For our morning devotional time, the kids and I read the Bible and then a chapter from Susan Hunt’s Big Truths For Little Kids. Today, after reading the story in the book, I asked my almost five year old son how the little boy Daniel in the story felt about his sin. Matthew replied, “He feels lucky.” Lucky? I was so dumbfounded. Where did he get that? We have been going over the Westminster Catechism with him for a while now and certainly he knows the answer ain’t feeling “lucky!”

I was very relieved to know that what he actually meant was “yucky” as indicated in the book. For some reason he heard “lucky” when I read it. Whew! I certainly don’t want my boy to view sinning as a stroke of luck!

This weekend we went to Evers’ company holiday party. As we weaved through the crowd, I got introduced to his colleagues and their respective spouses. One thing, and only one thing, that kept coming up after each introduction was. . . . “This is Evers and his wife, they have FOUR kids!” Then I see their eyes widen and their mouths gasp. I was amused. My husband tells me that at work he is known as the man with four kids. So, there you have it. . . . our greatest achievements are our four kids!

Fancy words? We just enjoyed watching Akeelah and the Bee, a very nice story about a young black girl in south L.A. who makes it her ambition to get to (and win) the National Spelling Bee. Lots of words which you and I will never ever encounter in real life. One of the words in the “championship round”: logorrhea, defined in Webster’s thus:

Main Entry: log·or·rhea
Pronunciation: "lo-g&-'rE-&, "lä-
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin
: excessive and often incoherent talkativeness or wordiness

For those of who not seeing the connection, the word is derived from Greek logos, “word” + rhein, “to flow.” Of course, that latter root is from whence we get the word “diarrhea.” See the connection?

I immediately thought of our oldest four-year-old son who can’t seem to stop talking. Even when he says he’ll stop. Lois and I shared a look when that word was defined in the movie.

As for “one-sided complaints,” has anyone else ever noticed how people complain that “there’s always so many dishes to wash,” and “there’s always clothes to pick up”…. but no one ever says with that same tone, “Why is there another meal on the table?!!!”

In anticipation of her surgery tomorrow morning:

Uber-blogger Tim Challies posts probably 50 posts a day and reads 10 books a minute, even after his wife gives birth. One wonders if he actually does web development for a living, or merely as a distraction from blogging & reviewing books.

Popular blogger Amy Scott has a baby in March, a full-house (five kids under eight years old)… and keeps on blogging. And not boring, pointless posts, but neat little tidbits of sometimes profound always amusing thoughts.

The Dings have a baby and a month later are nearly as silent as, well, not our house. With the number of children growing exponentially every two years (2002: 1 boy, 2004: 2 boys, 2006: 2 boys and 2 girls), it’s maybe no wonder we’re a bit too overwhelmed by the pace of life to faithfully blog.

Hey that (the lead sentence for the previous paragraph) reminds me. I couldn’t stop laughing at some of these bad analogies. Here’s a sample:

• He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
• John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
• Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center.

In addition to being busy taking care of the lil ones, I think, there is another reason for our silence. When J.I. Packer was asked for advice he would give to someone who wanted to become a better writer, his first suggestion was: “Don’t write until you have something to say.” ‘Nuff said.

A recent post at Amy’s Humble Musings reminded me of this memorable comic strip (click to view full-size):

It ain’t Jonathan Edwards, but somehow it rings true to my male ears.

And to my wife’s credit, when it’s time for her to make a visit to the fabric store, we usually make arrangements to have me take the kids somewhere else nearby for a while. Thank God for sympathetic and wise wives.

I find it so amusing that my four year old has adopted our tendency for frugality. How do I know? Check out a few examples:

• Whenever we pass by a gas station, he reads the gas price and then says, “Wow. . . that’s so much!”
• When we were at the store the other day, he found a kid size shopping cart and pushed it around pretending to shop. When he showed it to me, I asked where he got that. He said, “I got it on sale, Mommy.”
• While at the store, he asked if he could go to the toy section. I told him that I wasn’t going to buy any toys. He said to me, “That’s ok, Mommy, I just want to look at it.” Ha. . . .ha. . . ha. . . my usual saying of “It’s free for the looking.” has finally lodged in his brain. I’m also very glad that he doesn’t think he can get whatever he wants at the store. I’ve seen way too many kids pitch a fit when their parents refuse to buy them toys. I’m happy to say that after we were finished shopping, he left contentedly without crying or whining.
• There were times when he asked if I could buy him something. After looking at the price, I told him that it was too expensive so we weren’t going to buy it. He was fine with that decision every time.

My husband says this is actually a good thing, since as a kid he really failed to appreciate the value of money and as a result was something of a spendthrift until he got out of college. But that’s a more serious topic for another post. Let’s just enjoy the silliness of a near-4yo boy eavesdropping on his parents’ frugality.