Rugrats and Dirty Rugs

Even as a young teenager, I was horribly out of shape. In high school, I had the bright idea of joining the girls' cross country team. During the first practice, the coach said that we would warm-up by running a mile. By the time a fourth of a mile went by, the other girls were little specks ahead of me and I was breathing for my life. I thought I was gonna die. There was no way I was going to be able to finish running the warm-up let alone a three-mile race. I hadn't even gotten half-way. It was a blow to my pride and I was also confused. The year before, our gym class had to run the mile as a requirement. I had failed miserably then as well. I was quite aware that I was part of a very few who could not run the entire time. I didn't get it. I was young and healthy, so why was this so hard for me? Of course, I quit the cross country team never to be seen or heard from again. I thought that was the end of it. I mentally shrugged and thought that there was no way i...

We have the oddest pets. Our dog, Leigh, and our cat, Cleo, have become best friends since Cleo joined the family a year ago. They have taken up the habit of cuddling together in the basement while Doc works in his office. Occasionally, Doc will turn around and see Cleo licking Leigh's face clean. Leigh doesn't seem to mind. In fact, she's gotten so used to it that when Doc pets her on the face, she takes her paw and rubs her face as if he has dirtied it again. Odd. Just odd.

Sleepy has a new hole in his mouth. It is always jarring for me when the next one comes to me with, "Mom! My tooth is loose!" My reaction is always, "Already?!" In fact, he had two bottom teeth loose at the same time. I took his little face in my hands and said, "You are growing up, little one." Last night, we were eating dinner when Sleepy announced that he had lost his tooth. He showed me the empty space as proof. I smiled and asked, "So, where's your tooth?" The kid was stumped. He had no idea where his tooth had gone. This reminded me of the time when Bashful lost his first tooth. He came home from school one day with a new hole in his mouth and no tooth to be found. He had no idea what happened to it. So, with his family's help, Sleepy began looking around for it. Bashful was the hero of the day when, on his knees, he squinted at a white speck on the floor and yelled, "I found it!" He handed it to me and Sleepy came...

This post is guaranteed to make everyone of you feel sorry for my kids.....or say what a horrible mother I am. Believe me, I'm feeling guilt ridden as I write this. I put three-year-old Happy in the tub to take a bath. I washed him up and since he insisted on staying in the tub to play, I left the bathroom to finish teaching Sleepy his Phonics and Language Arts. As many of you homeschool moms must admit, time can get away from us while we are "having fun". Well, time went by. During his studies, Grumpy had to use the bathroom. He came out a little while later and exclaimed in a loud whisper, "Mom! Happy's sleeping in the bathtub!" He thought this was hilarious. Now, one would think that I would instantly remember that I had left him last taking a bath. This was not the case. My forehead scrunched up in confusion. Poor baby, I thought. He must have been exhausted. I was wondering why the poor child climbed into the bathtub in the first place. I went in...

A few years ago, my mother gifted me with a beautiful, black suit. The minute I tried it on in the fitting room, I loved it. It fit perfectly and made me look thinner which I always love. After Mom purchased the suit, she hugged me and said, "Every pastor's wife needs a marryin' and buryin' suit." She would know since she had been one for 25 years. I was quite touched by this and waited for the day when I would truly be a pastor's wife and wear my suit to the appropriate occasions. Saturday was Doc's first funeral/memorial service. The evening before, I pulled out my suit from the back of the closet and tried it on. I looked in the mirror and turned from side to side. I asked Doc, "Do you think I can get away with this?" I rely on his opinion which is totally unconventional among today's woman. I figure the man knows what looks good on me better than I do. When I got the go-ahead from Doc, I was thrilled. I had packed on a few pounds a...

I finally got a good look at Bashful and Grumpy doing their swimming lessons last night. The previous two nights, I was too involved making sure Sleepy and Happy behaved themselves and didn't get chlorinated water into their teacher's eyes by splashing too much. I looked across the pool to observe Bashful and Grumpy as they make the trek across the pool. Their swimming instructor was right by their sides. Chuckles started in the pit of my stomach, gathered in my throat, and erupted in giggles out my mouth. Grumpy was doing his front stroke. The kid looked like he was drowning or trying to get away from a shark. Then, it was Bashful's turn. When he turned his face to the side in order to breathe in air, his face resembled that of a person silently screaming with his mouth as wide as he could get it. Bashful's back stroke was much better, but Grumpy was less graceful. When it was all over and we were in the car, I informed Grumpy that when he does his back stroke, h...

In the Veggie Tales movie, Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, Larry the Cucumber's character is afraid of everything. He even has a list of things he will have nothing to do with because they scare him too much. If he came across something he was afraid of, Larry would say, "It's on my list." The boys watched this movie to death before we returned it. One night, I told Sleepy to go up to his room and change his shirt. We were going to the swimming pool for lessons and I wasn't about to let him go out in public with peanut butter all over himself. He complained that it was too dark upstairs. Now, you might wonder why he didn't just turn on the light. Well, Mommy Dearest has yet to replace the lighbulbs in the ceiling light, but that would require too much effort. I would have to go into the garage, find the ladder, find the lightbulbs, and trudge everything up the stairs and set to work. For something like that, I would need to do a breathing technique I ...