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Although I am profoundly grateful for the many blessings God has given me, I don't have time for a profound post today.  Too many people in the house, too much fun and laughter playing Uno, Catchphrase, and right now, that mind reading game with 12 magazines on the floor and a pointer, that you keep playing until everyone figures out the trick.  In fact, I only have time for a quick post because I figured it out right away!

So from the bottom of my thankful heart comes a Thanksgiving funny for today:

A few weeks ago Chicklet was helping me look through some boxes of old clothes.  We ran across an outfit that she wanted to try on.  It was sort of a prairie-style blouse, skirt and apron--way too large for her, but she donned them anyway.

"Look, Mom, I'm a pomegranate!" she exclaimed.

It took me a minute.

"Oh, you mean...a Pilgrim?"

B14 is on record here and here as being our "blondest" child, and recently we recalled a few more of his blonder moments!One happened years ago when I was pregnant with Bantam4. The doctor, pointing to the ultrasound screen, showed the kids: "See, there's one leg, there's the other leg...and there's his little third leg. Looks like you're getting a baby brother!"Bantam-now-14, then-9, was

Bantam10: "I love this soup the most!"Chicklet7: "I love it a million, thousand times the most!"Bantam10: "Well, I love it to infinity! That's the biggest number there is."Bantam4: "I love it FOUR!"

We were headed home from our camping trip, and I was driving Papa Rooster's Prius while he drove the van pulling the trailer. Chicklet6 had ended up in my backseat, and 2 minutes into the 20 minute ride home, I could see her head nodding in the rearview mirror. A moment later she asked,"Mom, what does it mean when someone can't keep their eyes open?"

Last night, we read the story of Rumplestiltskin. As you know, the Queen tries out many different names in order to guess the name of the little man who has a claim to her first-born.When we finished, Bantam4 sighed, "I want to change my name.""Oh?" I questioned. "What would you like to change it to?"He smiled his little boy, heart-melting smile. "Larry." He thought a minute. "Larry Boy."*

Well, I didn't really mean to let that last post sit for three days, but my time has not been my own this week!We had The Wizard of Oz yesterday and will have two more school day shows again tomorrow. Today was double schoolwork, plus laundry and the ongoing celebration of Bantam14's birthday, with a little mother/son time and a free birthday burger at Red Robin! (You all are in Red Robin's

Chicklet6 just burst in from outdoors with a bouquet of dandelionsin her fist and a delighted smile on her face."Mom, it's so exciting! We have lots of honey flowers [clover]and lots of dandelions......and they're only in OUR YARD!"(Photo credit: Ann Rinkenberger, www.flickr.com/photos/picturesbyann)

Awww, I just found the scrap of paper where I wrote this one down....Back during Schoolhouse Rock, Bantam13 and Blondechick16 went home with some friends on the break between the daytime and the evening show. Later on, the mom told me that while they were at her house, the talk had turned to schools and homeschooling. She had asked B13:"So if she [Blondechick16] is in public school, how come you

You may recall that the Tooth Fairy often takes awhile to find her way to our house. She's old, we tell the kids. She's forgetful. She's directionally-challenged.Now it seems that some have run out of patience with her.Bantam10 had an awkward "snaggletooth" annoying him for days, and he begged me to pull it for him. Gross! I said, but I wiggled it a little and informed him that it wasn't

Bantam3 has a new trick. Bantam13 taught him how to touch his index finger to his thumb so that three fingers remain standing up. (That’s the cool way for three-year-olds to indicate their age now, you know—the pinkie to thumb position is so yesterday.) B3 loves this new sign, and he makes it whenever someone new speaks to him. “What’s your name?” B3 holds up three fingers. “Oh, you’

Yesterday at theater class, a friend of Blondechick's complained that when she woke up, she had five new pimples. Examining her face, Blondechick couldn't see one. "You want to see a pimple," she said. "Look at this beast." She pointed to an unusually large zit on the side of her own nose. "Oh!" her friend exclaimed. "I thought that was a nose piercing! You should put glitter on it or

After I gave Bantam17 a haircut, we were driving somewhere and I was studying my handiwork in the rearview mirror. I asked Blondechick, who was next to me in the passenger seat, if I should cut a little more off around his face. "See those little wings sticking out?" I asked her. Blondechick, with a glance behind her, knowledgeably replied, "They're called flippys, Mom. They're a good thing.

