Jewelry in Heaven

One day Sarah asked me if there was jewelry in heaven. I explained about the streets of gold and how there will be things made of precious stones. I told her how our crown would have jewels in it, but we would lay it at Jesus’ feet. Then she said, “Mama, I want to give Jesus ALL my jewelry….not just my crown.” How sweet!!

Lost and Found

With a 3-year-old in the house, things are always disappearing. There's a fair number of items that have been lost and recently found. You don’t even wanna know where I found some of these items. A few popular hiding places are:

(1.) inside the Wiggles step stool, which has a lid.
(2.) inside the oven on the toy kitchen.
(3.) in the toy box.
(4.) in the toy box.
(5.) in the toy box.

Yes, there were tons of things in the toy box that had no business being in there. I definitely made note of these hiding places and plan to check them periodically………or the next I‘m missing something.

For your enjoyment, below is a list of items that have been lost and recently found.

1. my brown shoe - missing for 2 months - found inside the Wiggles step stool
2. most of Loren's pacifiers - found 1 inside the Wiggles step stool; found 1 in the toy box
3. Neosporin - found in the toy box
4. numerous socks - found all over the house
5. cake mix & icing - yes, on the toy kitchen (makes sense, right?)
6. Loren's hair brush - found under the bed
7. dirty dish towel - found inside the toy kitchen oven
8. strawberry drink mix - found on the girls' bedroom floor, covering a large section of the carpet
9. dirty laundry - missing various lengths of time - found inside the toy kitchen oven
10. Dora doll - found inside the toy kitchen oven (maybe we should stop reading "Hansel & Gretal"???)
    

I can't say exactly how long these items have been missing. I'm not sure when some of them disappeared. I just know I've been looking for them for a while. There's a list of things I'm still looking for. Who knows how many things are missing in our house that I haven't even run across yet? It's interesting how that works. Sometimes you don't realize something was missing.......until you find it.

Word Play

When kids are learning to talk, it’s so funny to hear how they get words or sayings confused…..or is it confrused? (grin.) Some of the ones Sarah frequently gets tangled up on are:

• Construction / Constriction
• instruction / restruction
• sinus infection / Science fection
• enemy / emeny
• Get out of my hair / get off my hair

My personal favorites? These make me giggle every time:

• I have a frog in my throat. / My throat has a frog in it.
  
• Satisfied / sassified (Example: "Well, that won't keep me sassified!")
  

Hairdo’s-n-Don’ts

Sarah is going through this phase where she wants to wear her hair in 2 pig tails kind of high up on her head. It looks adorable. Her way of explaining that this is the hair style she desires? “Mama, I want ‘antennae hair‘ today.” TOO cute!

The other day Sarah came in with a big handful of long, straight, dark hair. I panicked for a second until it dawned on me that baby sissy’s hair isn’t nearly that long or straight, and it obviously wasn’t Sarah’s hair because she’s a blonde. I couldn’t think of any doll she had with that much hair, so I was puzzled as to exactly where all this hair came from. So I asked the dreaded question. “Sarah, where did this come from?” Her response? “Well, Rosie needed a hair cut.” She announced it with confidence, too. Don’t panic folks. “Rosie” is Sarah’s hobby horse. She has a beautiful long mane and tail………or should I say HAD??? Yep, that’s right. That long, flowing mane and tail are now more like pig tails than pony tails. When I explained to her that she is not supposed to use the “grown up” scissors, and she shouldn’t have cut Rosie’s hair, she was quick to respond, very “matter-of-factly,” saying, “Well, it’ll grow back.”

When I said, “Well, uh….no, honey…..it won’t” she looked puzzled. She had no clue. When I explained that Rosie’s hair wasn’t real, so her hair doesn’t grow back like ours does when you cut it, she looked MORTIFIED! Oh my gosh, the expression on her face was PRICELESS. I couldn’t helped laughing, even though she was upset now that she realized the repercussions of her actions. I went on to clarify that this also applies to baby dolls or any toy animal with hair or fur. Of course, I had to reiterate that we do NOT cut our own hair and that only the hairdresser should do that, etc., etc.…….just to make sure I covered all the bases. Well, my darling…there’s another life lesson learned. Poor Rosie.

Redneck Dishwashing

The other day we had a pile of dishes stacked up, and my hubby decided to take on the dreaded endeavor of dishwashing……..with a twist. I walked through the kitchen to see hubby with some kind of electric brush DOING THE DISHES!!! When I looked a little closer, I realized he was holding THE DRILL with some kind of brush he “Redneck Engineered” to the end as an attachment!! I haven’t laughed so hard since……..since……..well, since the “Redneck Baking” incident!! He said it actually worked pretty well. Knock yourself out, man! My hubby has taken “Tim the Tool Man” to a whole new level, people.

