I don't want to be a lonely corn stalk...

I've been giggling to myself about the lonely stalks of corn that are coming up in the field next to our house. They're sporadically distributed all over the field...surrounding by beans! I don't know why it looks so strange to me.

I was telling the kids about how funny I thought it was. The farmer had other plans for that field, but the corn had it's own agenda. Corn is strange, too, because it won't produce unless it's surrounded by other corn...it has to pollinate itself (I realize this isn't a scientific explanation, but it's pretty accurate, I think). I explained that those lonely corn stalks probably wouldn't have corn on them. After this quick science lesson, Nate piped up to say, "Isn't that kind of like what happens to us when we don't do what God, OUR farmer, wants? If we do what we want, then we don't produce any good stuff. If we do stuff our way, like that corn growing where the farmer didn't want it, it can't be it's best and make good corn!"

I realize it's a stretch, but I can see where that super intelligent kid is going with his analogy. Grow and thrive in a place that God plants you, doing HIS work and not your own. Try to do things on your own and you'll be nothing but a lonely corn stalk with nothing to show for it!

Coincidence that this was my 'scripture of the day' e-mail? Nope!

That you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God. Colossians 1: 10

Muncie Children's Museum

Our 'field trips' got a bit off schedule this week because of Gabe and Adri having a fever over the weekend and yesterday morning (to those of you who were at Nate's party, I'm sorry...they got sick almost immediately after the party was over), however, the kids voted and instead of the water park for today, like we had planned, they wanted another chance to visit the Muncie Children's Museum, since we missed it yesterday, although we've all been there lots of times :)

I really hadn't planned on journaling this until later, but some funny things were said today that I don't want to forget :)

When the kids said something that made me giggle, I jotted it down on my phone.

"Look at Mommy, she has hair in her head like Papaw!" I'm not sure which Papaw Gabe was referring to, so we'll just leave that a mystery.

We had quite a good time learning about the ear and how it works. They really had a good exibit for the kids. This is perfect for us because all 3 of our kids have had tubes and Gabe continues to have ear problems, so it was nice to be able to explain, in detail, some things that they might not have understood before. Of course, the ear hat was fun...we all had to try it.

We played a version of "telephone," taking turns to whisper in one ear and see if the person on the other side got the same message. My favorite one of the day was "Can you hear me?" sent by Nate, through Gabe, to me. "Yes, I can," I responded. "How do I know?" "Because I can hear you." "How do I know you can hear me?" You get the picture!

A conversation between Nate and I:

"What's this?"

"It's a payphone, Nate. They put these in public places so that you can make a call if it can't wait til you get home."

"I really don't understand. Why wouldn't you just use your cell phone?"

"Everyone didn't used to have a cell phone like they do now. If you wanted to make a call you had to make it from home or use a pay phone."

"Oh, so if the battery is dead on your cell phone, then you can use one of these, right? Where's the send button?"

I love it!

For some reason, Gabe and Adri had a major battle over who's turn it was to play in the dog cage. Now, if I tried to put them in one of these at home, I'm sure they wouldn't enjoy it as much! I asked Gabe why he liked it so much and he said, "Because I can pretend to be a puppy." "Why would you want to be a puppy?" I'll admit, I like to probe them for interesting responses. "Cuz puppies get their head patted all of the time and they don't have to sit at the table when they eat. They have it made!"

By far, Adri's favorite thing was the rabbit. Nate informed us that we couldn't have one at home because Daddy says they smell like stinky diapers. "And that's why you're potty trained, Adri. If you need to wear diapers again, Daddy will set you free to live in the field with the other stinky rabbits."

For some reason, all three kids thought this was a picture of Papaw David.

The Marsh store and pretend house was a big hit, too. Gabe told me that he wanted to work there someday, when he got older. "Me, too," said Gabe. "I wanna work there and help put the stuff back on the shelf that people decide they don't want. Like when Mommy lets Adri play with a toy when we're in the store and then asks the lady at the front to put it back because we don't want it." It's true, I do that. Nate finished, "I don't want to work in a store Gabe, I want to own the whole company, and I'll do it, too, because I'm smarter than you. But, if you're nice, I let you put stuff back on the shelves if you still want to when you're a grown up!"