"Uncle _____, what kind of car do you drive?" Chicklet5 asked Papa Rooster's brother, one Sunday when they were visiting. "I drive a Honda," he replied. "Well, my dad is a priest," she told him, "so he drives a Priust." (In case you haven't heard of them, it's a Toyota Prius--a hybrid, and the only new car we've ever owned! But with the kind of mileage he racks up every day, gas prices

Blondechick15 (in a huff): "Dad always gets mad when I don't know what I'm talking about."

Well, I'm about 2/3 of the way done getting the old glue mostly off the walls in my dining room--last night I finished everything above the chair rail. (I didn't even get started till after supper yesterday, though.) I finished listening to Right Ho, Jeeves and started Focus on the Family's Radio Theater production of Little Women. Oh, so good! While I get back to work this morning--in hopes of

On an invitation to a Sweet 16 birthday party Blondechick15 is invited to this weekend: "Girls may stay overnight if they would like. Please let me know if you would like to sleep."

Bantam9, during a Godspell intermission, pinned on an usher's nametag (“Sherry”), picked up a seating chart of the auditorium (the "house") and announced slyly: “I’m in disguise.” *** After Bantam12 suffered a head injury during his Keystone Cops and Robbers scene, I was thinking hard about whether to let him go on for it the next day; in the dark and the strobe light, I was afraid he might

Remember I mentioned how Bantam17 babysits for the youngest two while I take the three theater kids to rehearsals? Chicklet5 and Bantam2 were playing house the other day, when Chicklet told me: "I am the mother, and [Bantam2] is the big boy who stays at home with the children." (several dolls) *** She also told me recently how much she liked the movie I had put on for her and Bantam2: "Crash

Grandma, after prompting Bantam8 to add the word "please" to his demand that a dish on the table be passed to him, jokingly commented, "Bantam8, your manners are atrocious!" "Thank you," ...he politely, ignorantly, replied.

In the scene where Jesus asks the schoolchildren to help him tell the parable of the good Samaritan, Bantam8 and his buddy are the "rocky soil." They elbow their way to the front of the stage, holding their arms out like weight lifters and kissing their biceps, before delivering their line--"Rock solid, baby!"--and executing a chest slam. They were practicing this scene when I happened to look

Tonight we had the "family birthday party" for me and my mother-in-law, whose birthday is 4 days before mine. My wonderful children blessed us both with homemade cards, a tradition on birthdays in our family. As always, they were both touching and hilarious! Dear Mother, I love you. I hope you love your birthday and this card. Even though you yell at me I still think you're the best Mom ever

"Man, burping has become so common in this house that it's not even funny anymore," Bantam16, the first in our family to introduce the concept of the burp as entertainment, said disgustedly the other day. What a sign of maturity. From birth story to burp story... How fast they grow! (And if you prefer birth stories to burp stories, MamaLady's Carnival of Birth Stories is up here!)

Chicklet5, eating a banana and prattling on: "And when we go to Charlotte's Web, you need to bring some food for us, so we don't starve." Me, half-listening and stirring chili: "Charlotte's Web is over now." Chicklet: "I know. But we will still starve." (Finally she added: "Because I'm very hungry!")

*TMI=Too Much Information Bantams 12 & 8 and I were studying tornadoes and tornado safety in Science. I told them about the terrible one in Xenia, Ohio--not far from where I grew up--that occurred when I was in third grade. I remember my teacher telling us about a man who was saved because he wrapped his arms around the toilet and hung on for dear life while the rest of his house was carried

Bantam12 to his older sister: "You know how sometimes you can taste the smell of things? I taste the smell of armpit right now. I can't wait to go brush my teeth."