Hilarious

A few snapshots of hilarity from my little crazies!

Little sister popped a whole scoop of butter into her mouth off the top of her pancake during one of our first meals out thinking it was ice cream.  Kids still bring it up with peals of laughter.

One sixty degree morning newest son shivers and says, "Mom, it is going to snow today?"

After pulling the hot rollers out of my hair in the car one morning before church little sister exclaims, "Mom, you look like Barbie!"  Never heard that one before.

Headed out for a date night Second youngest asks, "Why do you have to go on dates anyways?"
Me: "Because Mommy and Daddy need time to talk and connect with each other."
He: "Well you can just talk at home."
Me: "Not really.  You see there are these seven crazy kids that love to interrupt us at home."
He:  "Well, you can just wait and talk when you are grandparents then."

Almost nine-year remarks, "I like Brandon Heath music and Mandisa." I posted his remark on Facebook along with my own comments about being old enough to have kids with their own music preferences.  I showed him the post to which he stated in no uncertain terms that he was not a Facebook guy.

Toddler coming up to the large map while Mommy was teaching history/geography pointing and babbling about various locations then looking to his older siblings for laughter, which he got heartily.  I totally lost them after that.  Who can compete with a cute toddler?

Middle kid, after waking up from anesthesia groggily comments, "Mom, they gave me a real good nap!"

Little sister on an especially cold morning, "Mom, why I am smoking?"

Big sister starts by wearing Mommy's heels around the house, before long they have all found a pair, the boys included.  Yikes!

While stopping at the grocery store with all seven just to pick up bread and apples, my almost nine year old observes, "Mom, you should see the looks people are giving us.  They're like what?!  Look at all those kids."  Oh really?  Mommy hadn't noticed.

Big sister's total fascination with squirrels.  Many school lessons have drifted into squirrel watching.  Initially I thought really?  A squirrel?  They are everywhere, but not in the Philippines I guess.  Its probably how I would react to a jungle full of monkeys.

Several of the kids have suggested that we need at least seven dogs because one dog is too hard to share between seven kids.  Are you out of your little minds?  The last thing this home needs is another six dogs terrorizing it.

Superheros and Rapunzel conquering the world in the playroom and about bringing down the ceiling I think.

Little sister can't decide which costume to wear out, so she puts on both her Snow White and Rapunzel dresses.

Many more, but its lights out for tonight.

Rest

I'm not sure if things are easier than last time, I wrote.  (See post entitled "Hard")  It's not that hard is bad, its just....well, hard.  Hard can be really good and even sweet, but not usually what we crave.  It's interesting to me how often I'll be asked after an especially hard day or week if things are going better.  I rarely know exactly how to answer.  Better?  The implication is that when things are hard, they are bad.  Sometimes that's true, but not necessarily.  I think we, in America, are obsessed with comfort and ease, myself included.  It's intoxicating, alluring, and satisfying...sort of, but not really if we are honest.  I'm not saying comfort is in and of itself wrong.  However, when any good thing becomes the "ultimate thing" then our affection for it is certainly wrong.  How prone we are do make ultimate things out of the good things God gives us!  I do it constantly, confess it and then do it again.  It might be the latest, greatest, hottest item out there or it might just be solitude, a cup of tea or a good book.  It's that place our soul craves.  It is that idea, the image, the place for which we are striving but never finding.  Don't get me wrong, I love solitude, a cup of tea and a good book, but if my days are all about finding those things, I will NEVER be content or satisfied when I find them because I will always be afraid of loosing them.  I love God's gifts, but that's all that they are.  Reflections of Him.  I believe that God is a God of comfort.  I believe that He is a God of infinite pleasures, but they are all found in Him not apart from Him.  Comfort is knowing I do not live under God's condemnation, but in the freedom of sonship.  Comfort is having an advocate and intercessor in the Son.  Comfort is knowing that these "momentary light afflictions" are nothing when compared to the "eternal weight of glory" that God is preparing for us (2 Cor. 4:17).  Comfort is being free from the slavery of trying to keep God happy with me for Christ has already accomplished that on my behalf.  Comfort is entrusting everything in my life that I cannot control to the One who controls all things.  Comfort is resting in Ultimate Wisdom, Goodness, Justice, Love and Power.  Rest...what we all crave will not find apart from Christ.

"Our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in You."  --Augustine (Confessions)

So, yes, I crave rest.  I don't especially like hard, but I realize that ease in this life is rarely the road to true rest.  So, we press on believing, often without seeing, that the rest promised us is ours indeed, even when our journey is long and the terrain is rough.  For any fellow travelers who may be weary on the way, take courage and remember the One who has called you is the One who will keep you.  And that is a truth in which to find rest.