Couple of Things

I'd like to know: just what is it about ordinary kitchen utensils that makes them so irresistible for digging, despite the assorted shovels, rakes, and various other toys sitting in plain view right on top of the sand pile?

And also: exactly which part of "Please don't play with the water right now, especially this yucky water in the fountain because it can make you very sick" sounds like "Please take large buckets of this terribly ugly fountain water and dump them all over your sister's head"?

Just wondering.

Rise and Shine

A quiet joy fills me this morning as I stand at the kitchen counter filling cereal bowls and sippy cups. There is perfect contentment as Meghan grins at me from her high chair and Dylan and Caitlyn chatter happily from their seats at the table. The mundane becomes sacred and I feel how blessed I truly am. I offer a silent prayer of thanks giving for these three beautiful souls who have been entrusted to my care, these three precious angels who, for the past ten minutes, have been snuggling me and each other and saying sweet things like "Mommy, I love my little Miss Meggie", as they stroke and pat her cheeks.

This morning, I have all I've ever wanted in the world. Who could ask for anything more?

On My Mind

As I began reading "Losing bin Laden" by Richard Miniter last night, I was immediately struck by a single sentence on the first page of the introduction: "Seven Americans were killed (counting the unborn child of one of the victims) and more than one thousand were injured in the first-ever foreign terrorist attack on U.S. soil."

This simple line resonates deeply within me because it echos a significant sentiment often seen elsewhere in the news: an unborn baby killed by a random act of violence is quantified as a unique individual separate from its mother. Another highly sensationalized example of this can be found in the case of Scott Peterson, who in 2004 was convicted of two separate charges in the murders of his wife, Laci, and Conner, their unborn son.

Justice may have been served for the loss of that one precious life, but what about the thousands of unborn babies slaughtered each year at the hands of abortionists? How can it be possible that an unborn baby, murdered by its father (or anyone else), is legally considered a distinct person, while those murdered every day at the request of their mothers are considered simply "tissue"?

How do they draw that line? And why?

Startling Admission

This morning, as I do every morning, I blearily reached into the dishwasher for two sippy cups and proceeded to fill them with chocolate milk, which the kids drank happily as I went about my morning routine. Nothing unusual about that.

However, as I began unloading the dishwasher later on as the kids were eating their lunch, I realized that the dishwasher was full of dirty dishes. Somehow, I forgot to run the dishwasher yesterday and only then, at that very terrible moment, remembered that I meant to start it before we left for Chuck E. Cheese's last night. Which means, to my utter horror, that the sippy cups I gave the kids this morning had been sitting there, with only a cursory rinse of their previous contents, for most of yesterday and all of last night!

Oh, no.

I quickly snatched them out of the fridge before the kids could use them again and loaded them back into the dishwasher, which I promptly started. Hopefully, I'll be just a little more observant next time.

Book Meme

Thanks, Michelle, for inspiring this post!

1. One book that changed your life:

The Art of Natural Family Planning, by John and Sheila Kippley

2. One book that you've read more than once:

The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough

3. One book you'd want on a desert island:

The Bible

4. One book that made you laugh:

Skipping Christmas, by John Grisham

5. One book that made you cry:

Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas, by James Patterson

6. One book that you wish had been written:

A Survival Guide for Mothers of Incessantly Whiney Toddlers

7. One book that you wish had never been written:

Our Bodies, Ourselves, published by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective

8. One book you're currently reading:

Life-Giving Love, by Kimberly Hahn

9. One book you've been meaning to read:

A Mother's Rule of Life, by Holly Pierlot

Why Didn't I See This Coming?

Dylan and Caitlyn were lying in bed this morning, surrounded by stuffed animals. Clutching a stuffed Pooh Bear in one hand, Dylan asked me, "Mommy, do we spell 'pooh' P-O-O-P?"

"P-O-O-H", I corrected him, suppressing a smile.

"Oh", he said, pausing to think. "Well, what would happen if it was

P-O-O-P?"

I couldn't lie. "Poop", I answered with a grin.

"Ewwww", they chorused, erupting in fits of giggles.

I chuckled to myself as I walked away, went to check on a blissfully sleeping Meghan, and had just gotten comfortable with one of the many books I'm currently reading when I heard the sound of splashing...rarely a good thing, especially when it's accompanied by laughter and hushed voices.

I got up to investigate and discovered Caitlyn, soaking wet, happily dunking Pooh Bear up and down in... you guessed it! ...the toilet.

I should never have said poop.