Father's Day?

I have always known that Father's Day was not a "real" holiday.  But this weekend -- At Church -- I discovered that not even the "fake" Father's Day applies to me.

The Children's Story at our church this weekend was given by good friend of my wife, who is a single mother and big feminist.  The story was about Her muscle car -- a barely street legal Ford Mustang with hood clips and over sized rear tires.

As she begun the story, she asked what our father's do for us.  To which my youngest son, who loves Friday because it is "cleaning day" proudly responded with; "Clean the house."  To which this dear lady's reply was; "Yes, Daddy HELPS [emphasis added] clean inside and outside the house."

For those of you that don't know what a SAHD (stay-at-home-dad) does, just think of ALL the stuff mom's do and change the gender.  I am responsible for cleaning the WHOLE house EVERY week, doing the shopping, laundry, most of the cooking -- prep & clean up, plus the normal "dad" chores of lawn maintenance, car care and minor home repair (at least we're renting--but that's a whole other story).  In addition, last week was post school week for my teacher wife in which she was required to be at work still even though school was out and ALL 3 boys were home FULL TIME!  (Thank goodness for an old Atari)

Did I mention that the story teller lives across the street from us and is my wife's education superintendent (boss)?  She is a wonderful lady, who has known our family well for years.  However, has continually exhibited an inability to understand the importance we place on family ahead of career.

I guess this is what I get for preaching a Mother's Day sermon on "The Toughest Job in the World"!

Eight Is Enough

October 23 was super-social, #2 son's birthday.  But in hopes he maybe would forget about it, we hadn't really mentioned the "p" word (party) which we have been dreading since we unwisely broke an eight year tradition of not having any by having a ... birthday party for his older brother in March. 

As you may remember from an earlier post, we financially lucked out when first born son decided what he wanted to do for his birthday was have all his school friends over to play a big game of football (shunning the offer to go bowling).  This worked out well, however this was not the social son.  So for 6 months we have been living in fear of what super-social, #2 son will be requesting as a guest list for his obligatory birthday party. 

Knowing he was going to remember his birthday and that his big brother had a party, I finally brought up the topic ... about a week before his birthday -- which "un-conveniently" actually fell on a Sunday.  But to head off the expected 3 mile long guest list, I offered the option of taking just 2 friends to Build-a-Bear (the closest one to us is 45 minutes away) instead of having "everybody" over for his purposed baseball party ... just think 4, 5, 6 + Dennis the Menaces running around -- with bats!

To my surprise, he decided on 2 friends to do Build-a-Bear.  Great!  I forgot to price this out before I made the offer.  These 2 friends were going to cost me more than big brothers 12 friend birthday party!  Not to mention, this birthday party was in the middle of football season -- I love the kid, but this is starting to cross a line!  Hope sprang in my heart when my son remembered seeing an alternative brand bear building store in town, but was quickly dashed as I discovered they are closed on Sundays.  Ah, even better ... since it is in town, we do it after school one day.  "NO! I want to do it on my birthday."  But praise God for a bad economy, a small town and a cute 2-year-old, I was able to work out with "my new very best friend," to purchase 3 bears, clothes and stuffing to take home and do on the actual birthday. 

Now what are the chances of getting it all done before kick-off at 1 PM?  Turns out, better than the chances of them not showing up early -- before you are out of the shower!

All turned out well (except my football team lost), he got to do "build-a-bear" on his birthday with 2 friends, got 6 gifts (one friend has 4 other siblings--actually 6--that all wanted to give him a gift), birthday cake ice cream from his favorite ice cream shop and his football team beat his big brothers!

"HAPPY SABBATH"

I Scream for Ice Scream

(written a couple months ago, but not able to post because of ... ignorant computer!)
A 2 year-old knows what a 2 year-old wants, even if it is something they don't know anything about.

Today, Ben insisted on getting something from the freezer.  I put him off (ignored) for a little while, but of course I adventually needed something from the freezer and was right there waiting for his opportunity to GET whatever it was that he wanted.  Seeing that I still do not understand almost anything he says, we communicate with the "this? this? this?" point to, trial and error method.  By doing this I discovered that he wanted a 30+ year old kids ice cream maker--a frozen bowl that is kept in the freezer, with a little incilated holder and small plastic crank. 

In a moment of optimistic ignorance, I decided to put the 3 ingredents in the little mixer and let him "make" some ice cream.  To my surprise, he not only helped add all the ingredents, but began to turn the crank.  HURRAY!!!  I might be able to actually accomplish something (without "assistance")--if I do it QUICK! 

Not quick enough.  Ben announced it was my turn to turn the crank.  Something didn't feel right, so I lifted the top as I turned the crank and discovered that turning the handle didn't actually turn the paddles.  No wonder we have always seemed to have a difficult time "making" ice cream with this antique!  But I had ice cream on my mind now and it would be ashamed to waste 1/2 cup of half & half and 1/4 cup of sugar!  So, I tried just spinning the whole lid.  Once again to my surprise this method actually turned the paddles.  And even more excited was that this new method was of interest to Ben and now he wanted another turn at ... turning ice cream.

