Skip to main content

Ship Ahoy!

The library basket is restocked with freshly picked stories and last night John and Lauren and I curled up on the sofas and transported ourselves to bookish places. It was peaceful. The three little ones were off in another part of the house. I didn’t question this because they often disappear to their rooms in the evening for a round of pretend.

The keyboard sounded softly in the distance. The little ones can only play a few bars of music but it was really playing because somebody had flipped the demo switch. I pushed the music to the back of my mind and continued to thumb through the pages of my book. Gradually, the music began to get louder. And louder. What I didn’t know was that the threesome was acting out scenes from Zelda and that they were using the piano as background music. Background music that was most definitely in the foreground. The notes reached a deafening crescendo and then the children joined in with some shouting of their own. “Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy! Ship ahoooy!” For some minutes, this continued.

The polarity of these two scenes, the quiet one in the living room and the rollicking one down the hall, struck me as hilarious. The words in front of me began to blur and run together. All I could do was laugh, a great, deep-belly-laughing laugh. I’m usually too busy directing the traffic of this family to be much of a laugher. I walk on the serious side and this sidesplitting laughter set John and Lauren to giggling too. “It’s not that the kids are all that funny, Mama, but you are hysterical,” John explained with a wide, wide grin.

I want my kids to remember this day. The day when their ducks-in-a-row mama, for a few seconds, lost herself to the moment. And too, I want them to remember the day when a few notes of music flew them of the bedroom to the land of Hyrule where apparently there was a ship.

Comments

tammi said…
I LOVE those moments!! I really need to allow myself more...

Hey, one of my bloggy friends found and talked about a book that I think you might like. Check out this post.
God's girl said…
That is too funny girl. Love it-good memories.
Much love,
Angela
Alana said…
It's so good to see you back on the bloglines. I always love reading about your family's adventures.

Popular posts from this blog

The Child's Story Bible

I have recommended the following book so frequently that I think a post is in order so that I may recommend it to the world. In the early nineteen hundreds, when my grandparents were growing from children to adults, when they were meeting and marrying and making ends meet during the Depression, Catherine F. Vos was at work. She had been out shopping, looking for the perfect children’s story bible. The Christian bookstores of the day must have had the same unsatisfactory fare for young children that they carry today. Her standards were high as she was the wife of a professor of theology and she could not find what she was looking for. So she started to write. The results of her writing, The Child’s Story Bible was first published in stages between the years of 1934-1936. It’s been republished in every decade since that time. My grandparents had my parents and they met and married and had me and somewhere along the way I acquired a Bible. I read from the book of Proverbs from time to t

Entomology Artwork

Predacious Diving Larva and Beetle by John Lots and Lots of Ladybugs by Claire Mrs. Mosquito by Faith Atlas Fritillary by Lauren

A Sure Foundation

The kids and I have been nibbling our way through the book of Isaiah for months. It's our first venture as a family into the prophets. We wrestle with the message. It's a book for our times. Isaiah wrote to his people, the people of Judah, at the dawn of a long season of international turmoil. Assyria ran rough shod over the Middle East, followed in quick succession by Babylon, Persia and Greece. According to Isaiah, each empire was brought down because of they were quick to gloat over their achievements but failed to give God the time of day. The sin of haughty eyes he calls it. I brown the meat and simmer the stew and slice a crusty loaf of Italian bread but do not bow my head before I eat. It's the little red hen complex. I ground the wheat and kneaded the dough and sliced the carrots. I don't take into account that I didn't make the carrots or the wheat grow. I forget to be thankful that there are groceries in the pantry and healthy children around the table.