Maybe not as back as I thought

You know how you walk around all day thinking things that you want to share and when it comes time to sit down and actually share those things you are too tired, so you just spend some time looking around the internet and then shut the computer off without actually sharing anything?  Yeah, me neither.

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I took this picture a week and a half ago.  This picture embodies the Deli perfectly.  He always chooses the hard way.  But he does it with such style and vigor that you can't help but let him.

It was a warmish winter day, not warm enough for bare feet, by any stretch, but Del insisted on wearing his kara-koros. I found these little clogs at the resale and we took to calling them that after the children's book A Pair of Red Clogs.  He loves these clogs.  Whenever it is warm enough he insists on wearing them everywhere.  Running? He runs faster in those clogs.  Hiking?  The woods are easier to ramble about in those clogs.  Riding his Hot Wheel?  Well, not quite as easy, actually kind of hard,  but as long as Mama is around to pick up his clogs after they fly off his feet in a fit of pedaling, well, why not wear them?  

In a nutshell, there is Del.  Strange, a little difficult, and super, super cute. 

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Three days a week we've been picking up a little friend from his school while his mom is at work.  Some days he comes to our house and some days I take him to his sister at home. You can tell that he is getting more and more comfortable at our place because he is becoming more and more dissatisfied with the choices I give him.  "Kris, I don't want water or milk, I want juice."  "Kris, I don't like oranges, I want apples."  "Kris, let's watch a movie with hot cocoa, not just play." but very occasionally I hear, "Kris, that was the bestest pizza in the whole world."  Which makes it all worthwhile.  

Isn't that how we all are, though?

"God, eternal life isn't good enough.  I want to know my immediate future as well."  "Friend, I know you are always there to listen and would never turn me away, but you didn't make me that treat I so desired.  You also forgot my birthday."  "Dear husband, I don't want just your life long love and devotion.  I want trips and dining out and jewelry and booze!" 

We grow comfortable, we settle our butts down into that comfy couch that is a happy marriage, a relationship with Christ, a friendship, and we decide it's not good enough.  We don't decide that we are not good enough, but that "it" and by extension, the husband/God/friend aren't good enough.  We demand more and better.  It's really the fastest way to unhappiness that I have found.  If you know a faster way please don't tell me.  Occasionally though, very occasionally, I remember that he is the bestest husband around, my God keeps me nestled in his hand, my friends are the bestest friends.  And I hope it makes me all worthwhile.  

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Speaking of homeschooling, my children's most impressive moments as scholars are directly related to their watching of PBS Kids, and not my tender ministrations to their little minds.  

Where did you learn such a big word, Josie?  Word Girl.  

How did you learn so much about animals, Mikey?  Wild Kratts.  

Where did you learn that math trick, Elia?  Cyberchase.  

See, I don't so much teach them as guide them to the places where they can learn the most.  

"Work smart, not hard.", that's my motto.

During circle time today, we were going through our big book of manners (yes! a book!), and today's lesson was about saying no to drugs and alcohol.  The idea being that sometimes it's hard to say no to friends who are doing bad things because we don't want to be rude or hurt their feelings.  And that it is OK in that situation to be rude and hurt some one's feelings.  Elaborating a bit on the subject I told the children that if they are ever in a situation where their friends are doing something that is wrong and they are afraid to say no that Mami and Papi can be used as the bad guys.  They can blame us for not participating.  They can say things like, "I can't do that, my Mom would kill me!" "I can't play that, my Dad would be so mad!"  or  "My parents won't let me watch that."  I told them that they don't have to be afraid to blame us as a way of getting out of something bad.  Sometimes it is hard to say no to naughty things by ourselves and it's ok to use the parent excuse.  To which Del piped up and said, "You mean we would say...... I can't go to Disney Land, my Mom says NO." 

Exactly where I was going.

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I don't really know what's happening here.

Whatever was happening, he needed lots of rubber bands. 

And glow sticks.

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This is what I swept up from under the dining room table tonight.

I know, right?!!  

That apple still had a LOT of fruit left on the core!