaseline and the appropriate, "Always, always, ALWAYS put gum in the trash when you are finished with it...NEVER anywhere else...especially your belly button!" admonition, we got ready for bed. Just another day...thank You, Lord, for all of them! :)

Mexico

Here's a picture of Mr. Smith and a few of his friends in Reynosa outside of his new building. I'll try to get a few more pictures up soon!

We are back at Taylor's mom's house now, after spending a few days vacation with Clifford Smith on the Mexican border. On a one-day side trip, Mr. Smith took us to the beach. The rest of the time we went over with him to Reynosa, Mexico. It was a whirlwind trip, but we are very glad to have gone! :) Our Spanish has improved a little since the last time we went to Mexico several years ago, but it still needs a lot of work. Though, as our kids found out, attention-starved children will play with you whether or not you can understand them. Levi enjoyed playing hide and seek and tag with a little boy named Juan. They would run around chasing eachother and roaring like lions! Glory was completely fascinated with the whole concept of being in a foreign country. She's a words and letters person anyway, and is really enjoying this second language thing! One night, Mr. Smith took us, and ten Mexican children to Carl's Jr. (a hamburger place) for supper and to play on the play equipment. Glory had a blast climbing up the slides and laughing with the kids, even though she could only answer a couple of their questions.

We had the priviledge of twirling jump ropes and playing basketball, of holding little-people and spending a wonderful evening talking to house-parents that work in a nearby orphanage. We hope we were a small encouragement to the saints there, but the LORD certainly used it to warm up our hearts! :) We wonder what the LORD has planned for us, but whether He intends for us to work for Him in foreign places or work for Him from our own backyard, but we pray that in His grace, we and our children will be ready to take up our crosses and follow Him!