I’ve lost the car seats
With Grandma at the dentist
School open-house calls
School’s first day comes nigh
In slippers I weep and wave
Loves recess and bus
Play, and wait for bus
Scrambling up the bank, we climb
Is our dog a bear?
Giant spider drowned
Crouch and peer at each bent piece
Ants seize the body
A snake in a can
Escapes, then pooping it flees
But snake poop is cool
Momma–”Why did you put yogurt on your leg?”
Sweet Boy#3–”Because I want to.”
Momma–”Why did you want yogurt on your leg?”
Sweet Boy#3–”Because the whole earth is the sun.”
Ahhhhhh, now I understand.
Sweet Boy#2–”The moth alarm!”
Sweet Boy#1–”When the moth alarm goes off it’s the worst!”
Sweet Boy#3–”Fire are getting on those moths and they’re burning up!”
Dangerous times.
Sweet Boy#3–”I actually can…” pauses for dramatic affect “…eat backwards!”
Sweet Boy#3–”Jesus is a bad guy.”
Sweet Boy#1–”No he’s not!”
Sweet Boy#2–talking about a moth–”I named him cheesester.”
Sweet Boy#1–”Oh no you can’t jump that far!”
Sweet Boy#3–”Oh no I can’t!”
Sweet Boy#1–”You say: Oh yes I can.”
Sweet Boy#3–”Oh yes I can!”
Sweet Boy#1–”Oh no you can’t!”
The Hunky Hubby and Sweet Boy#1 just got back from their backpacking trip. It was a four day, three night hike up into several wilderness lakes. Copper, big heart, little heart. These are some of the names I recall from my little boy’s lecture as he held the map and explained the route that they took. My guys came back hobbling and exhausted, brown with dirt, and glowing with the joy of their adventure. Sweet boy #1 was one of the fastest hikers, speeding ahead of his Daddy much of the time. Although carrying his over-sized backpack really hurt his shoulders and on some occasions others lugged it around for him. They showed me their pictures, of alpine lakes and windswept precipices. Looking at that distinct high mountain foliage in their pictures, recalled for me that fresh bitter scent of wilderness air and the feel of the wind trying to blast you from the path. And I realized something important.
If you have never spent time in the wilderness, not just the woods, but the wilderness there are some things that you will never understand about God. Now I live in the woods. Not the same. But when you put all of the supplies to survive on your back and hike up into that wildly rugged territory that does not make any allowances for you, a land that just is and there is nothing you can do to tame or turn it to your ends. You realize something about God. Why are we drawn to the wilderness? Because we have no business being there. It is not safe.
The Hunky Hubby and Sweet Boy#1 stood at the lip of a 1,000 foot drop down into a mountain lake. Just one little slip, a tiny accidental nudge the wrong way and their fragile human bodies would have be destroyed. Shinobi and Splinter (two of the counselors who went along) took a quick day hike up an extremely steep ridge. About half way up they realized that going down the way they had come was impossible. They would pick up too much speed sliding and be killed. So they were really hoping that there was a milder way down at the top. There was, but even then they were going dangerously fast, stopping themselves by crashing into small rocks and bushes as they slid down. But what if there hadn’t been a better way?
They could have died. Not because the mountain was evil, or unloving, or lacking understanding. But because the mountain was great, mighty, awesome, unreachable. Those who want to be safe and sound have no business climbing up into the untouchable heights. The frightful power of the wilderness is why we trek into it. And yet many people do not understand why we are to fear God. Those who have stood on those alpine heights, seen the fragility of their lives and felt the easy power of the wilderness. Fearing God comes easy. We have no business stomping up to the Almighty and making demands. He just is. He is terrible. He is fierce. Mighty. Wondrous. Beautiful. Deadly. Frightful.
Now of course the crazy thing about God is that all of His creation tells us something of Him, and so there is also something you will never understand about God if you have never seen a butterfly, or a duckling, or a grizzly bear. But fearing God…if you have stood there on the precipice with that rushing mountain wind pressing you toward the edge, you just understand. God is frightful.
