More Bear Kisses

Our family was invited to pick all the ripe plums off of a tree of one of Cliff's lawn customers. Jan is a sweet widow woman that enjoys interacting with our children and telling us stories of her children long ago. She and I sat on the deck and watched the pickers as they climbed ladders, picked plums, and, of course, ate plums. Luke came over and gave a plum to me.

I asked Jan if she has ever had a bear kiss before.

"I can't say I have," she said.

"Well, Luke gives wonderful bear kisses. Just lean your cheek down a little," I said.

She hunched down in her chair, leaned her cheek toward Luke and looked at him out of the side of her eyes to see what he would do.

Luke roared and gave her a big smack on the proferred cheek.

"Oh my!" she exclaimed as her eyebrows shot up.

"Really gets your heart beating doesn't it?" I ask.

"Yes, it certainly did!" she answered.

Later we went shopping and ran into my friend Kathy Niclas and her father visiting here from Australia. Luke was in the shopping cart and I couldn't resist asking Grandpa if he'd ever had a bear kiss. No, he hadn't.

He got down nose to nose with Luke and Luke made a terrific roar and gave him a kiss on his right upper lip. Unexpectedly Grandpa roared back. He snarled up his nose and bared his old yellowed teeth. Luke screamed and lunged for me in fright.

Grandpa's good sense of humor softened the effect. He laughed it off as they left to continued their shopping.

Bear kisses can be quite exciting.

A Muddy Business

Our son Stephen (age 5) said to me yesterday: "When I grow up I'm going to be a mud seller. You take some water in a bucket and dig up some dirt and stir it in the water with a stick. If it is too thin you have to put in more dirt and stir it some more.

"Thomas Building Supply sells mud. We should go ask them how much they are selling it for. They sell the mud because they need money. Do you know why they need money? So they can buy wood and sell it too. You were with me that time when a guy came into that store and he said, 'I need a box of mud.'

"I'm going to put a sign over my front door that says, 'Mud Seller.' Because I know how to make it--for free! Those McKay girls taught me how to make it. When I get some money for my mud I will go to Thomas Building Supply and buy a bunch a flashlights. I'll go back to my mud seller house and put my flashlights on a shelf and sell them for more money.

"If I can I'd like to sell wood too and build houses for people too. I will build houses and tell people to pay me money for the house 'cause it took me six weeks to build it.

"Maybe Luke will go in with me and he can stand at the door and check people's receipts and make sure all the numbers are right. If they are, I'll tell him to draw a happy face on the receipt.

"When I dig nine feet of mud out of my backyard I will fill the hole with water and make a mud pond. When I get tired of making mud and there's no customers to buy my mud I can just dive in my mud pond."

I asked Stephen if he'd like a nice bar of my homemade soap so he could take a bath and clean up after a long hard day of the mud business. He made it quite clear he didn't share my penchant for soap. He wrinkled up his nose and said, "Yuck."

You Never Know

I had a woman write to me: "You are such a blessing. I bet the women you come in
contact with are thrilled to glean the knowledge the Lord has stored up in you."

This is my answer which I e-mailed to her: "Not yet. I am still young actually. People don't really realize how much I've got to say and I think sometimes it is not time yet. You know I often feel I am storing up. However, you betta watch out 'cause I hope to be an awesome old lady some day."

I e-mailed my reply and received this request from the woman in charge of the Above Rubies Retreat in Olympia, WA that Valerie and I (and 6 other local women) are going to attend on September 21 to 23rd.

"Dear Jenny, I am hoping that you would be willing to sit on our panel of women that will help answer questions during that part of the retreat? I believe that you could really bless many ladies there with the wisdom God has given you...(my honest feelings)! Let me know..."

You never know what's going to happen next in this Christian faith walk. You've got to be on your toes and ready in season and out. Well, I'm nervous already. Yes, I'm going to do it. I'll let you know how it goes. Gulp!

The Wonderfulness of Soap

OOOh! Soap is wonderful.

We just went camping at Sequim Bay State Park for three days with our home church and let me tell you SOAP is a wonderful thing when your whole big ole family is all dirty from camping and you have morning sickness.

I could have washed dirt off of faces and fingers every five minutes and it wouldn't have been enough. The moms played Canasta while the children played. I had to excuse myself to go and wash my hands 'cause I couldn't stand my dirty fingernails a minute longer. In my sleeping bag at night I wiggled my toes with disgust. Dirt between my toes is going too far.

Upon arriving home I rediscovered the wonderfulness of my homemade soap. Into the tub boys! Time to scrub boys! Ah...to all be clean and sweet smelling again!

Bear Kisses

I woke for the second time. Nine o'clock. I lazily stretch and roll over. I admire my man asleep next to me. My little man, Luke. He blinks, smacks a couple of times and then he too lazily stretches and rolls over. I can tell he is awake or at least awake enough to enjoy a few kisses. I decide to kiss him awake. For best advantage I scootch up. I kiss him on the nape of the neck, under his ear, on his chin and on his cheek. His eyelids flutter open and he smiles at me.

"Do you like me to kiss you awake?" I ask.

"Yes," he answers sleepily.

"Well aren't you going to kiss me?"

"Uh, huh." He's not quite awake so the only thing he moves is his lips. He puckers up and waits for me to put my cheek in place to receive his kiss.

"Luke, what kind of kisses do you like best?"

"Bear kisses."

I think to myself that I must be missing out because I'm 44 years old and he is almost 3 and he knows what a bear kiss is and I've never had one before.

"Can I have a bear kiss?" I ask.

Suddenly Luke sits up in bed and roars like an angry bear. Still growling he leans into my face and plants a big juicy bear kiss on my cheek and then collapses into giggles.

"I like bear kisses too." I reply with a giggle. "Can I have another one?"