Children Are Not Born Perfect.

The Fall (Genesis 3:1-7)

1Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6So when the woman (girl named Hannah) saw that the tree (candy) was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit (the sweets) and ate, and she also gave some to her husband (brother named Eli) who was with her, and he ate.

7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

On Wednesday Hannah dragged her stool from the bathroom into our bedroom and over to my dresser.  She reached on top of it, withdrew my small box of six holiday caramels in three flavors, inhaled two, and gave one to her brother.  The remaining one she would have eaten had I not discovered the sin.  I had been saving my cinnamon caramels for last.  They are my favorite.  I did not get a single one.

On Thursday while I was getting ready for the day, Hannah moved a chair across the kitchen, scaled it, climbed onto the counters, reached the top shelf, pulled down the LAST box of peppermint Jo-Jo’s from Trader Joe’s (they are like Oreos with chunks of candy cane in the cream, and they are my favorite), and ate two-thirds of the box.  She is four, and she ate two-thirds of the box.  A serving size is two cookies (who ever eats only two of such cookies?), and that “serving” contains 140 calories, 6 grams of fat, and 13 grams of sugar.  There are four grams of sugar in one teaspoon.  Hannah ate about a cup’s worth of sugar in cookies alone.

She shared them with Eli so that she would not be the only sinner. He only ate the cream out of the centers of six cookies.  Apparently he does not like the chocolate shell.

Later Thursday her “marker fast” had ended.  I caught her writing on her dolls face and bottle (this after she wrote on the living room walls, her closet, and her bedroom walls) so she was forbidden from using markers for a week.  As I handed her the box of markers, we went over the rules again: you may only use them on PAPER, not on any other surface.  Not walls, furniture, toys, or clothing.  Not more than two minutes later, I glanced over and saw “H-A-N-N-A-H” spelled out in tipsy black letters across our white bench.

On Sunday she stole a travel-sized bottle of honey and was about to eat the whole thing (all candy in our house being gone) before n8 caught her.  I was ready to call Teen Challenge and request a bed for her in ten years.

In all this, she has shown NO REPENTANCE WHATSOEVER. If she is forced to look into our eyes while we are talking to her about her sins (deceit, stealing, disrespect, disobedience…), she either looks AT them, or through us, while she tips her head back and forth and swings her legs.   I.  AM.  NOT.  LISTENING.

We have taken away time (eating with with the family), special toys (her Belle doll from Cousin Lucas who loves her so much), and treats (candy/sweets for a week).  Nothing has impacted her.  She has been lectured, spanked, and put in time-out. She does not care.  She is Four, not Fourteen, but that is really hard for me to tell right now.

If anyone has any ideas of what might soften her heart and cause her to STOP STEALING SUGAR (or just outright disobeying her parents), please let us know.

Eli learned the word “scrotum” yesterday.

Protector

In our house we play the Lion Game; I prowl and roar like a lion at the children and they run away from me. Tonight I chased them into the kitchen and they dove under the table. I came in and crouched down to look under. I saw Hannah lying in Eli’s lap, his arms firmly around her.

We named our son Tsel Elisha “In the Shelter of the Lord is My Salvation” in part because we desired him to find his security in God, but also because we wanted him to take the role of protector of his family – his sisters while he is young, and his wife and children as he grows old. I was excited to see him acting as the protector, shielding Hannah from the “lion”.

As I crawled further under the table, Eli pushes his sister toward me and says, “Here! Take her!”

Oh. Maybe we still have a bit to teach him about being a protector.

Injury-prone son.

Eli sustained an injury today.

He had to pee, and it had, of course, reached emergency urgency. Eli ran to the bathroom. To save time, he pulled down his pants on the way. They tripped him as he entered the bathroom. He fell like a tree, his body straight, hitting the ground with unbroken force. He struck his head by his ear on the space heater nearby. The trauma of it all was too much for his over-filled bladder, and so he released it.

I found him sobbing on the bathroom floor with his pants about his ankles and a puddle from neck to knees. Does anyone else find it rather difficult to gravely comfort a child who has come by his or her injury in such a humorous way?

