Snapshot

Usually, I try to do an interview-type post with each kid on their birthday, but I missed all three this year, I think! So, here is the way the world looks to my kids right now:

Jabin:

What is your favourite food?: Ice cream
What is your favourite activity?: Play toys.
What is your least favourite activity?: Cleaning up. (Mommy thinks it's taking a nap.)
What is your favourite movie?: Enchanted
Who is your favourite superhero?: Batman
What is your favourite colour?: Pink
What's your least favourite colour?:White
Who is your best friend?: Jude and Noah
What's your favourite book?: I don't know.
What's your favourite animal?: Lion
What's your favourite game?: MarioKart [Wii] and Mario Party [8]
If you could go anywhere, where would you go?: To Tim Horton's
If you could have any toy, what would you have?: My favourite toy is Winnie-Pooh
Do you like snow?: Yeah.
Why?: Because I want to walk in it.
What do you want to be when you grow up?: Batman!

Noah:

What is your favourite superhero?: Superman
What is your favourite food?: Pancakes and hot cereal
What is your least favourite food?: Mushrooms and pickles and tomatoes
What is your favourite movie?: All Dogs Go To Heaven and 3-2-1 Penguins
What is your favourite activity?: Play Wii.
What is your favourite game?: Stuart Little II & Bob the Builder (computer games), MarioKart Wii
What is your favourite book?: Bobcats & Lynx; The Cat In The Hat
Who is your best friend?: Quinton and Emily
What's your favourite animal?: Lion
What's your favourite thing to dress up as?: Lion costume [Still! After two years!]
Do you like kindergarten?: No. I love home school.
Why not?: Because I'm too old. I'm not going to be five, I'm going to be six, now. [In three more months!]
What is your favourite colour?: Green.
If you could go anywhere, where would you go?: Quinton's house. Quinton's house is good.
What is your favourite toy?: Donkey Kong monster truck.
What do you want to be when you grow up?: I just want to go to work just like my dad.

Jude:

What is your favourite food?: Cake and waffles and pie [after much deliberation]
What is your least favourite food?: tomatoes and pickles
What is your favourite colour?: orange
What is your least favourite colour?: purple
What is your favourite subject in school?: Crafts and Spelling
What is your least favourite subject?: Phonics
What is your favourite activity?: Play with my friends; swimming and drawing.
What is your least favourite activity?: I don't have one... I can't think of one. My best guess is being alone. ("Why, Jude?" asks Jabin. No response.)
What is your favourite animal?: Cheetah
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?: To my friends' house.
Who is your favourite superhero?: Spiderman
What's your favourite movie?: Transformers
Who is your best friend?: Dawson
What's your favourite book?: There are so many books, I can't even think of one. (sigh) I don't have one, then. I have a whole bunch of favourite books.
I know that feeling, Jude. Can you tell me a few of them that you like?: Stuart Little; Dragon Rider; my dragon books [Dragonology; How to Raise and Keep a Dragon]; Sonic comics.
What would you like to do when you grow up?: Be a cowboy. ("Really? You're back to cowboy?" "Well, is there anything you can do on the water?" he asks. "Oh, yeah!"... and I list a half-dozen or so professions. After some thought, he decides he wants to be "a soldier in the air." Two days later, when I am finally getting Noah's section done, he decides he wants to be a Navy officer on a submarine!)

Lost

The trouble with organization is that you can never find anything right after you've organized it.

Oh, yeah, it's great... if you've kept things in the same spots for years. But! When you are deciding on the places that things should go on a daily basis, because you are still unpacking things without a permanent home, then it is very easy to forget where that place is almost immediately.

I cleaned my house on Friday, due to the fact that we were expecting some company yesterday to help celebrate Jabin's fourth birthday. After an hour or so at the pool with Amanda M. and her kids, we all came back here for Apple Crisp and Ice Cream (the dessert requested by the birthday boy. Well... he actually asked for apple pie, but Mommy ran out of time on that one, and the "bottom line" item for him was actually the ice cream, so I knew a slight change to apple crisp would not be a big deal. I was right.)

So my house is fairly tidy--not immaculate, but orderly enough that it is easy to see the piles of "stuff to be dealt with."