However, after 15 minutes of the instructed 6-10 minutes churning we still had just sweet milk.  So I decided to put the whole thing in the freezer.  Which reminds me ... I like ice cream (even if I have to drink it) more than I do blogging. 

Have a nice day, I "need" to go get my morning "frozen" snack!

Christmas-ween

Can you guess which one of my little superheros is going to be the same thing for the next 4 years and which one has been the same thing for the last 4 years?

Our "Christmas-ween" weekend started as un-characteristically "white."  We woke up on Sabbath to about a 1/2 of snow, which we were sure would melt before church started.  Instead, about 9:15 AM it started to snow more.  This time, quarter-size flakes.  This was inconsequential to me, as I had the opportunity to preach and had a great sermon ready -- Thanks to Jerry Mahn, via Brendon's recommendation. 

The snow was like a big slurpee.  I nearly fell 3 times before getting to the bottom of the steps by the street.  It was warm enough to not really stick to the street.  Which is good, because we would have been in big trouble if it froze, as wet as it was.  By the end of church it stopped snowing and the sun came out in a bright blue sky (thanks for that line Ed!).  It was beautiful ... from my warm couch, where I could only see the clear sky and none of the slush covered yard.

Sunday was the elementary school Fall Festival where I spent nearly 4 hours manning the Corn Hole (and an original ghetto creation of skee ball -- with 2 plastic buckets and 2 different size gutter pipes duct taped to a metal folding chair) booth, where approximately 6 people played during that time.  On a positive note, I became quite skilled at bouncing tennis ball into the bucket that was slightly larger than the ball that was taped to the top of the folding chair.  I believe that the highlight of both older boys was the opportunity to serve as deputies, collecting "fugitives" for the Jail.

My oldest spent all day asking if he could be Anakin for Halloween (no, he has not seen any Star Wars but is somehow completely versed in all characters from the series).  My wife finally solved the situation late in the day when she simply asked; "Do you have an Anakin costume?"  Resulting in a fourth straight year of a Tampa Bay Buccaneer.  Ben went as a Redskin, that was much more popular in Virginia then it ever was is Florida, reaping many supportive comments and much candy.  Seth was a original (as far as I know, un-named) super-hero. 

Having less trick-or-treaters than expected last year, I tried to limit my candy purchase.  I did well, however, we only had 2 kids come to the door ... glad I splurged and bought some Reeses!!!

First Day of School: One down and one ... down!

After a weekend with our boys youngest cousins before they head home to Tchad Africa, we returned Sunday afternoon so my wife could put the final touches on her classroom to be ready for the first day of school.

The excitement most have been more than my second son could handle, as he climbed into bed (not his own of course) around 5 PM, where he remained until I removed him shortly after 8 PM and transplanted him to his own bed ... with a 101+ degree temperature.

The overwhelming anticipation for the first day of school was not limited to my social-butterfly turned bed-bug. My normally stand-off-ish, champion of fairness (particularly as it pertains to himself) uncharacteristically prepared supper--wonderful mini pizzas with olives and sweet red peppers--for his parents (his mother did not show-up for supper) and himself, made his lunch, got ready for bed, laid out his school clothes*, cleaned the rat cage and than patiently read on his loft until his youngest brother was in bed, all while his next youngest brother "laid around."

(*This is how my young legalist "lays out" his school clothes)

However, the enthusiasm did not stop with "sleep." He soon emerged from the bedroom and announced that he couldn't get to sleep, to which I told him he needed to try ... for AT LEAST 5 minutes. I guess all the excitement had unbeknownst rubbed off on me, because after lying in bed for an hour I found that I too was able to sleep and had to get up and read for another hour before I even felt remotely sleepy (the frappuccino I had 30 minutes before bed might have had a little something to do with that).

At 6:44 AM my eldest appeared, having dressed, brushed hair (a blue-moon rarity), packed his lunch, gathered all needed supplies together ready to load into the car for the 1.5 mile trek to school (at 8:30), and asked what he could do, all before his normal 7 AM wake-up call. Wanting to finish my morning devotional, I decided to press my luck and suggested he make breakfast. Which amazingly he did without hesitation, along with setting the table and preparing something special for his finicky youngest brother (OK, it was just Cheerios--but even that gave me pause as to the possible need to call Guinness Book).

I don't know. Either he is thrilled to finally be rid of his brother (they are in different classrooms this year) or he has ... discovered girls aren't all that bad. PLEASE let it be the first one!

PS. Did I mention that worship this morning was ... Cain & Abel?

For Kerri

Yes, he IS sucking on his big toe!