Tongue-tied

I'm listening to the older boys practicing their flashcards.  It's later in the day and nobody's brains are still fully functioning.  Suddenly, Z said, "2+0? 2+0? I feel like I should know that one! But I can't think very good! Oh! Zero!"  His brother quickly corrected him.  Two, of course, if you're having trouble thinking clearly.

It seems like the day has been like that to some degree.  At one point, S was trying to pick a book off the shelf and I was watching her thinking and Z walked in the room and I pointed to the mess our dog had created by digging in the trash and I said, "I want you to please clean this mess up because it was you who put the potato book container in the trash in here - I'm always saying don't throw food garbage in the homeschool room garbage."

To which, Z cocked his head to one side and asked in a smart-alecky way that I can rely on from him, "Potato book container?  What the heck is that?"

Okay, so I meant potato salad container and I got flustered.  It happens, right?  Or is this just me?

But he did clean up the mess.

Shortly after that, I walked in on a conversation J and O were having about their birthdays.  J will be seven later this month and O will be seven the day after Christmas.  They were arguing about who was bigger and older, once again.

When J saw me there, she said, "It's not really fair that O gets presents two days in a row ... Christmas and then his birthday."

I can't remember what I said, but probably something about how he doesn't get to space out his present-y times like the rest of us because he gets them all at once pretty much.

Then she asked (after nearly seven years in this practicing Christian family), "When is Jesus' birthday, anyway?"

I peered at her quizzically and said, "Um, we celebrate Jesus' birthday on Christmas, remember?"

She responded, "Jesus' birthday is at Christmastime, too?! That is so not fair!"

And the final fun conversation I made a note of today, was just minutes later from J's rediscovery that Christmas is when Jesus was born when she was showing me pictures of animals she'd drawn by following instructions in a drawing book.  I was helping her label the drawings with the animal names.

One of the animals she drew was a Bush Baby.  And upon remembering what the bush babies in the drawing book looked like, she suddenly said, "I need to meet one of those bush babies! They sure are cute!"

I laughed at the though of "meeting" a bush baby.  Shaking hands, etc.  Okay, so maybe you had to be here, but I was and now when I reread this post in the future, I'll remember that moment and re-laugh all over again.

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Ironically, or not so, J and O's memory verse this week is Proverbs 21:23.  This is a good one for all of our family to remember, much (more) of the time.