The Zaccheus you never knew

    For devotions tonight, Scott read the story of Zaccheus, which I though my children were pretty familiar with.  Wrong.  After the reading from our wonderful children's Bible, he asked a few questons, directed mainly at Levi and Tirzah.  First: Was Zaccheus a big man?  Levi says no, Tirzah says yes. 
    Second, "How did Zaccheus get to see Jesus, Tirzah?"  Blank look.  I rephrase the question.  "How did Zaccheus get high up enough to see Jesus?"  Her eyes lit up, and pointing to the sky, she cries, "A plane! He went up in the sky!" 
     Levi scornfully responds, "No, he climbed a tree!"  "Good, Levi.  What kind of tree?" continued Scott.  "A sperm tree!" he answers.  I nearly fell off my chair. Good thing my mouth wasn't full, I laughd so hard.  He tried again, "An oak tree?" 
     Seeing things were not going so smoothly, Scott turned to Caelin, who this entire time had been fixing himself some dessert and to all appearances was not paying any attention. He proceeded to answer everything, about quoting the story verbatim.  Seeing some reinforcement would be good, we closed with a couple renditions of "Zaccheus was a Wee Little Man."

What Tirzah hears

     Tirzah has taken to telling stories.  This morning she was telling me that she had heard snow falling.  Impressive.  A bit later I was telling the kids that we have to keep food picked up better because of mice.  Tirzah commences describing how she heard mice downstairs at night when she was in her bed.  Claimed they were tiptoeing across the table and she could hear their little teeny feet. 

Hazardous Chemicals

    Chemicals can be hazardous in more ways than one.  Tonight as I did the dishes, I heard a suspicious noise behind me.  Turning, I saw Aila with the can of apple-cinnamon air freshener, set on the floor in front of her, using both her thumbs to press the button.  Thankfully, it is drenching the floor in front of her instead of spraying in her face.  I dropped the dishcloth and ran over to grab the can, putting well out of reach, then went back for some paper towels.  Unfortunately, I hadn't reckoned on the floor being so slick.  Almost in slow motion, I slid sideways, landing on my left hip in apple-cinnamon slime.  If  I had to fall, at least I will smell like fall. 
    I would also like to record for posterity that today Aila has dumped the basket of markers, a couple glasses of water, food from her plate, a bunch of stuff from the camping equipment bin, a substantial amount of cat litter, and an entire container of BB's.  On a lighter note, she has started saying "Vi" for Levi which is very cute.  Her vocabulary includes: Mommy, Daddy (her favorite word), shoe, which sounds more like she, and is tied for favorite word, owie, wa for water, doggy, baby, go-gee for gentle (as she strokes my face) uggy for yucky, ah for hot, and a little sing-song routine when she wants to nurse.  She pulls at the neck of my shirt, rocks side to side, and sings, "Uh huh, uh huh"  The uh being a higher note and the huh being a lower note.  It's working for her so far.