This is a story from around Christmas-time, when the blog wasn’t working.

Caleb was asleep.  Ethan and I were sitting at the table.  He was drawing, and at one point said, "Mommy!  I’m doing math!"

"Oh you are!?"

"Yes!"

I peeked around all the junk piled up on the table and thought I saw the letter "R."  So I said, "Now, are you doing math, or writing?  Math is with numbers like 1,2,3,4 and on like that.  Writing is with letters like A,B,C.  And it looks like you’ve got an R, so that’s writing, isn’t it?"

"No.  I’m doing letter math, you know…. like Daddy doos it."

I had to investigate further.  I stood up to see his whole page and my mouth dropped open.  Then I started laughing to myself.

Sure enough, he had written the following:

R = B – P =     

Tim could not be more pleased.        Dandy.  Just dandy. 

TODAY:

"Mommy, how do they get the baby out of the mommy’s tummy?"

{mental scream– ahhhh!! ….how have I heard of other parents getting out of this one when the 4 yr.-old asks?  oh yeah!} "Welllll….. God just made a special way for them to come out."

"How?  What way?"

{should’ve known that wouldn’t work with him}   "Well…. it’s like a special door."  {OOO!  I know!  Diversionary tactics!}  "And sometimes if the door doesn’t work right, or if something else goes wrong, the doctor has to do a special kind of surgery called a c-section where they cut the mommy’s tummy open and pull the baby out."  [his mouth drops open in boyish gleeful- horror at the thought]  "But it’s okay, the mommy can’t feel it."

"Yeah!  Cuz they give her a SHOT!"  [as he mimes giving a shot in the shoulder -- again, with horrific delight]

"Right, but they do it in the back." {keep the diversion going — it’s working!}  " Or sometimes they have to put the mommy to sleep."

"So I was cut out of your tummy!"

{Great, now we’re back to the "traditional" way!}  "No, you and Caleb came through the door."

"Cuz the door worked!"

"Yes, because the door worked."

{WHEW!  He seems satisfied.}

And before I get any comments to this effect: yes, I know it’s only temporary.  Someday (probably soon) he will want to know where the door is.  But I will take what I can get.  And today I got off pretty easily.

Congratulations to our 44th president, Barak Hussein Obama!

I’m listening to his inaugural speech right now, and really hope he does a good job as President.                  I did not vote for him.  I’m very concerned about what his agenda might be and what the next 4 years may hold.  I am quite turned off by the media’s adoration of him — and forgive me if it seems rude to say, but they do seem to be more in love with his skin color than with what he plans to do.  Is that annoying to anyone else?  Not that it’s ALL the media cares about, but it’s getting old to me.  I’ve no problem at all with skin color/ heritage/ etc.  But that’s NOT a credential….. well, that’s for another post.

At any rate, even though I am concerned, I truly do wish President Obama the best.  We are praying for him to make good and wise decisions.  We pray for his advisors to do the same.   And even though I hope it doesn’t become the/a defining mark of his presidency, it IS an historic moment for a black man to become President of the U.S.  I do hope Ethan will remember at least something of this period in history; and I’m recording the inauguration so he can watch it later.  (He actually asked me to, since he’s at Sonshine School today!)

Good luck and God bless, Mr. President.

Well, it’s very sad how long it’s been since I posted.  One glitch was that for some unknown reason the blog just wasn’t there for a while.  My brother finally got it up and running again, but I don’t think he even knows for sure what happened.

And I’ve got some good stories — I’ll probably never get them all posted.  Oh well.

I do want to take this opportunity to mention for anyone who may not know it that Steven, Kristi, and the kids will be returning to the States on the 26th of this month.  I don’t mean they’re coming home on furlough.  They’re COMING BACK.  It’s a bittersweet thing — at least for me.  I’m really excited to get to see them more often and be able to call them without "doing the math" to compensate for time zones.  But I’m sad about the reason they decided to leave Germany.  BUT!! I’m really proud of them for making the decision they did.  I definitely think they made the right call.     To get the story in Steven’s words, go to their blog:      www.stevenandkristi.com      (I think it’s linked on our blog — not sure.  Can’t tell from this "write a post" part of the blog, and I’m just SOOO tech-challenged.)

Anyway, I guess they’ve gotten all their worldly goods loaded into a container that will be shipped to the States (eventually), and they’re  living in a hostel, I guess until they fly out next Monday.  The "best" part is that my dad told me both kids are sick: puking, fevers, good stuff!  So, if ya think of it say a prayer for them.

Welcome back (soon) Homer and family!  Love you!