Paris - Mom did you know that when I die I am never going to heaven? You want to know why?
Me - why!?
Paris - Because right before I go to heaven I am going to open my eyes!

Feb 26, 2009

After walking in what seemed like gail force winds to our car and crawling safely into our van, Paris said "shwew, that wind almost took my talking away!"

Paris - Did you know that you can call ants and spiders bad words?
Me - You can? Why do you think that!?
Paris - Because they poke you and God didn't know that when he made them
Me - laughter and theology lesson ensues
 
Feb 16, 2009

You can spread your food farther if you can get your family to eat leftovers. It saves you money and time. You can make it fun, here's how;

Have a Leftover Restaurant Night. Make a Menu in a program like Publisher or Word that you can easily change depending on what is in your refrigerator. When you find you have a few options that could feed everyone, declare it restaurant night. Dress up the table a little bit, maybe use the fancy napkins that you can throw in the wash later. Print out the a menu and let them choose what they want. Then serve them like an official maître d', towel hung over arm and all. Payments are made in kisses and hugs, dishes that you worked harder on earlier in the week require more affection!

Feb 11, 2009

By 10 am this morning my little 4 year old Paris-girl had me laughing since she got out of bed.

While I was putting 16 month old Jack's slippers on:
Paris - Jack you're going to be cozy in no time!

While we were chillin' watching Noggin. Dora came on:
Paris - Mama, quick move take Jack's bottle out of his mouth, Dora's on, he has to say "Dora!"
Jack - "Dora!"

While making a book about God in which "Mary was giving God her ear-rings":
Paris decided God would play ball in her book after I noticed she had spelled the word "at" amongst her letters.
Paris - Mama how do you spell ball?
Me - b-a-l-l
Paris - write it for me! (I did)
Paris - it says at the ball.....game!
Paris - how do you spell game?
Me - g-a-m-e (I wrote it)
Paris - Cracker Jack!.........Mama how do spell Cracker Jack?

Jan 28, 2009

Today I went grocery shopping with Paris, my almost 4 year old. I went down each isle, as I had run out of everything we need to eat and have a comfortable family life at home. Paris kept jumping up and down from beside the shopping cart, like a small dog trying to see over a screen door, yipping "Mama can I help, can I help?" I would pick something essential to my children's nutrition or something I knew they would like in their school lunches to know I had thought about them while they were away, and hand it to her to throw in the back of the cart, leaving the heavy and breakable things for me to find their place. Then when it was time to checkout, as I started to unload the cart onto the belt, I heard her cheerful, proud voice sing "Mama here, I'm helping you!" Paris was climbing up the side of the cart, stretching and reaching to take things out of the cart and handing them to me, as I effortlessly passed my own items over to the belt. When she had retrieved all the items she could reach, still climbing up and down with each article, she began asking me to hand her her intended target in the cart. I handed it to her, she climbed down, and said "here Mama, I got this for you!" or "here Mama, I'm helping you!" I could not keep myself from laughing each time because the job would certainly be done faster if I just put the items on the belt myself, and she didn't seem to realize that I was helping her, help me.

It struck me as I was bagging up the groceries, that maybe it was like that for God. He knows what we need to "help Him, help us", and that God could certainly do it all Himself, but maybe He delights in watching us trying to please Him. I certainly hope He is laughing at me and not upset that I think I'm proud when I can "do something all by myself!"

My husband and I were talking about "child-like" faith this morning as our child certainly seems to have a lot of questions. I wonder if part of "child-like" faith is just being God's child and Him delighting in that.

Jan 16, 2009

A Close Call
Paris - "Mom where did this baby come from?" - referring to her baby brother Jack
Me - "Where did this baby come from!?" - I am thinking "Oh no, not already!"
Paris - "Oh yeh, the hospital"

Hair
With "hat hair" and "heater hair" (frizzy from the static), Paris was dancing to some music. She caught a glimpse of herself in the fireplace door and said, "Wow, I'm having a bad hair day!"

On How You Know You're Gaining Weight
Paris had just eaten breakfast and was jumping up and down. Aaron and I were amazed with Paris that we could hear her milk chuggling around in her tummy. She said (while still jumping up and down and a little out of breathe), "My milk is moving around in my tummy. That's cause there's lots of room in there for it. That means I'm fat."

Lesson Learned
As I was driving through traverse weather, Paris kept telling me over and over again that she was still hungry.
Me - "I heard you, there is nothing I can do at the moment, stop saying that!" Paris - "Mama, don't you know you're not allowed to say stop saying something?"
Me - "Where did you hear that?"
Paris - "YOU"

Paper Cups
"Grace gave me a paper cup right here on my finger when she took the paper away from me at class."

I have been getting upset watching the news regarding John Travolta's son's death. The people talking about seizures and the Travolta's religion are doing a disservice to those who live with epilepsy. From my own experience with my daughter's seizures I would just like to set the record straight, somewhere. Seizures can not always be controlled with medication or even multiple medications. Sometimes anti-seizure meds do more harm than good. It is a dance to find the right kind of med for the particular kind of seizure(s) an individual has. Seizures that may appear as one kind may actually be another. Not every person with epilepsy is a candidate for surgery. Again, type of seizures have to be identified, where the seizures are coming from have to be identified, and whether that place in the brain is even operable has to be determined. Brain surgery is a huge risk! One of our daughters has a Chiari Malformation in her brain, as we met with a Neurosurgeon we have heard from their mouths, they never do surgery unless it will do more good than harm, anytime you go into the brain, you can do more harm. So, for all the people who are so callously assuming that it was John Travolta's religion that stopped him from getting his son brain surgery or meds, please, please go to medical school first before you talk about such things, or walk a mile, no walk 16 years with a child who has seizures and see if you come to the same conclusions.

Jan 7th, 2009