I'm a terrible mother. Please don't tell God.

I realize He already know this.

I've been thinking lately that I'm doing pretty well at the mom stuff. I've been making my kids be in bed before 9; I've been packing nutritious lunches; I make the kids brush their teeth and bring in their own lunchboxes from the truck at the end of the day. I take them to church most Sundays, and they don't cry when I drop them off at "Sunday Church" (Garrett's term). I even take time to read them books many nights.

I don't, apparently, talk to them about God enough.

Tonight, Braden and I were reading chapter 2 of a space book (yes, nonfiction. The kid really prefers nonfiction). "The Universe" was the title of this chapter. Within a few pages, the book began describes The Big Bang--you know, the universe was created from a mass of matter smaller than a pinhead (yes, really, that is what the book said) until The Big Bang. Now, I get The Big Bang, but I also get the version in Genesis. So, I decided to pull out The Bible to share with Braden another version of the creation.

I grabbed my old trusty children's Bible off the shelf--the one my Dad gave me in 1982. I showed it to Braden and told him how my dad gave that Bible to me when I was his age. He thought that was pretty cool. I then opened it to Genesis and began to read.

He asked a few questions: "Why does it keep saying 'And there was evening and there was morning?'" and so forth. And then...get ready...he said, "Enough of that one mommy, let's get back to the real story," and grabbed his Space book.

Oh gosh.

I've got some work to do.

1st day of 1st grade

Today was Braden's first day of first grade. "It was cool," he says.

Here he is before we left the house in the morning. Notice his fancy new lunchbox! He is still wearing the same ol' crummy backpack, but we'll get him a new one this weekend.

Here he is in front of the school. He's really humoring me here with the picture taking--he was seriously waaaay too cool for this.

Calm, confident, collected...until we got to the door of his first grade classroom. Then, he did NOT want to go in even though he saw his bud Samuel in the classroom. There was a lot of clinging (on his part) and a lot of prying (on my part), but with the help of Mrs. Cardona, he made it in the classroom door.

Games with Grandma

Grandma Scheele spent a few nights with us at the end of May. The boys had a great time hanging out with their Grandma, and Garrett and Grandma played a particularly exciting game of I Can Do That, a Dr. Seuss game that Garrett got for his birthday.

Mother's Day at Braden's School

On Friday, thanks to three colleagues who helped cover my classes, I was able to attend a lovely Mother's Day tea at Braden's school followed by a Mother's Day lunch at Garrett's school. For some reason, I didn't take pics at Garrett's school, but I did get a nice one of Braden and me and another one of my placesetting with all the wonderful gifts he made me.

The Green Machine!!

On Good Friday, Braden fell in love with a Green Machine belonging to the Parrs. He rode and rode and rode this Green Machine. He wanted one. He wanted one badly. Thankfully, Braden had a birthday coming up, and he's a smart kid. He asked for money (he also knew that little brother had a birthday coming up, too, and he'd be able to play with little bro's loot). After his birthday party, he'd accrued just about enough (thanks to GrandTom, Aunt Linsey, Uncle Matt, the Corleys, the Kovacses). Granddaddy and Grandma Janet came in town and pitched in remained cash needed.

It took a few hours to put together the thing, and I'm pretty sure there were additional holes being drilled into the main axle.

Braden sure is a happy kid!!

A meatless hot dog

Braden does not much love meat. He never has much cared for it, even as a baby. Today, we went to an end-of-the-year picnic for his dual language kindergarten, and hot dogs were served. Braden adapted, though.

Like father, like son

This evening, I heard the unmistakable sound of tools clanking in the garage. Because Kyle had just bought a new weight bench last night, I thought he was in there making some minor adjustments to it. I could hear the sounds of little voices, too.

I finally got up to bring the boys inside for their baths.

Kyle was not in the garage.

Braden, Garrett, and their neighbor-friend Luke were in there.

And they had removed the training wheels from Garrett's bike. He's four, you know. And big brother learned to ride when he was four, so it is high time for Garrett to learn.

Braden accomplished the training wheel removal by standing on a chair to reach the tool box, finding the correct size of wrench, and then getting to work. He was quite proud of himself.

I'm sure daddy will be proud, too, once he wakes up...I found him in bed asleep by 8 pm.

All that is left to do is teach the Garrett Carrot how to ride.