Happy "Bearthday", Elijah!

A couple months ago, Elijah's preschool had a "Teddy Bear Day" during which the kids could, just as it sounds, bring their own teddy bears to school for the day. It was at that point that we all realized that big brother Noah had his own teddy bear (Frankie), and little sister Elizabeth had her own teddy bear (Lovey B), but Elijah had no bear to call his own.

We thought that a fun way to remedy this possibly critical situation was to have Elijah's birthday party at Build-A-Bear Workshop in Huntsville. We invited a couple of other close friends and their children to make the one hour trek to the mall in Huntsville and experience this extravaganza with us. It was a whirlwind of a glorious time! It was very fun watching each of the kids pick out their own animal. Noah picked out a white and blue bear and named him Nosey (I have "nosey" idea where that came from!), Ellie picked an adorable puppy with pink and red hearts and named her Jo Jo. Elijah, after looking at all his options, decided he wanted, of all things, a puppy dog! So he picked out a cute brown puppy and named him Spiderdog. There were two other little boys there picking out their own stuffed animals. Then came the time to pick out the outfits. All four little boys stood, mouth agape with awe and wonder, when they spotted the Build A Bear Spiderman costume! And all four boys ended up leaving the store with their brand new animals donning said Spiderman costume.

We thought it humorous that Elijah came home with a dog, when the sole purpose of going to Build A Bear was just that: to build a bear! But the nice thing about having a party at the workshop is that the birthday boy gets a special gift from the store - a teddy bear of his very own with a special pen for all his birthday guests to sign their names on his new bear! Happy "Bearthday", Elijah!

An Ox in the Ditch

After reading several of the Faircloth's witty blogs (see link), I thought surely there are funny things that happen to us that would bring a chuckle to others. Then I remembered a few months ago when our washing machine broke down. It was one of those machines that we bought used about 5 years ago for 50 bucks, and it's amazing it's lasted this long. But it was definitely time for us to invest in a new machine. With a family of five, you can't wait long without a washing machine, so we went out looking the day after it broke. Well, it happened to break down on a Saturday evening, which meant we'd have to go looking on Sunday afternoon.

To all you good Presbyterians out there, you know that's kind of "frowned upon". To the rest of you, we try to make Sunday not only our Sabbath rest, but also our family day/relaxing day/ do nothing day. Any way you look at it, it was not an exciting venture. But focusing in on the whole we're supposed to keep the Sabbath idea... On the way home from church that day, I explained to the kids we had to go out shopping after nap time. Noah, our oldest, made a comment on the fact that it was Sunday and we were supposed to stay home. I explained to the kids the story in the New Testament where the farmer has to rescue his ox if it falls in the ditch on the Sabbath, that he can't wait until the next day to do it. It's a real need. And the washing machine was a real need for us.

Feeling good about my brief theological study, I ended the lesson by asking Elijah (the 4 year old) if he understood. He responded with a quizzical look on his face as he said "So, we have to go buy an ox to wash our clothes?"

Evidently, I need a little work on my exposition!