She couldn’t quite bring it home …

“My family loves

each other like birds

                   flying together

and

                   singing together,

playing together

                           and

munching together.

              I hope it

         goes on forever.”

                                   Ezri Ana

Our second annual Easter egg hunt in the snow . . .

Has there ever been anything cuter than my twin baby neices?

Wait, did I forget to mention the garden is off limits?

A good time was had by all.

On Monday

I was pretty sure I was living in Narnia where it’s always winter and never Christmas

On Thursday

It was 56 degrees and I had to spend the whole day in the car (which is a completely different blog post).

Today it was 45 and cloudy and we’re supposed to get rain mixed with snow showers.

I wonder what the first week of spring has in store for us.

Well, it certainly wasn’t my agenda, but from a kid’s perspective it really has been a perfect day for a snow day.

One of our goals as parents is to make sure that our kids know God.  We take them to church, of course, but we also try to talk about him in everyday situations.  Most nights we read a short bible story just before bedtime, too.  We’re not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we’ve been intentional in our efforts. 

Deuteronomy 6 says, “Impress them [God's commandments] on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. “ 

Recently I was gathering the girls up for our nightly story when I got a good lesson in why God asked us to talk about his word constantly. 

Reading the title of our next story about Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego, I said, “Let’s see, ‘The Fiery Furnace.’  Do either of you know this story?”

Shyanna said, in her best of-course-I-do-what-am-I-stupid? attitude, “Yeah, yeah, Jesus burns the bush.”

I said, “No, not quite.”

Somewhat taken back, Shyanna said, “Oh,” and after a short pause, not really sure now how to answer, “The stick turns into a thing?”

The conversation was comical, but the lesson for me was strong.  Our minds are so feeble.  We need to hear God’s truth over and over again.  With regard to my kids he gave me the responsibility to tell it and tell it and tell it…

“This [hot chocolate] just fills my chest up with hotness.” – Ezri

“Veneece La-di-dah, everybody!”
                                            – Shyanna

We still do.

“An anniversary is when people get married, and then they have big children, and then, a little bit later, they have an anniversary.”    – Ezri (8)

I never want to become a person who doesn’t stop to wonder at the sky at sunset.

When the girls misbehave, we often punish them by taking away treats or movies or computer time.  The other day, I told them no treats for the rest of the week because they weren’t listening. 

I think because they were just coming off a few “no treat” days, Shyanna wanted to negotiate. “Aww,” she said, “Can we have no movies instead?”

I said, “I don’t think you want no movies.  We just got two movies for you girls from netflix.”

After a calculating moment she cocked her head and said, “Which movies?”

The Post Script:
When Robb got home he said, “girls, let’s get going on your homework so we can watch a movie tonight.”

At which Shyanna shouted with glee, “I’m so glad I didn’t choose no movies!”