Scattered Fall

 1) You are Staring into the Face of a Detainee

Not long ago, this boy ended up in DOUBLE detention. 

The double part was not (all the way) intentional, and Timothy had a rough few days over it all. He got in trouble for behaving disruptively while a substitute teacher was in charge of his math class (apparently he and some other boys were jump-scooting their desks and chairs forward (while still sitting in them)). It's a long story that took us a few days to get to the bottom of, but the end result was that there was a little misbehavior on his part and a little misunderstanding on the administrators part that led to apologies coming from both sides. 

Getting in trouble like this feels big for him because he's just generally such a good kid. But we all know that good kids get in trouble, too. Carson got detention in High School one day for climbing a forbidden ladder on the theater stage, and Miles for getting in a small food fight in the cafeteria that ended with a ketchup packet hitting the principal in the face.

It happens.

2) If You Can't Beat 'em, Join 'em

Miles plays the piano as often as he can, and, since he is doing school mostly from home, he can a lot. My dream to have our home filled with music has been realized! And also, Brian and I find ourselves questioning our decision to put the baby grand in the middle of our living space on the daily as he pounds out those high-energy songs for hours a day. 

Let me tell you, there comes a time when the Entertainer is not so entertaining.

But a good set of noise canceling headphones helps take the edge off and calms my nervous system when it gets all ramped up, and I know from experience that I will miss this music when he moves on from the house, just like I miss Carson's constant whistling/humming/singing. So, bring it on, Miles! Play, play, play.

I decided to jump in and learn the Nutcracker with him for Christmastime, and it's one of my favorite things to sit next to him on that bench because we laugh almost more than we play. Out of all of Miles's strengths, one of my very favorites is that he is a great companion.

2) Banana Bread

Somehow we ended up with 40 bananas in the house at one point this month. Which was a whole lotta bananas. But we put them to good use. Also, apparently banana bread is a 'thing' right now? Or maybe it was a thing? I can't keep up, but a reel went viral somewhere and banana bread became more than just banana bread in the eyes of the Possessed-by-Social-Media adolescent humans.

This? It's just banana bread.

4) "Mom, take my picture!"

Ah, one of my favorite phrases coming from the kids. Eliza wanted to know what she looked like in this particular situation, and since all she could see was the bottom of the cups, she needed assistance. 

It's interesting for me to think about how, when I was her age, the thought of me being able to see what I looked like with two cups in front of my eyes wouldn't have even crossed my mind. There was no possible instantaneous way to receive that information, so I would have just asked a friend to do it so I could see what they looked like.

Different world.

6) The Newest Obsession

A finger koala.

She lost it for a little while at school the other day, and in her distress a little boy named Nolan offered to buy her another one at the Shack with his Cobra Cash. Later, and unrelated, he gave her a tiny turtle, and Eliza has shyly (but excitedly) concluded that he must have a crush on her.

6) I Just Don't Understand...

This morning, I parked the car, grabbed my phone, exited the car, shut my door, walked around the car, opened her door, walked around her door, opened the front passenger door, climbed back into the car to grab my water bottle, exited the car a second time, shut my door, and was half way to the corner before Eliza had scooted her little body to the edge of her seat. 

WHAT TAKES HER SO LONG?!?!?!

Pretty sure Brian says the same thing about me.

7) Work Hard, Play Hard

If you scroll around in Carson's Google Photo album, you will see wide smiles and gorgeous scenery, hear deep belly laughing, and watch as forever friendships are, in real time, being etched into his heart. You will see cathedrals dating back to the 14th century, and castles dating back to the 12th, forests and trains and cities, and a few grey-haired nénis (nay-knees, a term for older women) who feed the missionaries as often as they can.

Looking in his album you might be tempted to think that he is on vacation, traveling the country of Hungary with a group of happy companions that laugh and play away their days in a comfortable sort of ease.

But you wouldn't be seeing the whole story. The hours of teaching others about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, the rejection, the stacked days and weeks and months of walking the same street inviting everyone they see to listen to something extraordinary, the rejection, the early alarm clock with no sleep-in days, the hours of studying, the phone calls, the rejection, and all of it in a language he is barely beginning to grasp. Those are the things that cannot be pictured in the album, but those are the things that can build him. 

That's the work.

That's why he's there. 

He gets to travel and play and laugh, and

he also gets to be at the crossroads of people's greatest decision.

Will you enter into a covenant relationship with Christ?

Most of them are saying no, but some are saying yes...

And that is enough.

Work hard, my love! And play hard, too.