However, on Friday, I did not have time to tackle my desk. I was purposely saving that for today, for the "okay-I'm-getting-those-taxes-done-once-and-for-all" marathon. So, this afternoon, I ambitiously set about to accomplish my plan. I cleared the desk, purposely picking up several items that needed to be dealt with in their own right, purposely putting them aside and saying to myself, "No, I will deal with that after the taxes are done." (I'm a champion procrastinator. I know this about myself. I procrastinate on getting the most necessary but least-loved chores done by doing something almost-as-necessary but less-dreaded done because it is right in front of me. That's why I did this.)

There was one envelope, a large brown one, that I particularly remember saying this about. I need it to get the form out of with which I can file for re-imbursement of my home school expenses. I know I didn't put it far away.

And yet, after searching the whole house, high and low, the best I can do is to vent my frustrations on you, dear internet. Thanks for listening.

"I have not lost my mind--it's backed up on disk somewhere."
-Unknown

Composition At Its Finest

The scene was the supper table. As we got started on our beef barley stew, Noah exclaimed, "Daddy! Listen to my song!"

Then, in a tune reminiscent of Baby Beluga, he sang:

"Ja-son, my dad-dy,
Ja-son, my dad-dy,
Ja-son want to be a costume piwate..."

Apparently, we have another composer in the midst. I'm kind of wondering, though--will he take after me? Or maybe Weird Al Yankovic?

The Missing Link?

The boys had been playing dress-up while I had my shower this morning. Tomorrow night at AWANA (kids club) it's dress-up night, so they were trying to decide what to be.

While I was applying my mascara with the bathroom door open (so the mirror would clear), Noah wandered in donned in the chef costume. He strained to see in the mirror, but it was a little above his line of sight to get a good view, so he started clambering up on the counter--all the while yammering on.

"Mom, I is a cookin' chef for AWANA because I cimb up here to see because I yook in the mirror..."

"Why don't you get a stool?" I asked. (Why must moms always try to be so practical?)

"No, I just climb," he replied matter-of-factly, and indeed, he was already sitting atop the vanity, perched at the edge of the sink. He admired his ensemble in the mirror, not even glancing in my direction.

"... because you're a monkey?" I smiled, knowing the humour would be totally lost on him.

"No, my feet are a boy."

"Just your feet? The rest of you is a monkey?"

"Yep."

And the 600th post goes to...

... Noah's recent artwork. He doesn't often draw a picture, so I was a little amazed at this one.

... I love this song:


(Sorry I couldn't find a better video of it.)
This is how I still feel about Jason...

When You Say You Love Me

Like the sound of silence calling,
I hear your voice and suddenly
I'm falling, lost in a dream.
Like the echoes of our souls are meeting,
You say those words and my heart stops beating.
I wonder what it means.
What could it be that comes over me?
At times I can't move.
At times I can hardly breath.

When you say you love me
The world goes still, so still inside and
When you say you love me
For a moment, there's no one else alive

You're the one I've always thought of.
I don't know how, but I feel sheltered in your love.
You're where I belong.
And when you're with me if I close my eyes,
There are times I swear I feel like I can fly
For a moment in time.
Somewhere between the Heavens and Earth ,
And frozen in time, Oh when you say those words.

When you say you love me
The world goes still, so still inside and
When you say you love me
For a moment, there's no one else alive

[bridge:]
And this journey that we're on.
How far we've come and I celebrate every moment.
And when you say you love me,
That's all you have to say.
I'll always feel this way.

When you say you love me
The world goes still, so still inside and
When you say you love me
In that moment,I know why I'm alive

When you say you love me.
When you say you love me.
Do you know how I love you?

... this guy:



... who just turned 7!

This morning, Jason took Jabin with him to town to get his tires changed, which is kind of a big deal to the little guy. It's a big pain in the bum to transfer the carseat over to the truck, so usually, it's one of the bigger boys (who have graduated to the easy-to-move booster seats) that get to go with Daddy. Jabin was so excited to go in the truck with Daddy! They went and had a snack at Tim Horton's, went to the garage, went to the gun shop... you know, "boy stuff." :-)

Jason said that by 11:00, though, Jabin was saying he wanted to go home and see Jude and Noah and Mommy. "'Cause I like them, and I love them." Awww...

Standy By Me

Watch this. Seriously.

Been Here, Still Doing This

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
- Rene Descartes

My dad taught me that.

As tough as it is to doubt sometimes, knowing that it's a necessary part of the process makes it easier to take... and also reminds me that there is light at the end of the tunnel. No matter how dry the desert, somewhere there's an oasis.

And that oasis is amazing.