A vacation from Heaven

October 10, 2012

October? Opps I guess its been awhile… cyberspace missed a few BIG things, like Carter’s first day of Kindergarten! He loves school and loves playing superheroes on the playground with his friends!

August was also a sad month for our family because our almost ten-year-old dog Nyla died suddenly. I woke up one morning and went to get her off the couch and she had passed away. She was a special dog that fit right in to our enthusiastic family. The kids still ask for her and just tonight Carter told me he did not want me to get old. I asked him why couldn’t mommy get old? He said “because you said that Nyla got old and died and I don’t want you to get old and die. I don’t know if heaven will even be that great Mom, what will we do when we run out of ideas and things to play with?” This prompted an in depth conversation about death and dying and the concept of Heaven. I was trying to break it down in a way that made sense to his analytical mind because unless it makes sense to him he doesn’t buy into whatever I tell him. I think I know a few other people like that? Maybe me in particular? We went through what we think the day to day practical things will be in heaven. Where we will live- he likes our house so I told him that Jesus makes us mansions but I’m sure God won't care if we keep this house. He asked what the weather will be like, what we will eat and who will do the cleaning, does Jesus pick up our toys for us? 
I told him mommies are not allowed to clean in heaven since we do TOO much of it on earth! I told him that the weather will be perfect, not too hot or too cold and I’m sure there will be nutritious mint chocolate chip ice cream and family movie night everyday if we want. Maybe we can sleep on clouds or jump super high? He asked if we could go to Venus or Saturn for a vacation from heaven or drop into the middle of the ocean to swim? HAHA! I find my abstract off the wall conversations with my five year old the most fascinating of all intellectual correspondence that I happen upon. He is truly original in thought, not yet placed into a box containing the social norms or marginalized by the minds that teach us the way we are to think about everything. I think the way kids think is enlightening! It is so refreshing to listen to a mind THAT uninhibited, which still lacks the engravings of the masses! 

Since I am home more I am trying to come up with creative ways for everyone to enjoy an activity together. We started a family movie night once a week where we watch a movie (duh). The special thing about it is the junk fest that goes along with the movie. We let the kids pick a candy, pop popcorn get all the toppings for banana splits and let the kids make their own! We also push bedtime back and hope deep down in our hearts that they will sleep in the next day! I have been trying to incorporate different themes and they love it! We did camping movie night and ate appropriate camp associated foods for dinner and made S’mores around our pretend fire in the living room. I try really hard to change things up a little bit for them because I have a really hard time with monotony. It gives me the opportunity to have little adventures that both the kids and I crave! 

 The twins love to mimic everything Carter does so our house is a busy place full of ideas, explorations and tantrums! Right now the twins want to do homework when Carter sits down to practice his letters and get upset when I work solo with Carter (Maybe I should hold onto proof that they were all so eager to complete assignments as a reminder in the future when it becomes an impossible chore)? Lately I have resorted to letting the kids make enormous messes of paints, colors and shreds of paper at will when the frustration level gets too high. I have learned through trial and error and VERY MESSY WALLS AND DOORS to lay down bright colored butcher paper OUTSIDE and that way when the paint is all gone I can wrap it up and throw it away! We then immediately get in the bath because the kids love to use their skin as a canvas as well! Heidi loves to sing a song about everything that we do and the whole time we were painting she was singing  "if you make a purple, blue, yellow it makes green", she got part of that from Barney but since purple is her favorite color she always sings something about a purple !