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

Artistic Expression and Faith

A few days ago, I came across a post called Of Books and Faith written by Beck at Frog and Toad are Still Friends ( The best blog name EVER to my mind.) She writes about how the Christian market is saturated with mediocre books. How few fiction authors there are who really grapple with the messiness of humanity from a Christian perspective. I agree with her whole-heartedly. The Christian life does not come with the lack of conflict and the happily-ever-after resolutions that I find in many books of this genre. It's funny that I came across that post because I had been thinking similar thoughts about another form of Christian expression. Art. Christian art is often either poorly rendered or is just too pretty. It lacks creativity. It doesn't engage the mind. Remember when I made that long trek to Hobby Lobby for stencil supplies? That was where this idea started to form. I spent a few minutes flipping through posters. Flip. Glowing Jesus in a meadow. Flip. Glowing Jesus surr...

4-H Exhibits-Updated

Update: Blue ribbons all around! 4 of our projects will go onto the state fair. John's headboard exceeds size limitations and so we will lug it home tomorrow. We are relieved. That thing is heavy! ************* For the past few weeks we have been busy sewing, sawing, quilling and painting 4-H projects. The kids have been in 4-H for about a month and they started with a bang. The annual 4-H fair is tomorrow. So this morning we loaded these projects and four kids wearing slippers into the car. The fifth one had sense enough to wear flip-flops. (The other four complained as we pulled out of the driveway that their feet were sweating.) John reclining against the headboard that he built with Stuart. He wrote the 10 Commandments of Table Saw Safety to accompany this project. Claire's quilling project. Lauren modeling the apron that she sewed. Lauren and the dog painting she has been working on in art class for the past few months. Faith and her quilling project. So now...

The Ice Cream Parlor

The Tooth Fairy doesn’t come to our house. Not because of any deep seated anti-Tooth Fairy angst. I'm just a tradition rebel. When each child looses his first tooth, we leave the rest of the pack at home and take the newly toothless one out for ice cream. This was easily accomplished when all of the children were young and the ice cream parlor was ten minutes away. We realized this simple tradition had become more complicated when Claire’s first tooth came out in my palm. The big guys don’t need a baby sitter. The little ones do. Kid combinations are such that we can’t leave them all home alone without outside supervision. Add in the drive time to and from the nearest soft serve establishment and we’re looking at three hours. Just for a quick trip to get ice cream! What to do? “I know, Mama! We can drive to the grocery store and get ice cream and eat it in the car!” “I don’t know. The thought of eating cold ice cream in the car in a hurry in January isn’t my idea of a da...