Never Land

Never Land. An underground passage that escapes the tick of time. Crocodile hungry time, that wears on hearts and souls and bodies, etching grooves in cracks of skin, deep as canals. The Lost Boys are there and the Mermaids, too. That cast of unforgettable characters in life that make you forget the tick tock, tick tock, as chapter after chapter closes in the novel of life. The friends of mischief, the beauties of compassion, those you love in laughter and lamentations. Fold them close and find your way to Never Land.

September Saturday

Brown sunflowers. My favorite.
A toasted version of the golden child flower.

My son. A haystack guardian.

Flapjacks with Daddy

The Golden Arches. And pancakes? While many children may associate McDonald's with cheesy burgers and nuggets of chicken crispiness, my boys think about breakfast. My husband has started a new tradition. On hectic mornings or rainy mornings or random mornings, he will splurge on our sons with a flapjack treat. Sometimes he brings the dynamic duo together to tackle a short stack or two. Other times, it's one on one and each child alone basks in the glory of Daddy's limelight and the sweet buttermilk goodness. Whatever the combination, it gives our men-in-the-making a chance to connect with their father in the calm of morning, over the smell of bacon, before busy days burst forth and where a dialogue begins that will hopefully never end.

"Listen, my sons, to a father's instruction; pay attention and gain understanding." - Proverbs 4:1

Exclamation Points

My eldest son began first grade. New book bag, glue sticks, yellow highlighter. The shopping list continued and my eyebrows raised to vaulted ceiling heights. What do they do in first grade?

I received the first email from his new teacher and much like his kindergarten teacher's correspondence, it was peppered with exclamation points. Peppered and salted. They were everywhere. Lounging on our eggplant couch that evening I remembered to tell my husband about this odd little phenomenon going on in the elementary world. We giggled, imagining ourselves sending business emails with that kind of perky punctuation, but then my husband said seriously, "Do you live life with exclamation points?"  I paused, my answer hung in suspension as my brain still processed. What a concept!

So, I recount this story and attach it to some recent photos from The Lost Cajun Kitchen where we dined on alligator! My children thought it tasted like chicken! Did you see those teeth?! What a dining adventure!

I hope this will be one of many exclamation point moments.

Fire and Ice

I helped to lead a Sunday School class not too long ago. It was the week that took our city by surprise with record heat.  Part of the session was about prayer and used an acronym to dig deeper into this topic for children. The acronym was ACTS, short for adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. To break it down more simply we used the words: wow, oops, thank you and help!

We sat in our cozy semi-circle and I asked the fidgeting group about "wow" moments for that week. The topic of hail came up. I thought about the cold chunks of ice that dropped from the sky pelleting the ground a day or two ago. The thunderstorm's frosty finale. I also remembered the sizzling temperatures we were complaining about and sweating through sun up to sun down, and it suddenly struck me how our amazing Creator poured forth ice in the midst of a fiery heat wave. Talk about your "wow" moments.

WOW.

"Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds, how he thunders from his pavilion? See how he scatters his lightning about him, bathing the depths of the sea. This is the way he nourishes the nations and provides food in abundance." - Job 36:29-31 (NIV)

Cream Puff

Scrabble Story

NOTE: Look carefully at the words in the picture above and then read below. 

"Hidden in the hat of the valet was a laser. The cat in the nettle ramped up the box of roots as the cop came about the tax. They had new yen. He que(ue)d at the door, finer than before. They found pokey worms in the wool from the drains in the canal at the zoo. He jogged with the gun hidden in the crib. The fit beggar wields it yet saves us. Fie!"

Thus ends our scrabble story (yes, there are some questionable spelling interpretations), but how does the story begin? While our children gather round their play things in mock battle and outer space maneuvers,  my husband and I steal a few moments to tuck in at the kitchen table and cozy up to our vintage Scrabble board. The burgundy box is cracked and the directions are the cream-color of aged paper. It even smells old, but the click clack of tiles as we mix them up and the giddiness of pulling letters makes magic for us. Despite the din of little voices, we sit in our semi-silence to ponder the mysteries of the alphabet. Just 26 letters. Amazing a language spawns from that.

We keep score, occasionally check a word on our Smartphones and rejoice for the triple word slot. In short, we delight in each other's company and remember what being a couple is all about.