(Note: This “head-injury” did not even make a mark nor send him to the emergency room with a concussion. This time.)

Is that you….

So this story actually happened while I was not around but it’s funny anyway so I figured you all might enjoy it.

 On Friday (January 16) Mark’s parents agreed to watch my kids while Mark and I went out for dinner and a movie. Mom had made plans earlier in the week to have some of her friends over for dinner but she happily agreed anyway.

Mom had made the mistake of snacking on prunes earlier in the day, forgetting their ability to produce gas in mass quantities over the next few hours. She, being the good host, tried all night to hold it in as much as possible.

When bedtime came for the kids, she was getting quite uncomfortable so, as she is tucking them in, she decided to let a few out and relieve some of her discomfort out of hearing distance for her company. My daughter, upon hearing her grandma’s flatulance, calls out in a voice loud enough to be heard in the entire house, “Grandma, are you farting?”  

Responsibilities

This is n8’s story, but since he is off to Elder Board meetings, I have to record it before we forget.

n8’s main Daddy job is the Finishing Tucker. He cuddles the preschoolers into bed then prays with them.

Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

After months of mixing the words up, both of the pair have it down fairly well now. n8 thought tonight would be a good night to try to teach Eli what the prayer means.

“You are praying that Jesus will take you to Heaven if anything happens to you before you wake up.”
“But don’t want Je-thuth to take me. I jeth wanna go to sw-eep.”
“Yes, probably that will happen. But the prayer means that just in case something happened, Jesus will come to get you.”
“But I don’t want to go wiff Je-thuth. I jeth wanna go to sw-eep.”
[n8 repeats his explanation of the prayer again.]
“Do you think He’ll be mad?”
“Who?”
“Je-thuth. Do you think He’ll be mad that I don’t wanna go wiff Him? That I jeth wanna sw-eep?”

**************
And this one is my story.

Hannah has control issues. She loves to boss others around, especially her younger siblings. She told me once that she couldn’t wait to grow up into a Mommy, because then she could tell HER girl what to do and SHE’D have to listen! A couple weeks ago, I was hit with an inspiration.

With authority (control) comes great responsibility. I explained this principle to Hannah. Did she want me to hold her accountable when Eli or Nayah misbehaved? Did she want to be disciplined for the wrong things they did? Did she want the chores that come with being a mommy? Did she want to take care of Eli and Navayah, changing them, dressing them, taking them potty and wiping them, cooking food for them, cleaning up after them, and so forth? She agreed that it was probably a better idea that she wait till she grew up into a mommy to boss others around.

Today one of Hannah’s four-year-old buddies came over. This child has Hannah’s same urge to control and micromanage EVERYONE in the most miniscule ways. As I admonished the child for the 18th time not to interfere or try to discipline any of the others, Hannah pipes up: “Do you want to be a mommy? It’s a lot of responsibility. [She knows the word now.] You have to do lots of chores, like,” she chants:
“laundry
and dishes
and cleaning
and folding all the clothes
and making food for the kids
and cooking
and getting all the kids dressed
and putting all their coats on
and zipping them all up
and putting their boots all on
and buckling them all up in their car seats
and driving around for a long time
and unbuckling them all from their car seats
and taking off all their coats
and hanging up all the coats
and putting away all the things
and…and…putting them all to bed!”

And that’s Motherhood, in one short verse!

Grandpa’s Birthday Open House

Thank you, Lord, for friends who urge on the stubborn old man. Two different people saw Grandpa at Sid Blanksma’s funeral and asked him about his 90th birthday. One of them was Kathy Eekhoff who is the secretary of First Church and whom I had talked with about renting their fellowship hall. I had told her that Grandpa was balking at the idea. I guess she told him that he needed to have the open house. Then Dave Venema whom Grandpa had helped with the building of the school told Grandpa that he and Shelley wanted to help him celebrate his 90th birthday and they were going to come wherever he was celebrating it. He went home to Grandma and told her that we should probably have the open house. I haven’t talked to him about it yet but Aunt Karen did. Now to get everything organized although it isn’t going to be anything fancy or extravagant.