Prayers of a Six Year Old

So, a while back (just before Christmas), we were having some very difficult mornings. Attitudes were not the best. And, that goes for all three people in the car every morning on the way to drop off Caleb. So, our (Caleb, Cameron, and Me) New Year's Resolution was to pray every morning on the way to school. I pray for both Caleb and Cameron, and usually Caleb wants to say a prayer for me. Cameron, occasionally, throws in some wise words Upward.

Well, my brother, Uncle Jared is in Day Two of the Bar Exam today. So, I was explaining all of this to Caleb as we got into the car. And, I was saying how I prayed all day yesterday for Uncle Jared, and that I was going to do that again today and tomorrow. So, Caleb asked if when I prayed on the way to school, would I pray for Uncle Jared too, so that he could hear my prayers? Of course!!

So, I prayed for Caleb, Cameron, and Uncle Jared. I lifted up each concern that was on my heart for each of them and gave them over to God. I used some five dollar vocabulary when expressing my desire for Jared's wisdom, anxiety, peace, etc. Then came Caleb's turn. And, I'm pretty sure he said it the best...

"Dear God, please give Uncle Jared all the smartness he needs."

Sometimes his complete honesty and earnest, heartfelt words speak volumes.

Valentine's Day and Big Red

On Friday, Cameron and I attended/helped with Caleb's Valentine's Day party at school. Cameron loves going to his Bubba's school, and Caleb loves showing him off there. Well, this year, the Kindergarten teachers got together and decided that all the kids really want to do is tear into their Valentine's Day cards. And, since the party is only the last hour of school, once they open their cards there really isn't much time to do much else. So, using the leftover money from the Christmas parties, said Kinder teachers decided to limit everything and only make floats, and in light of it being Valentine's Day and red and pink and all, they decided to do BIG RED floats.

Not everyone knows this, but there is very little as far as sights and smells that absolutely disgust me. But one that will bring me to my knees in nausea is the smell of Big Red. Now, I knew what was being served prior to going so I had myself a good anxiety attack on the way to the school repeating the mantra, "I will not throw up. I will not throw up." And, then I wisely got there first, so I could claim my stake to the station of scooping the ice cream.

With my wisely placed position and the Big Red bottles as far away as possible, we set about calling kids up to get their floats. I found that over half just wanted ice cream (go kids!) and the rest wisely walked on the other side of the room to get back to their chairs. Only once did we come really close, but I was able to cover my nose and cough it out. Not even kinda joking.

And, much to my delight, my kids opted for ice cream after taking a whiff of the drink and deciding they didn't care for it. Later, Caleb would try just a small drink of it, and again decide that he didn't like it. Have I mentioned how intelligent my kids are?!

And, down in the books is our first school Valentine's Day party.

On another note, my mother-in-law came to town this weekend with one purpose of giving Greg and I a break and her time to see the kids. She took them to several neat places on Saturday while Greg and I spent the day together. Then she baby-sat on Saturday night while Greg and I went out with some old friends of mine. It was one of my favorite Valentine's Day ever (i'm not usually a big fan of the day), and we had the best time that night. We laughed so hard - I'm sure all those sappy two-somes around the restaurant that were trying to gaze into each other's eyes and enjoy a romantic evening trully appreciated the raucous we caused.

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend and survived Cupid's Day.