Overheard

Grace [casually looking at me over her cereal bowl one morning]: Mommy, Scar is like Cain and Mufasa is like Abel.

Keep in mind that she's three--she'll be four next month. Josiah explains everything to her, including, it seems, the correlations between the Bible and The Lion King movie. And sometimes he's actually correct with his deductions. :)

~~~~~

Josiah [shamelessly pleading]: C'mon, Dad--can't I have just one Bible story?

Jason: No, it's already past your bedtime. We'll do it tomorrow.

Josiah [calling from his pillow in the darkness]: Please? Maybe just a short parable?

Jason staggered away from Josiah's doorway trying to suppress his laughter. The next day, I questioned Josiah about the conversation. He elaborated for me.

Josiah: Well, some of the parables are really short...He could have picked one of those, couldn't he?

~~~~~

Grace has gone through a phase where is apparently trying to make blueprints of our home in her mind. It started one day when she was standing in the living room and heard Robert bump against his bedroom wall while he was doing something in his room. She looked at the wall, looked at me, and asked, "What's on the other side of that wall?" I told her it was Robert's room, and she thoughtfully replied, "Hmmm...I thought it'd be Josiah's room..." That sparked her fascination for days and days of questions about "What's on the other side of this wall?" At the tale end of this thankfully short-lived fascination, we had the following conversation at bedtime.

Grace [gesturing to one of my bedroom walls]: What's on the other side of this wall, Mommy?

Me [tired]: No, we're not going to play that game right now.

Grace [completely seriously, and sounding quite a bit like that Seinfeld line, "Oh, I'm stressed!"]: Oh, it's no game!

~~~~~

Grace [standing in front of me and pretending to read from the book she's holding]: Hello, my name is Rachel and I'm a Wilderness Explorer in Tribe 54. Are you in need of any assistance today, ma'am?

Grace had previously recited the line from the movie Up with the name Russell, but changed it to Rachel since, of course, she's a girl.

~~~~~

I shared a very small corner of a chocolate bar with Robert while he was working on math at my side.

Robert [taking the smallest bite off of his piece, gesturing at what's left, and whispering]: $2.99.

Me [playing along, like the Wendy's commercial, and gesturing at my own larger piece of chocolate]: $2.99.

Oh, he cracks himself up. And, despite all of the TV and movie quotes you may hear from my children, they really don't watch a whole lot of TV!

~~~~~

Jason [coming into the bedroom and finding me on the computer]: What'cha looking at?

Me: Oh, just some grammar stuff.

Jason [If he were the type to roll his eyes, he'd be rolling them at this point]: Yeah, I look at that stuff all the time when I'm online.

It's that time of year when I look towards next year and track down the textbooks and other materials we'll need to purchase. I've discovered a new (new to me) website called DirectTextbooks.com that searches eBay, Amazon.com, and about 200 more booksellers online for prices including shipping. (DirectTextbooks.com has more than just textbooks--and, in addition to searching by author, title, and keyword, you can search by ISBN if there is a particular edition of a book you are needing.) I've been hanging out there as well as HomeschoolClassifieds.com a lot lately...and I've already bought next year's math and social studies books for Josiah (3rd grade) and science and social studies for Robert (8th grade). Whoo hoo!

~~~~~

During the wait for baseball evaluations today, Josiah found himself in the midst of two other seven year olds who were talking about "fighting"--you know, the rough-housing that boys gravitate towards in every spare moment.

Josiah: Trust me--you don't want to fight me. I've had training.

He went on to explain that this "training" had come at the hands of from his older brother, Robert (age 12). At least he can put a positive spin on the abuse he's suffered brotherly fights they've had over the years.

~~~~~

One evening, Jason called both boys to the kitchen table and announced they would play a game.

Josiah [bursting with excitement]: Are we going to play the drinking game?!?

Now, before you call the authorities on us, the "drinking game" is a competition the boys had for a day or two until I discovered what they were doing and put a stop to it--they were timing how quickly they could drink a cup of water; I didn't want them to continue this competition because, knowing them and how competitive they are with each other, it was very likely they would be compelled to repeat this over and over again in a very short period of time which could be quite dangerous.

So if you've happened to hear Josiah mention the drinking game, this is what he was talking about. I can only imagine what he tells his Sunday School teachers. (Whatever he's said, it's not true, Stacey!)

And I can't wait to see what kind of young man he grows into...