* A Legitimate Question

I still plan to blog about our schedule at some point, although I am restraining from going on and on about how someone cut her hair again right in the middle of her forehead because her "part looked weird." Seemingly in response to my statement that his sister was hogging the stage my son spoke up.

Having a daily Bible time is a constant goal of ours, one we hardly ever live up to to our satisfaction. In a renewed effort the kids and myself sat down the other day to go over the day's God Time Card. The previous day's card talked about creation, etc so we had read the opening of Genesis in a bible story book we had received as a gift at some point in the past. The next day the talk was supposed to center around John 3:16. This topic held no interest for my son because it was not in order. So we quickly went through the concept in order to return to Genesis for the next story in the book. We discussed Adam and Eve's poor choice of fruit. This just happened to be the story from the previous Sunday so clearly the ideas had been percolating in his head.

(Might I say that having children and teaching them about God is quite the faith stretching exercise. You think that teaching adults would be the most challenging in the faith arena but I would challenge that assumption. Answering a child's question can be amazingly difficult.)

After talking about following God's rules and the concept of obedience in general, my son asks...

"Why didn't God just not put that tree in the garden?"

A legitimate question.

No tree. No disobedience. No fall. No banishment.

Similar logic to my daughter from previously - if I had not put the scissors in reach she would not have cut her hair, so clearly her disobedience was my fault. If God had not put the tree there, they would not have eaten, so clearly....

I am interested in your thoughts. How to explain that God wasn't just setting them up.

This was my response to my son.

"Could God make us follow all the rules?" - Mom

"Yes" - son

"You're right, he could. But he wants us to follow him on our own. He wants us to choose to do the right thing. He will always give us a choice. We can choose to make the wise choice. We can choose to make a bad choice. Adam and Eve needed to have a choice too."

I am not sure how much sinks in. I am sure there is a better answer, but those questions come at you without any preparation. What thrills me is the insight into his thinking process. My little man is getting so big. That question took abstract reasoning, and it was a very legitimate question.

* Quirky Quotes

It seems to be that my daughter is continuing to take the stage - not that my son is silent. It is just that he is more cautious with his words (at least when I am present) and a seven year old blurts less than a four year old. He is doing great stuff - reading to himself, playing baseball (with a much improved batting average from last year), independently cleaning his room! My daughter does read to herself, but no actual words match the page. She"cleans" her room but mostly it consists of piles, some on the chair, some behind the chair.

I will do a later post on our daily schedule, but today I am again struck by my daughters flair for drama and an "aptly spoken word."

The other day she said that the ladies tea we had attended was "lovely"

This morning she told her brother that "you ruined my life!!!" (all because he took a functioning water bottle from her while she was happily hosing down the playroom - I believe he actually saved her life - a fact I explained to the princess - at which point she told me I ruined her life.)

My current favorite occurred recently during a visit with friends. They came for the holiday weekend and much fun was had by all. They have four boys so the princess had a much larger court than usual and much more willing subjects. Her brother being quite content to let others be bossed around. Being boys however they did not always stick to girl stuff. A favorite activity - setting up tiny little men in rows to "battle." One boy had her dollhouse covered in battalions of little men. Upon noticing the unusual placement and use of her dollhouse she asked...

"Why is my dollhouse over here?"

"It makes a good fort."

Pause

"It makes a good dollhouse" (Emphasis entirely hers :) )

Silly boy.

* An Unexpected Cut

Today we are cleaning the house. Something I seem to do a lot but yet continue to need to do. The kids are helping, "in theory." Right now my daughter is picking up tiny pieces of paper, etc on the playroom floor, for which I will pay 5 cents per item. This is preparation for sweeping the dirt back out on the deck and since she is the person most likely to have dropped the tiny pieces of paper it is only fair she participate. She loves to cut things to pieces. She has her own supplies: bag, paper, scissors. She sits happily cutting the paper into bits , an activity she calls "scrap booking" She has a scrapbook full of pages with little bits dropped randomly into sleeves. It is of course beautiful as is everything else the princess does. At 5 cents a piece she has earned $2.20 so far.

Did I mention that she loves to cut things?

And that she has beautiful hair?

Oh well.

Chalk that up for one thing the princess has done that is NOT beautiful.

After many tears on both sides she has recovered enough to tell me that "you should have put the scissors up high where I couldn't reach them."

!!!!!!!!!!