But that does not make Him any less Good. And in the wilderness you can see that as well.
"I migrated for this!"
It started snowing yesterday morning. It never stopped. We got a total of 11 inches. All our snow clothes are boxed up and the hunky hubby just finished using the rototiller on our back yard to plant junk. We aren’t the only ones a bit flummoxed by the weather. The boys and I watched as songbirds and humming birds were flung about by the wind as they flopped their way toward Grammy’s feeders. We might not have any snow pants, but at least we don’t get blown away from the dinner table.
Thursday was Sweet Boy #1′s official “Momma Day”. We skipped school and left the other boys with The Hunky Hubby and just Sweet Boy #1 and I headed into town. We went to Target where I bought him a new shirt and he spent some of his money on a snuggly shorts and shirt outfit that was shiny and silky and in every way pleasing to wear, not scratchy or itchy or decorated with annoying logos that rub on your neck. They he picked out some plastic boats for his brothers and we headed out to the Dollar Store. We wandered the isles and chose several House Fairy prizes for when their rooms are clean and then went to lunch. Normally he will choose to play at McDonald’s, but this day my eldest surprised me by wanting to go through the drive through and take our lunch to a park. We got to the park and he chose a lovely picnic table where we ate for a while before the lure of the toys ended our meal. In the past he has wanted to play with me on the toys, but my little boy is growing up. He said: “You can sit wherever you want Momma, while I play.” And off he went, climbing trees and making volcanoes out of wood chips and even sliding down the fireman’s pole. He would look up every few seconds to see if I was impressed with a particular playground feat, but other than that I mostly watched him having fun. Then we bought some peanut butter for the Hunky Hubby and a treat at Dairy Queen and headed home. I can’t believe he is 6 years old now and so grown up. But even an ancient 6-year-old still loves Momma Day.
Ah, one complete, glorious, school free, week with the cousins has come and gone. Spring Break was truly lovely, although Sweet Boy #1 insisted on doing two lessons of phonics so that he could earn his two remaining stars and gather up his much anticipated prize of an….alarm clock!
But other than that it was: wake-up, eat, rush to cousins where they slumbered at Grammy’s house and play, or listen to the thump thump thump of cousins rampaging up the stairs and rush to the gate to let them in and play, eat lunch, meet cousins outside for snow and mud and puddles, and wildly waving sticks and branches in every direction that somehow managed not to make contact with any eyeballs, drag into Grammies to strip out of muddy clothes and play near the fire and get warmed up just enough to start running in mad circles screaming and accidentally breaking the handles off coffee mugs and spilling juice and eating out of Grammy’s candy dish, then slow down for some cartoons, then outside once more for several minutes of all 6 kids running running running around the porch screaming or riding around in the wood cart, or building a personal cannon on the porch with some big sticks and an old box, then finally drag them kicking and screaming off to bed where all would collapse in epic fatigue only to burst forth the next morning to do it again.
The last full day we hiked down to a small creek that creates a small waterfall in the spring and Sweet Boy #1 waded past the crust of ice and snow, into the creek up to his thighs, Sweet Boy #3 waded up to his knees several times before the crying began, but Sweet Boy #2 plunged in almost completely several times until I had to strip him and make him sit in his soaked undies in the sunshine on a hillside eating a granola bar. The cousins were equally soggy and the moms exhausted and sore due to carrying various small children on portions of the walk. Still they were Glorious times all around.
We will be returning to our regular programming in January.
God Bless.
Kristen
I have officially converted the Bulletin Board section of my website into BLOG. I even moved all of my old, moldy thoughts over so that now, not only can the three people who actually read this see each weeks trials and triumphs, my Mom can comment upon them, old and new. You know, give advice, offer condolences, tell us to consume two drops of Ack ack ack…oil of oregano every day to prevent lung cancer, the common cold, and deep eye wrinkles. All the good stuff. So now you know…all three of you.
