Wendy's Wonderings

I'm Back! /Rambling

Well, I got back from my retreat last night. I had a lot of fun, but very little sleep. I stayed awake scrapbooking until 4:00 am, and then I woke up around 6:30am. I got dressed and walked down to the lake to get some pictures of the sunrise. :-) Have I mentioned how much I love my new camera? ;-)

One thing that was so interesting was when I was scrapbooking a spread for the New London Museum. The lady sitting next to me saw my pictures and told me that her first cousin died in the explosion, she was 9 years old. She gave me a lot more insight into the explosion. We definitely had a long conversation.

I took a nap after church today, and I think I am catching up on my sleep. Speaking of church, I have a little something for you that would be under the "kids say the darnedest things" category. :-) We were discussing God using helpers, namely Missionaries. Well, the little boy got out the picture Bible, and opened it to the New Testament. He was asking the assistant teacher what the story was about (This is the 5 year old class, so they don't read yet), and she said "The shepherds are spreading the Good News about Jesus's birth." The little boy sat for a moment, quietly, and then asked "What's the bad news?" We were both speechless. :-)

Another thing that left me speechless today was when I had told my youngest nephew to pick up the Tinker Toys for the thousandth time (yes, I do exaggerate), and I said, "If you don't pick them up you are going in the corner." "Little Mark" then piped up, "Men don't clean." Excuse me? Where did you hear that? Because, we certainly don't categorize housework by gender in this household. He is 11 and he's becoming sexist. Or is it lazy? I'm going with lazy.

We also had a bout of the "I Wants" a lot today. From both of them. I don't remember us saying that as much when we were little. My mother would probably beg to differ, I am sure. It used to be pretty much around Christmas time though, but now it is all the time. A few weeks ago I had the youngest nephew and the "little angel" in the store. They both must have said, "I want" about almost everything we went by. Some of it they didn't even know what it was. "Little Mark" is bad about too, but all of his is expensive electronic stuff.

Our standard answer of "save your money" was not received well. When we came home from church the youngest nephew was still going at it, and after about the 10th "I want" I finally said, "If you say that one more time I will not buy you a Christmas present." Needless to say, he stopped.

I tried to remind "Little Mark" about what we had learned at the concert on Thursday. About the efforts of the band and World Vision to provide water to those who do not have clean water, or have to walk MILES a day to fill small buckets, and then carry it home and do it all over again, all day long.

I even thought of sending the money we would have spent on them to World Vision, or adopt a child with that money. Maybe I will. I don't know. Not just to teach them a lesson in greed, but to also teach them the value of money. And we already do that. I hate to say they are "spoiled", because they don't get everything they want. But, I have to admit that "Little Mark" doesn't have to work REALLY hard for it either. I mean he does, but not back breaking hard. Am I making sense?

And it's not that he doesn't want a job. He does. As a matter of fact he can be a little entrepreneur in the ideas to make money he comes up with sometimes. Unfortunately, they are usually undo able on his part, or ours with start up money. Or, he wants to do things we won't allow him to do, like mow lawns. He mows ours with supervision, but that is all. I am sure it will all work out. I guess at the end of the day they are just kids doing what kids do. :-)

Love,

Wendy Darling