Juicy Peach Moments

Every once in a while, your kids do something that is incredibly delightful. As parents, Andrea and I savor those moments, where we see fun, creative personalities emerging more and more. It's like grabbing a perfectly ripe peach and biting into it, expecting wonderful taste and texture...but every once in a while you get an extra juicy peach and on the first bite you find yourself grabbing for a napkin before the juice dribbles down onto your shirt. Kids can be that unexpected juiciness in life that leaves you begging for more...

Here's two juicy peach moments of late...

1. Abby lost a tooth a few weeks back. Now, she's plenty old (almost 10) and knows the facts of this world (Jesus is honest to goodness real, but Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and whomever else folks may want to dream up are NOT real). But, we still play the Tooth Fairy game--after all, she wants her buck per tooth. She told me about the tooth as I was leaving for a church leadership meeting. By the time I got home, it was 10 pm, she was long asleep and I had totally forgotten about the tooth itself.

Abby got up in the morning, checked under the pillow and saw that I had failed in my task. She came to me and said, "Daaaaaaaad, the tooth fairy forgot to come!!!!" She had a twinkle in her eye because she was busting me. I told her that she needed to get breakfast soon and maybe the tooth fairy would come while she was eating breakfast.

I went downstairs and found a buck, while she finished dressing and then went down to eat. She sat down, I got up. I went up and found the tooth container, took the tooth and shoved a buck in there. I came back down and she popped up from the table and ran upstairs. 2 minutes later she came walking back to the dining room giggling her head off, holding our family's camcorder. This girl totally punk'd me--hid the camera to catch me planting the goods. We all sat at the table and watched the footage. I laughed for 20 minutes straight. What an amazing, creative character she is. I can't figure out where she'd get this kind of sneakiness. Certainly not from my side of the family. ;-)

2. Nate is all boy. He eats a ton, plays his heart out, still loves hugs and cuddles from his mom. He's the truly sneaky one of the lot--quick as lightning to make a joke, always looking to play a trick of some sort on someone.

About 5 years ago, I taught the boys the, um, uh, well, I sort of taught them how to pee outside. Since then, they have peed in the stream right by the Corcoran park (kind of a rite of spring--always the first time we go in March or April) and they've also peed in the headwaters of the Mississippi up in wherever that is by Bemidji. From what I've known of them, they only pee on very symbolic occasions. Did I mention this drives my wife nuts???

2 weeks ago, Abby came walking up the driveway from the school bus. I didn't see Nate anywhere behind her. I asked her about his whereabouts, fearing that he fell asleep on the bus or missed it at school. She flippantly said "He's at his pee tree." I, of course, started to giggle a little because I saw what was coming. "What's a pee tree Abby?" Well, Dad, she said, "It's the tree he ducks behind everyday walking down the driveway so he can pee."

Again, Andrea and many other women (perhaps some men too) will find this completely rude, crude and socially unacceptable. I'm not saying public urination is a habit worth getting into, but I almost fell over laughing with joy when I heard that this crazy little man had developed his own secluded little spot to take a whiz. That is a definite boy thing.



If you are a parent, what are your most recent juicy peach moments with your kids???

Life

...it's sometimes rough.

I shared with the Journey leadership last night about recent struggles I've had with depression, ADD and sleeplessness. It's a long story, but for nearly 2 months or so, I was a dead leader running. I've turned a big corner and have energy like I haven't had in a few months. My thoughts are focused and I have a clarity of purpose and mission that's been missing. Thank God for good docs and counselors and so forth.

To any of you who I've seemingly ignored in the past couple months, I apologize. None of this is intentional and I wish that it wouldn't hit me like it does every few years.

Watch future posts for a couple really fun things......