Harold and the Purple Crayon

Or, Samantha and the purple dry-erase marker...Are you familiar with Harold? He draws his story with his crayon as he goes...



So...I am here in TX, with my three. We just made it through a week of illness, one with pneumonia, all with high fevers and me trying to get the house ready for market so we can move to North Dakota to reunite with Dad come June.

Yesterday, Samantha was working hard on her dry erase book at the kitchen table for the better part of an hour while I cleaned the kitchen. I was called off to assist Bubba or Stump and then she:

scribbled the table cloth
scribbled her chair cushion
scribbled the cabinets
scribbled the shutters and walked across the living room to the hall and
scribbled a line that followed the chair rail molding (convenient height) all the way down the hallway into the family room to the entertainment center and finished with a beautiful abstract scribble conglomerate that covered the open cabinet doors by the tv

It was a three-room and a long hallway purple scribble-o-rama.

All of this was accomplished in less time than it took me to type it

My apologies for lack of pictures. I grabbed the cleaning cloth and started wiping because the real estate people were coming today! And unless you closely inspect the chair rail, I think all the evidence is gone...

Posted by The Editor.

Recipe for Forever

Recipe for Forever
Gather all of the ingredients together, so that they are close at hand! Get a clean cloth and wipe the bowl clean of any lingering dust from the past.
Take maturity, respect and friendship, and stir gently.
Add unlimited amounts of compassion and kindness, and mix well.


To this, add caring by the handfuls and fold in trust.

Continue stirring gently, adding listening, honesty, and large amounts of communication.

Slip in some dreams, goals, and firm pieces of keeping promises.

Bake in a home filled with peace, beauty and serenity.

Before you taste the finished product, sprinkle liberally with patience, love, and a touch of spice.

Serve very hot, with imagination on the side.


Author Unknown

I found this recipe on the internet. It says ‘author unknown’, but I think it was written by a child. Who else but a child would have such a firm grasp on all that is good and pure?
I look at my kids and I think that my heart might explode from loving them so much. They are so soft and sweet and innocent and full of love and kindness—and then it hits me—my mom probably used to look at me like that, too, before I grew up and became a cynical, jaded adult.

And so I think it would be best if we, as adults, forgot about all that we have learned over the years. I think it would be best to return to that place called Childhood where everything is still possible and within reach, where we can touch our dreams, and live a life untainted by worry, stress, limitations, or fear.

I think that by looking ahead of us to role models, we are overlooking the best role models in this world—the pure of heart, also known as our little children.

Joy and Marlo are full of all that is good and kind and sweet and pure.

I’m hoping one day to be just like them.


Posted by The Editor for Busy Body

BGPs

With a 4 year old and a 17 month old, showers are (have to be) strategically planned events. I either have to (a) shower at night when both are asleep, or (b) get up at the crack of dawn before either one is awake, or (c) catch Hubs when he is going to be home and not otherwise engaged for 15 consecutive minutes, or (d) bribe Joy to just chill while Marlo is napping. It gets very tricky to say the least.

Marlo has been hosting a nasty cold for the past week. Otherwise she is a champion napper, but with this cold, all of her routines have been a little off. Friday night neither kiddo slept very well so my night shower was out. Saturday I was not able to get up earlier than the girls. They were filling in for the roosters. Hubs was off and running so I couldn’t count on him. So that left a slot during Marlo’s naptime. Joy, however, had too much integrity to be bribed this particular day. Instead, she convinced me that those precious few moments that Marlo was asleep would be best spent playing Barbies. (So, I concede , this was probably more fun than showering, but not in the best interest of my personal hygiene.) Anyway, the plan was to play Barbies for a few minutes and then go shower. It just so happened that it was salon day for the Barbies and all 72 of them (17 were mine from childhood, 21 are her older half-sister’s, 16 are hers, 7 are Marlo’s, and I’m not sure where the rest came from) HAD to have new hair-dos. And so it happened that before the salon day was finished Marlo woke, prematurely, from her rest. And my hopes and dreams for a shower went down the drain.

Marlo is basically down to one nap a day but since she’s been under the weather and most of her naps are for shortened amounts of time, I have been trying to force the 2-naps-a-day issue. As luck would have it, this was a day that this tactic actually worked. The heavens opened up and shined upon me and gave me a second chance for a shower. It was only 3 pm, after all—I guess better late than never! So, I got Joy all situated watching some mind-rotting cartoon with a chocolate ice cream cone and I sprinted upstairs to take a quick shower.

***If talking about women’s underwear, or nakedness embarrasses you, I apologize (and for you, there will be no point to this post, but) please stop reading at this point, otherwise, read on…***

Glory, hallelujah! I accomplished the most difficult task of the day! When I got out of the shower to get dressed, the bribery had worn off and Joy was waiting on my bed. Now, for some reason, (probably because when she gets out of the tub we pat her bottom and say, “Spanky spanks!” before we dress her) she thinks it’s funny to give me ‘spanky spanks’. At that point I only had time to dry off and get my underwear on. Today the underwear happened to be a thong.

After a few spanky spanks she looked at my thong and said, “Mommy, your BGPs* don’t fit your bottom.” I told her, “Yes, they do.” And she said, “No, they don’t. You have naked bottom back here.” So, again I said, “Yes, they do, these are so you don’t see any lines under your clothes.” She looked at me like she wasn’t buying it, and then finally asked, “Do little girls wear these too?” (Oh, my stars NO! NO! NO!) So I told her (calmly), “Nope, not until you’re a Mommy.” And—thankfully—that was enough explanation…bottom line.

*BGPs=Big Girl Pants



Posted by The Editor for Busy Body


The Editor Advises that you never let Joy learn how to knit, otherwise she might get this into her little head and make her own BGPs to match her momma's.