Fact:  Red crayon marks on the couch:

Question:  Who did it?

Interrogation:  Everyone denied it.

Now begins the detective work which involves deductive reasoning as well as process of elimination.  The oldest three didn’t do it because by now they value their lives more than anything.  Now we’re left with the younger two; the four-year-old and the 20-month-old.  During the interrogation the four-year-old was insistent that she didn’t do it and readily incriminated the one-year-old.  Hmmmm. . . . the case gets a bit complicated because I can’t exactly interrogate the 20-month-old who isn’t verbal yet.  So, back to the evidence.  I observed the markings and the pattern.  It looked like the work of the 20-month-old because most of the markings are linear which is consistent with her developmental ability.  If it was the four-year-old, it’d involve concentric circles, hearts, and happy faces.

Case solved!

The culprit?  The adorable 20-month-old.

Punishment:  Sit on the bed of evidence as pictured.

I suppose punishment by photography is quite appealing for the culprit’s sisters that they too, want in on it.  So, I obliged.

Then the culprit felt left out so she climbed on to get in on the hall-of-shame.

Apparently, the brothers felt excluded as well, so they jumped on the opportunity to be photographed.

As you can see, life with so many little ones is never boring.

You may wonder why I didn’t completely freak out by the crayon marks on the couch and there’s a secret!  The secret is that all the covers on this couch are removable and washable.  Now, isn’t that a wonderful news for a family with small kids who enjoy practicing their artistic talents on furniture?

For me… ’twas closing the day in prayer with the boys.

And Matthew (my 8yo and our oldest) asked if he could pray as well, so I invited him to do so.

It went something like this.

Dear God… thank you for this day.

Thank you that Daddy could be blessed by the gifts we made him [they all made sweet father's day notes, some made several!]

I pray that you would help us be smarter…

[pauses, searching for the right words]

… and more intelligent…

[I'm chuckling inside]

… and most importantly, that we would be wiser.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

Nothing could’ve made me happier than to hear this self-initiated prayer, especially as a Dad who’s been reading through Proverbs with the children daily and exhorting them to pursue wisdom and not folly.

That made a happy Father’s day for this dad!  May the Lord indeed answer this prayer in spades!

P.S. Here a couple snaps of some of the notes my children drew for me:

Listening in on kids’ conversations are always entertaining.  I overhead the following conversation between my two boys recently:

7 yo:  “Heaven is a very special place and you can’t get there by airplane.”

5 yo:  “You need a rocket!”

Once again, my 5 yo solved the problem for all those who are wondering about heaven.

I had an amusing chat with my four-year-old the other day.

Me: “Andrew, I like the way you are.  Can you not grow up and stay this way all the time?”

He:  “I can’t!”

Me:  “Why not?”

He:  “Because you keep giving me milk to drink so I keep growing.”

[Note: at one point he was not a great milk drinker, and we told him if we wanted to be big like Daddy, he had to drink his milk.  This evidently stuck in his mind.]

Me:  “Hmmm. . . good point.  Can I stop giving you milk so you can stop growing and stay this way forever?”

He:  “Yes.”

So folks, there you have it.  I’ve divulged the secret to keep your child young and cute forever.  Just stop giving them milk.

Several weeks ago when I was shopping at Costco with my four little ones, a gentleman ran (yes, he ran) to me to ask if all the kids were mine.  After confirming it, he saw my tummy jetting out and with surprise he said, “Wow. . . and you have another one on the way.”  His inquiry didn’t bother me a bit since I’m already used to being asked that question.  But an older lady nearby looked at me with almost an accusing tone for having so many kids.  She told me that her niece is a doctor and is barely supporting her two kids through college.  Which was clearly her not-so-tactful way of saying that I obviously couldn’t possibly rake in enough money to support my FIVE kids through college.  According to her worldview, having so many children and presumably not having the means to pay their way through college is the essence of irresponsible unthinking folly.  In other words, family size should be planned based on the economics of future college education.

How did we get to this point as a culture?  What a sad state, when potential children are primarily viewed as entries in the expense/cost column, rather than blessings given by a God with an unlimited pocketbook!  And when people have so bought into this mentality that they harshly address a stranger who has more than they think is a “responsible” number of children.

As I began to compose this post, my husband asked me, “Are you sure you haven’t written about this topic already?”  I’m going to blame my pregnancy brain for the time being because my husband is indeed right: I already wrote about this topic two years ago when we were expecting child #4.  I find it funny that once again, the college question for large families is such a huge concern for most people.  Instead of rewriting my thoughts on this topic, I’ll just point you to TWO posts I have already written.  My viewpoint on this topic hasn’t changed and I stand by my previously written posts.

“What About College?”

“What About College?” Part 2

Whenever I get asked the college question, it’s usually during a shopping trip which does not lend itself to a thorough answer like a blog post.  So, I asked my husband for a quick and easy answer to offer to folks just so I don’t appear totally clueless.  He told me to say, “Through savvy financial planning and a simple faith in God.”  I thought that was an excellent answer.  That’s what I’m going to say next time someone asks me.

My boy is always cracking me up with his antics.  Either he says something really adult like or does something so funny or creative, he never fails to make me laugh.  When I woke up from my nap this afternoon, this is what I found on my computer monitor:

In case you can’t read the five Post-It notes on my screen, here’s the text:

• Mom I finished in 11 m: 13 s
• And I got.
• 22 x 22 100%
  24 x 24 100%
• 30 + 30 100%
  30 – 30 100%
• are you proud of me?

What my boy is referring to in these notes is the scores he got on his FlashMaster, an electronic flash card device for practicing math tables.  When the rest of the family takes a nap in the afternoon, Matthew works on his flashmaster where he does four different math tables.  Then he is to record his scores on a spreadsheet I developed for him.  He decided to surprise me with his amazing scores of 100% for all four math tables by posting them on my computer screen.  I was very proud indeed and he knew it!  I had a good chuckle after seeing these stickie notes.  He knows his mama who likes to put post-it notes on the computer screen to remind herself of different things.

Our whole family is very excited about our baby who is still growing inside mommy’s tummy. He/she is so well loved right now and the love will even be more pronounced once he/she is born. I’ve been getting lots of requests from the children to kiss the baby inside my tummy. My eldest often asks, “Mommy, after I’m done eating, can I kiss the baby in your tummy?” Naturally, the rest of the children want to have a turn too. I’m so happy that they’re excited about having a baby.

The children’s love for the unborn baby got me thinking. Where did they get the idea to love this unseen baby? None of the children ever attended a “New Sibling” class to learn how to love the new baby. I believe children learn from their parents. If the parents have the attitude of welcoming another baby into the family, then the children will see the new baby as a blessing. If the parents have the mentality that “two is enough” or that “children are just a lot of hassle and work,” then the children don’t see themselves as someone mommy and daddy treasure. Consequently, any subsequent child the parents have isn’t viewed as a blessing. When my eldest said, “Mommy, I want to kiss your baby in your tummy,” I said to him that it’s not my baby, it’s our baby. This baby is a member of our family.