My little ants...

Nate said, "We're ants, Gabe, but not the kind like River's Mom."

Cool outside treehouse.

Had to finish our trip with a picture of Garfield and sand jars!

I literally smiled this entire day! The kids were on their best behavior and I only had to tell Adri to use her big girl voice one time, when Nate splashed water on her. On the way home, Gabe said, "This was a really good trip, Mom. I'm so glad you come up with these good adventures." Nate added, "I didn't like this trip...I LOVED it!"

I love my chickadees :)

Nate's 8th birthday!

What an incredible week we had at the Martin House! We celebrated Nate's birthday last Sunday with candlelit pancakes with a smiley face and spent the rest of the week mostly playing inside and staying out of the heat. We also had a nice dinner with some out of town relatives and grilled out almost every other night :)

I can't count the number of times Nate and I played Battleship this week and Gabe, Adri and I played with the ABC cards...Gabe tells me the letter and Adri says the name of the picture. It keeps them both busy for hours. The reward if we make it through the whole stack is 2 jelly beans a piece :) Hey, it beats sitting out in the sun, burning and sweating buckets!

Thursday my big 8 year old and 2 year old had their check ups and it went amazing well! Nate is topping the chart in height (53 inches - 100% percentile) and bringing up the rear in weight (58 pounds - 25th percentile). No shots for the hot shot this time! Adri, following in her big brothers footsteps set the bar high with a 3 inch growth spurt since her 18 month check up coming in at a whopping 36 inches (100% percentile) and continues to stay in the middle of the growth charts in weight, although she lost a pound since her last check up (28 pounds - 50% percentile). I think she may be following the Martin side of the family...long and lean! She did, however, have to get a hepatitus B vaccination. I warned the nurse to pull out her ear plugs before giving the shot, but after a quick swab, shot, and bandaid, Adri looked up at her and said, "You tickled!" I've said it before...my kids suprise me everyday!

We had an awesome party yesterday, celebrating my big boy's 8th birthday! There were 21 kids and 14 adults here to enjoy our cupcake jars and Jay the magician! While cleaning up, I found cake and chips in areas of the house that I had never cleaned before! Nate's friends can sure 'spread the fun!'

Matt and I learned a few years back that nothing good comes from spending more money than you have, so we've tried hard to teach that and other good spending habits to our children. Nate has kept a stash of money in his money jar since he was about 4, and it's hard to convince him that it's okay to spend some occasionally. He gets that from his Daddy!

That kid walked away from his 8th birthday party celebration with $130 and some pretty cool gifts! So, before bed last night, we started our usual talk about how we should give, save, and then spend the money that we earn (or 'get' in this case)! We explained that $13 of his $130 should go to the church, $13 should be saved, and then he could spend the rest. I could see the wheels turning in his head because of the look of 'deep thought' on his face (he gets that from his Daddy, too), and after a few seconds of silence, he said, "$13? That's it? That's all I have to give? That doesn't seem like much when that will still leave me with over $100!"

Wow! I wish that it was that easy for everyone to give with that kind of attitude...sometimes I learn more from my kids than they learn from me!

He did spend some of his birthday money today...he bought Battleship for the DSi...imagine that! He also purchased a new bag to carry his Dsi and games in...one big enough for his and Gabe's :) He begged me to play Battleship with him tonight before bed. I won...I'm just sayin'!

We're ending the weekend with two sick kiddos! Adri and Gabe are both fighting a fever...hopefully that's all it will become! We only have 3 more weeks of summer vacation left and in Nate's words, "We don't want to waste one minute!" We had a most anticipated field trip planned for tomorrow to the Muncie Children's Museum, but it will have to wait. Plan B is a few RedBox movies and carmel popcorn (thanks to Nana for that delicious recipe).

Happy Monday!