Conversations with Aidan

M: Do you want powdered sugar or maple syrup?
A: Both!
M: Both? No...that doesn't sound very good.
A: Always try new things!Remember?!


"This milk tastes like spit. Spit with 1 crumb. Not my spit. Someone else's."


"I'm not going to this school it totally looks like a prison."
Later, in the office, with the secretary and a couple of other families registering,
"See, it looks like a prison! I can't go to school here!"

D @ friends' house: How was that tree house?
A: Pretty boring. It's a cool tree house, but I think I need an airsoft gun.

A: coming in from outside: Do you have a laser?
Adult friend we were visiting: Actually, yes. Right here.
WHAT?! (she probs just became his favorite person lol)

Proverbs...Elementary Style Revisited With A New Perspective

These can be pretty fun. I love to read what children think about these famous sayings. Some of their answers made me tear up with pride in their sense of knowledge and innocence. Some made me laugh. Some of them are obviously famous enough that even the youngest child has heard them before.

Allie's "Happy is the bride who ... thinks." Is so awesome! "Don't change horses when you're in the bog" is destined to become a new classic!
When Aidan tells you to "Strike while the ... tiger's not looking," you should probably listen. Both Allie and Aidan are pretty wise when it comes to an idle mind. Listen up!
(And if you want to read the answers from a few years ago, including the teens' answers from many years ago, check out this post.)

1. Don’t change horses (into ponies)(when you’re in the bog)

2. Strike while the (tiger’s not looking)(foe is weak)

3. Never underestimate the power of (Voldemort) (love)

4. It’s always darkest before (bedtime)(light)

5. You can lead a horse to water but (you can’t kill it)(you can't make it drink)

6. Don’t bite the hand that (is powerful)(feeds)

7. No news is (better than this one)(good news)

8. A miss is as good as a (hit)(hit)

9.You can’t teach an old dog new (tricks)(tricks)

10. If you lie down with dogs, you’ll (get furry)(become one of them)

11. Love all, trust (me)(none)

12. The pen is mightier than the (mighty Thor [or sword])(sword)

13. An idle mind is (stupid)(mind undone)

14. Where there’s smoke, there’s (fire)(fire)

15. Happy is the bride who (kisses)(thinks)

16. A penny saved is (good)(a penny earned)

17. Two’s company, three’s (good)(a crowd)

18. Don’t put off till tomorrow what (you can play now)(is here today)

19. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and (the whole world cries with you)(the world laughs at you)

20. There are none so blind as (a tree)(the light)

21. Children should be seen and not (not seen)(heard)

22. If at first you don’t succeed (then you try again) (try, try again)

23. You get out of something only what you (do)(give)

24. When the blind lead the blind (make an army)(they both go down)

25. A bird in the hand (will peck you)(is a bird in the dark)

26. Better late than (dead)(never)

Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries

Sure, life's busy. But while we're spending our time doing all the things we prioritize, can't we enjoy that? Life is a bowl of cherries. Whether you use that sarcastically, or happily, it just is.
Notice how the cherries are not perfect little blemish-free balls of fruit? That's because they're real. They grow, they experience the weather, the sunshine, the rain, the jostles and bumps and we love them! That's how they grow into this delicious little mouthful of nutrition. Perfect in its imperfection. Just like real people.
Take a moment to savor each moment, the bowl of cherries that you share with whomever you choose. Live and laugh in each moment.

If Clothes Could Fold Themselves

While selling our house this time around, I have had some unique and interesting moments. From sitting at the park for hours in 100 degrees (which isn't really quite as hot as you think because, it's Texas, we're sort of used to it), to watching the pouring rain from the comfort of my car, sometimes we just do what needs to be done. And I'm not complaining. We had an offer after 9 days on the market and things seem to be moving along swimmingly. Still, there are moments when I really wish clothes could fold themselves, floors would vacuum themselves (like from underneath, not just roomba style), and when I leave the house before my college child,home for the summer, it would be wonderful if the bathroom counter would alert me if he left contact solution out.
Yesterday as I tried to do as many tasks as possible before running over to pick up a friend while leaving the house ready for the buyer's appraiser, I had time to fold the towels, but truly not enough time to actually run them to their bathrooms. Yep. I cut it all THAT close. I chucked the towels back into the dryer and left the house for the day. How nice to return to a dryer full of folder laundry! The future is here. Brought to us by...well...ourselves.

Book Recommendation

On his book recommendation for 'Franny K Stein: Lunch Walks Among Us':

Aidan: Recommended for children 1st grade and up. Because smaller children (yes, he says 'children') might be scared and the words are kind of harder. Babies should definitely not read it because they could easily do those experiments and get hurt or at least get in trouble.

Yes, babies could easily sew lunch meat together and add toxic waste to make a giant walking monster. Easy Peasy.

Super Powers

There's always that one moment when you are absolutely too tired to get up and switch off the light; you convince yourself that your powers of telekinesis have just been lying dormant, waiting to be awakened. Though, no matter how hard your try, that light isn't turning off. It is then that you realize that if you're too tired to get up, you are also too tired to utilize those hidden mental powers. Telekinesis will have to wait until tomorrow.

Hardest Goes First?

Do you have any "things" that you like to do in a certain order, but you don't really know why. You can explain it to yourself, but someone else may do it entirely different and explain it equally well. I'm not talking about sock, sock, shoe, shoe vs sock, shoe, sock, shoe, because everybody agrees the former is the correct way. I'm just talking about little things, and the sock shoe thing is definitely a big thing. A deal-breaker big thing. Right?

When doing homework or reading books, Aidan chooses the hardest first. Even if he chooses his two favorite books to read, he reads the "hardest" one first. Before starting on his homework, he looks through it all and sorts it from hardest to easiest and insists on doing it that way. On the other hand, Aimee does the easiest homework first and saves the hard stuff for last. Both of them can explain their reasoning seemingly convincingly, but I'm guessing that whichever way YOU do it, is the way that will make the most sense to you.

Watching him do homework reminded me of Alex doing his at about the same age. My sweet 18 year old Alex used to be 7, did you know? A long time ago. (It doesn't seem like quite so long ago.) He had a 5 sentence paragraph to write each day to practice the spelling words. His teacher firmly believed that if children learned to write the words in context, rather than in a list, they would continue to spell them correctly for their whole life. It's a great concept, but 7 and 8 year old children don't like to write that much every day. Each day Alex counted how many words were left. And instead of subtracting the amount that he wrote, every few words he recounted. It's not that counting was easier than subtracting; he excelled in math. He just liked to count them. I think he thought it broke it up and made it take less time, but I promise you, it didn't. Some days, homework seemed to last all afternoon.

This week, my friend and I went to clean the church. When I got there, she was already starting in the bathroom because "it's the hardest, so I always do it first." I, however, do them last because I don't like them, so I do everything else before. Unfortunately for her, (fortunately for me?) I didn't get finished with the other tasks before she finished bathrooms, so she did them on her own. (Incidentally, I was wondering if you all have families assigned or volunteered to help clean the church or if there is someone else who does that. We used to have someone, now we just all chip in and do it.)