Hallmark’s Budding Card Writer

I wish I could post nearly-5-year-old Evangeline’s most recent artisitic contribution to our household. (I might be able to scan it, but it is a bit large.) Anyway, Evangeline loves to create “cards” for her friends and family. Today we celebrated Calvin’s birthday, so she decided later in the evening to create a birthday card for her baby sister’s 1st birthday which is coming in 2 weeks. She placed all the stickers from a Pooh sticker sheet on the top half of the page. Then she drew a couple of stick people representing herself and her sister on the bottom of the page. In between the stickers and the the people she placed two large pumpkins and about 6 little silver squares. She proudly brought me her creation and asked me to write, “Sisters are better than Silver and Pumpkins” on the card. I am not sure what to think of how she came up with this idea, but even though I don’t understand it, it seems to show some interesting creativity. Perhaps with several years remaining to hone her creative talents, Hallmark will be calling her and offering her a job.

A Couple Unrelated Thoughts

Painful Stupidity
First and foremost on my mind is the pain I am feeling in my toes/foot. I hate to suggest that marrying a Horne man makes a woman more succeptible to toe injuries, but in the last several months, my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law have both broken their toes. Now, not to be out done, I have at least severely bruised 3 of mine. I did this by walking across our playroom and slamming my foot into the wooden leg of the love seat. Not too smart. I think one of the worst things about an injury like this is how really stupid I feel about it. However, I think after a few days of staying off it as much as possible (keep those 4 kids of ours in mind), it should heal quite nicely. By then, I’ll stop feeling stupid about it too.

Loftier Thoughts
I recently started re-reading the Susan Howatch novels I have read and recommended in the past. I do not suggest that we should use novels as devotional material, but occasionally, an author can put thoughts into words in such a way that the reader can draw personal application. So I thought I would share the passage that I found thought-provoking and somewhat helpful from the second book of the Starbridge series, Glamourous Powers:

This is from an entry in the notes of the main character Jonathan’s counseling session with his spiritual director
“Why am I living this impossibly difficult life? And I said: ‘You’re here because you’re called to be here. You’re here because God requires you to serve Him in this hard, difficult way. You’re here because if you weren’t here your personality would disintegrate beneath the burden of your weaknesses. You’re here becuase it’s the only way you can survive.’ Then he broke down and cried,:’But how do I bear it?’ and I answered: ‘Think of others, not yourself, and you’ll find not only liberation from the dark side of your sould, but fulfillment of your ability to great good and live in harmony with your true self.’

Funny kid story

It may seem like I have quit blogging, but life has just been busy–and somewhat stressful. A good bit of what is going on with us is not the kind of thing to blog about, so for now, I just ask that you keep us in your prayers.

Now, on to the funny kid story.

Our middle son, Nevin, is funny. He can be a real ham, but this story is just him being funny when he really didn’t mean to be funny.

This past weekend, Mark and I had the opportunity to get away alone for a couple of days. Mark was speaking at a conference in the Tulsa area, and his mom graciously offered to come and stay with our four children. Last week, when we were making preparations for the trip, Nevin said, “Mommy, why do you have to go with Daddy?”

I said, “Well, sometimes mommies and daddies like to be alone without the children.”

Nevin said, “I think you should stay here and help Grandmommy. Are you sure she can handle us.”

I said, “Oh, I am sure she can handle you.”

He said, “But 4 kids is a lot of work. She’ll get tired.”

I said, “Well, I get tired doing it too, and after I rest I am ok. So I think she can manage for a couple of days.”

The conversation ended there. After we returned from our time away, I found out that soon after we left, Nevin questioned Grandmommy on her stamina for the job before her.

This came from the same child who recently told my older brother to quit his job that made his hands get dirt on them that won’t get off. After which Nevin continued, “You know, my dad’s a pastor. All he has to do is preach a sermon once a week, and his hands don’t get dirty.”