surprise!

Eldon left his shoes outside last night, and a horrible thing happened- they were wet this morning. We had planned to go to town today, to Walmart, but he begged for us to have a “stay at home day.” It has been a long week, and Walmart is the last place I wanted to be anyway, so stay home we did. He and Peter and I started our stay-home day by putting on our mudboots (which they could have worn to Walmart, really, but I didn't mention that,) and we took a walk to the pond. Fall is just starting to show its colors around here, so every red leaf they noticed on the ground was a GLORIOUS surpise, worth SHOUTING about, and RUNNING to mom. In moments I had a beautiful boquet of colorful leafs.

It's glorious, isn't it? These shining moments with little ones in nature? Well it is, but let me zoom in for just a moment and show the gritty reality...

“The mud looks like POOP!”
“ha, poop!”
“No, YOU'RE a butt-butt-BUTT.”BOO! (belly laughs, surprise, more more mama more!)

“Hey mom, you know what's funny? POOP!”

Oh, whatever, I think. I just don't even have the energy to try to squash the poop talk. I wanter away slowly with my coffee, letting them play in the poop mud, and I try to process some of the sad things on my heart. I pray for those people for whom we ache. I hum a hymn and look at the cows drinking from the pond and then--

“BUTT!”

“No you're a butt-butt.”

“Enough, boys!”

I re-enter their world, and beg them to find me more pretty leaves.

Homeward, next (and not without more potty humor.)

I give them crayons and tell them to peel the wrapping off so we could do leaf rubbings.

“But mom at church we did that and you said NO.”

Right, the wrappers on the pews, and under them, and put on my lap, I remember. But it's ok here. I have a broom, here.

And the brown crayon looks like (you guessed it!) but we move on to the leaf rubbings.

I wish I had a video camera for this next part.

My four and five year olds turned into babies again, for a moment.

“The leaf goes under the paper, and then you use the crayon like this...”

Eldon tried, and guess what- a LEAF appeared! It was SHOCKING, and absolutely hilarious! Next, I put a leaf under Peter's paper, and you would not BELIEVE it... it happened AGAIN! Bahahahaha they were laughing, and delighted, every single time!!!

It made me think of when they were babies, and they'd play peek-a-boo.

Where's mommy? (they really didn't know!)

BOO! There she is! (surprise! Laughter! Again again!)

Where's mommy? (again, uncertainty...)

That sweet laughter rang in my ears all day.

(It drowned out some- but not all- of the potty jokes that were told later in the day. For the others, I gave them laps to run. Fine, boys, laugh about butts again, but it will cost you a workout.)

I pray a weird prayer:

God, bless these little butt-brains.

Dear friends who are suffering, I pray that God gives you comic relief today, and the eyes to see it, and the freedom to take joy in it even as we grieve. Christ is risen, after all. We can smile through our tears.