Skip to main content

bERGRAMU

Yesterday, Charlie got a letter in the mail. The Christmas activity we were working on came to a screeching halt. Letters for four year olds are not a common occurance here. "For me? A letter for me? Look! A letter for me! I got a letter!" When Charlie was done waving his letter around, he opened it.

He pulled out a sheet of stickers. "Ooh stickers! What is this animal?!"

"Move it back a little, Charlie so I can uncross my eyes."

He did and we identified animals from the African plain. "Mama, do you want a sticker?"

"Sure."

"Which one?"

"I don't care. Which one do you want to give me?"

Charlie smacked a elephant onto my chest and decorated himself with a monkey. But wait! There was more in the envelope. A note and a dollar. A whole dollar.

"Do you want me to read this note to you?"

"I got a dollar! I got this dollar! Is it store day? Can we go to the store right now?! (insert much dancing and waving)

"No. Store day is not for two more days."

"Drat!"

"Do you want me to read the letter? It's from Grandma Pugga."

So we read the letter and Charlie was so overwhelmed by his grandma's generosity that he found a narrow scrap of paper and wrote a letter of his own in response. His first letter. He worked through a good part of dinner and smeared a little steak sauce on his work and when he was finished it looked like this.

bERG
RAM
UiLU
VYO
BE
CUZ
YOGA
VThe
mUNe
TOMe
fRUM
CHARLIE
The
Enb
Anybody want to whip out their secret decoder ring and make sense of what he wrote? (It is readable. I promise.)

Comments

tammi said…
Awww, what a wonderful little thank you note! I'm so impressed that he could put that on paper at his age!! (Hats off to YOU, homeschoolin' mama!)
Anonymous said…
I've got one that writes in the same code. Do I get a dollar for being able to read it? :)
Kate said…
Jodi,
Sure. But I don't think you'll be able to pry it away from Charlie!

Kate
Having a four year old enables me to read this code...no ring necessary! I love it!! He writes very well for his age. Gracie can barely get her name on paper.

Xandra
Luke Holzmann said…
...I figured it all out (though the "bER" gave me some trouble [smile]).

That's darling.

~Luke
40winkzzz said…
It all made perfect sense the second time I read through it.

Should we be worried about the "beer Grandma" part? Or does the YOGA sort of cancel out any ill effects from the beer?

It doesn't take much to win the heart of a small child, does it? Such a little thing can mean oh so much. Charlie's very first letter-- what a huge reward Grandma gets for her effort. Don't forget to make a copy of it before you send it!
Sarah said…
Hi Kate, I just read your blog when I got online to see how Mom interpreted the notes to Santa on MY blog. How funny that we wrote along similar lines without even knowing it. Charlie is a lot closer on his spelling than my Charlie!

sem
God's girl said…
Oh girl that is some good coding! We got that going on here as well. Love it!
Ang

Popular posts from this blog

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...

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...

Potholes

We were driving home on the back roads between The Land Flowing With Milk and Honey (where the Wal-Mart is) and Smallville . The Suburban dipped and swayed through the tight curves and potholes. Lots of potholes. Asphalt sprayed the car’s undercarriage. “Tink. Tink. Tink.” The children were oblivious to the dipping and swaying but the noise caught their attention. They looked out the windows. “Hey Mama, didn’t they just fill those potholes two weeks ago? Why did they have to fill them again?” Good question, kids. Instead of hiring the Fix It and Forget It Construction Company , our county employs Larry, Darryl and Darryl to maintain our roads. Larry drives the pickup. Darryl shovels a bit of asphalt off the back and the other Darryl tamps it down into the hole. Week after week they fill the same holes. Week after week our wheels grind away their efforts. Potholes. We all have them. Places in our lives that just can’t seem to stay filled up. Holes that consume great quantities of love ...