Ode to Granddaddy

My Granddaddy Has (short for Hasford) passed away a couple of days ago. Don't worry......I'm not planning on naming any children after him. (grin.) On New Year's Day I spent the evening at the wake (funeral home visitation.) Not a good way to start the New Year, huh? He was 90.

What is a granddaddy? Well, he's pretty much all the things Has Watson was to me growing up. And believe me...biology has nothing to do with it. Has was my "adopted granddaddy." My dad's parents died when he was a teenager, and my dad lived with Has and his family until he graduated from high school. Has was actually a distant cousin, but I have called him granddaddy since I could speak. I called him "granddaddy," he called me "Motor Mouth"........since I was about 3 years old.

He says I hardly spoke until I was 3, and then I started spitting out whole sentences. He claims I haven’t shut up since. There are those who would agree with him. (grin.) But his teasing didn't bother me. Being labeled with a nickname by granddaddy was like an honor. Only one other grandchild (out of 10) had a nickname that was given by him. Granddaddy didn't have much time with my girls (Sarah and Loren) because I had my kids late in life, and we haven't lived nearby very long since they were born. But I’m quite sure he would deem my oldest daughter, Sarah, “Motor Mouth JR.” (grin.) Our family jokes about that. It helps keep his memory alive, and it brings a smile to everyone when we talk about it. Happy memories!

Granddaddy lived right next door to us when I was growing up, and he spent a lot of time with me, especially when I was younger (before my parents split up and we moved.) Sometimes mama would leave us with him and his wife, Grandma Bertha, when she had to take care of business that was not “child appropriate.” My brother and I looked forward to meals with them because Grandma made the BEST homemade biscuits and the sweeeeeeeetest sweet tea you ever tasted. Go Grandma! I don't know how old I was before I realized Cane Patch was not the ONLY brand of syrup that existed. That's all they ever used. And it was GOOD on those homemade biscuits, too. Grandma usually had some kind of cake on hand.....usually chocolate with LOTS of layers, or pound cake. We enjoyed the food and drink, but mostly, we enjoyed his company. He would tease us (me and my bro), tease us, and then tease us some more. It was his way of saying he loved us.

He taught me how to play cards. We played LOTS of card games at his house, and spent lots of time on the front porch. We also ate LOTS of watermelon. Granddaddy would get a BIG watermelon, and then call all the grand kids who were nearby to come over and share it......usually outside on the side porch or in the yard.....so we could spit the seeds in the yard if need be.....or not. Shoot, we just wanted to spit seeds because it was the only time we actually had permission to spit! And we ate lots of pomegranates too. They had a pomegranate bush in their yard, and since pomegranate seeds are THE most sour thing you have ever tasted, we LOVED them.

I love Grandma, and I know she loves me……but there was something special about Granddaddy………because he knew how to make YOU feel special. His real grand kids and I would argue over who was his favorite. One would say, “well, he took me fishing last week.” Another would say, “well, he took me to the store and bought me ice cream.” I argued along with the rest because I felt just as special as they were. To me, he really WAS my granddaddy. Even though he had lots of REAL grandchildren, he NEVER made me feel like I wasn't one of them. I’d spent far more time with him growing up than I ever did with my real grandfather. (He lived farther away.)

In case you haven't already guessed, we lived in the country.....WAY out in the country. We usually had a garden. My dad would borrow granddaddy's tractor for our garden every year. Daddy would let me sit on his lap and steer. Of course I thought I was "hot stuff" because I got to drive granddaddy's tractor.

Granddaddy gave me my first puppy when I was 7. We‘d had other dogs, but this was my first puppy. He was a black lab. Granddaddy named him “Onion.” Now how many pets have you encountered with THAT name? Granddaddy said his head was shaped like an onion........thus, the name. Onion was THE best dog I ever had. I have loved black labs ever since, and have had several labs and lab mixes over the years.

Granddaddy gave me the first money I ever made from working on my own….and I mean REAL work. This wasn‘t allowance for household chores mind you. He paid me and my cousin Dan $2 each for digging up potatoes straight from the ground. Man, that was hard work! And my nails had more dirt under them than I’ve ever seen there since. But I was quite proud of my crisp new $2 bill.....my very own money, made with my own 2 little hands, from hard work in the field. My mom put it up for safekeeping. I don’t know what ever happened to it, but I never forgot the first money I ever earned for digging up "taters."

I never had this kind of relationship with my real grandfather. There were 9 children and 17 grandchildren on that side of the family, and not enough time and attention to go around. But I thank God for giving me my "adopted granddaddy" to show me what having a granddaddy is really all about. Thank you, Lord, for one of many blessings!