Back home!

Got home Sat. night, church bright and early Sunday, stop at Target, go to open house we were interested in, head home, naptime + grocery shopping, friends arrive!  Super-fun with friends til 10am this morning, and now we settle back into time at home.  We had such a great relaxing time at Nunu's house in NC.  She has a knack for entertaining kids, and they had 10 days of full-on attention and fun.  Nice for all involved (except my mom deserves a vacation now!).  The kids were adorable when meeting Reuel at the airport and I saw one onlooker tearing up watching their reunion!  (I decided not to spoil the image by explaining that probably later that night one or both of them would be throwing a tantrum about not wanting Daddy to do a job that only Mommy is sufficient to perform...ah well, the reunion was sweet while it lasted :).

Now back to 'normal', Owen brought me his kid's westminster catechism book, and wanted to have it read to him, cover to cover.  He did not tire of listening!  I guess he needed some downtime :}  I thought this was funny:

Me:  #13.  Does God know everything?  Yes.  Nothing can be hidden from him.  Psalm 44:21
Owen:  "Does that mean that God knows where pirate treasure is buried?  Even without a map??
[...]
Me:  #17.  How many persons are there in the one God?  Three persons. 
        #18.  Who are these three persons?  The Father, the Son (that's Jesus!) and the Holy Spirit.  Matt. 28:19
Owen:  "So JESUS knows where pirate treasure is buried even without a map, TOO??"

While at Nunu's house, Owen was getting into the idea of doing chores for money (a dime per normal-size chore) and has continued this at home.  Just now he was *desperate* for a job.  I asked him to take an envelope down to the mailbox, put it in, and push up the flag.  I knew he'd need a stool, so suggested he take his lightweight Bilibo toy (a strange but fun open-ended toy that is just a big plastic bowl) with him as a stool.  I watched the errand through the window for fun.  Here's how it went:
1.  Take Bilibo + mail to curb
2.  Put Bilibo on ground, open mailbox and start to stuff in mail.
3.  Discover mailbox is already full of mail.
4.  Throw outgoing mail to ground.
5.  Throw all mail in box to ground.
6.  Get outgoing mail in box, push up flag.
7.  Run to garage to get tricycle
8.  Ride trike to mailbox and attempt to fill back basket on trike with incoming mail + newspaper
9.  Mail is too big; fold all envelopes in half to stuff in. 
10.  Leave Bilibo + newspaper + 1 stray piece of mail on ground
11.  Attempt to ride up drive; get stuck on hill.
12.  Push trike to top
13.  Go back down and retrieve excess items
14.  Put trike away
15.  Bring rumpled mail to house announcing, "I went and got my trike so I wouldn't have to walk so far!"
16.  Leave Bilibo in driveway.

I'd say that was worth a dime!