My Ebenezer

"Everywhere I look I see a mess," I lamented to Josh this morning. "I wish I had some time to do some cleaning." Had I prayed those words, I would have expected the answer to come in the form of a whole day, or at least a whole morning, without anybody in the house; just me and our disorganized mess and some cleaning supplies. Maybe a little Vivaldi and some coffee thrown in for good measure. The Lord in His goodness and matchless sense of humor did answer my unprayed request, but here's how it looked instead: Five minutes after that conversation with Josh, I was preparing for another day of homeschooling my brood. Seth had just meandered into the kitchen to pour himself a bowl of cereal. Eden was just starting to call for me to come get her up (she's still in a crib, and we like that very much thank you!), and I was dialing a dentist's number to make an appointment quickly before the day got out of hand.  Too late. As I waited for the girl at th

We love a good read-a-loud over here. This year I have tried to be more intentional about reading aloud, especially to Seth, for whom books are generally considered to be anathema. We're trying to change that, so I've been on a quest to find really funny books if possible, or ones about animals. I read aloud Mr. Popper's Penguins at the beginning of the year, remembering the rolling-on-the-floor laughter Noah and I shared when he was younger. You can read about that  here.   Seth liked it okay, but it didn't elicit any laughter at any part. Not even a smile. After that we jumped into Winnie the Pooh, which also was a huge success when Noah was little. Still, even when I read aloud the passage about Piglet popping the balloon that he intended as a gift for Eeyore, Seth sat stone-faced while Noah and I doubled helplessly over with laughter, tears streaming down our faces. You have to take a minute and read that part:  "While all this was happening, Piglet had g