Strawberries!

It's strawberry season down here in NC, so we took the kids pickin'! We didn't adopt a 5th child--we brought our neighbor. :)

The field is literally 5 minutes from our house. We all had fun picking and we, especially, enjoyed eating the fruit. The kids cooled off with smoothies while the adults had margaritas!

I never had fresh-picked strawberries growing up, but since I tasted them down here, I look forward to enjoying some every year. It's cheap and DE-LI-CIOUS! If you live close enough to a field or even see a road-side stand, I highly recommend getting some fruit.

Things I never thought I'd hear/say

"I can put my toe in my nose."
"Stop eating dog food."
"I like to eat boogars."
"Please, don't step on your sister's head."
"That water in the bowl is for the dog not you."
"Can you please stop pretending to shoot your sister?"
"Did they have TV when you were a kid?"
"We don't joke about machine guns in church."
"Did you wipe?" (The answer is usually, "No."--gross!)

Got any of your own to add?

Dillon's First Communion

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Dillon received his First Communion this past weekend--another milestone in his Christian life. He seems quite young to fully understand the seriousness of the sacrament, but he apparently has reached the "age of reason." He definitely knows right from wrong, so with God's grace he can be nourished by this special food.

Splinter

My middle girls, especially Alyssa, love to run around barefoot. I don't mind, but I do warn them that if they hurt their feet, I don't want to hear whining. Most of the time nothing happens, but today Alyssa got a splinter. I reiterated my above warning, and told her that I would need to get it out. This wasn't her first splinter, so she knew that this would involve pain. However, she was willing to get it out because she also knew it would make her foot feel better.

I pulled out my tweezers and was able to get it out after a few tries. Alyssa did cry and scream a bit. I hugged her and told her it would feel better soon, and now just minutes later, what was painful is hardly even noticeable to her.

As random as it seems, this got me thinking about the whole sanctification process. The problem of pain and suffering can be a stumbling block to believers, doubters, and non-believers alike. Sometimes our sin is like a splinter that hurts us. Ridding ourselves of it is often painful and challenging--it can take multiple tries that seem futile. Occasionally, we'd rather live with the splinter hoping it will go away on its own. However, once we do remove it, the pain we went through is a forgotten memory.