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The Labor Day weekend was a relaxing one. The weather cooperated quite nicely, and one late afternoon I sat outside reading a magazine while the kids played in the large plastic tub better known as a kiddie pool. It was filled with water, of course, which made all the nearby vegetation jealous as they have not received much rain lately and were probably thirsty.

Part of my job as a parent is to ensure that the children share, play together, avoid injury, have fun, etc. So I would take breaks from my magazine to help them with the hose, pick some apples from the tree and throw them in the pool, or whatever. The older son wanted to bob for apples, so that’s what the apples were for. He made me go first, so I tried a couple of times and did get anything. He went next and spun the apple around so the stem was up, then he just bit the stem and pulled out the apple. The younger son didn’t want to play.

A little later, after I had read some more, I heard the older one telling me that his brother had dunked him in the pool. It is not uncommon for one of the two to do something not nice to the other, and then the other comes to me and complains. So when I heard that he had dunked him in the pool, I assumed it was a complaint and started to proceed down the let’s-play-nicely path. But I was mistaken, as they were both in a good mood.

It turned out that they were pretending to be at a dunk tank, as they had seen real-life dunk tanks in operation at both a local festival and a local fair. The kids had set a T-ball tee in the pool and a plastic chair next to the pool. One child would sit in the chair and the other would throw apples at the tee. If he hit the tee, the other child would slide himself off the chair and into the pool. So he wasn’t complaining, he just wanted me to watch the operation.

For those who were wondering, I did empty the pool by dumping its water into the closest flower bed. At least some of the plants also enjoyed their Labor Day holiday.

“Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree;”
– Genesis 18:4

Our church recently had a carnival/festival and there were some contests for children. Some of the contests (throw a football through a tire, carry an egg on a spoon, pop the balloon with the darts, etc.) had prizes, and one particular contest was awarding live goldfish (in plastic bags filled with water) as the prize.

No one in my family won a goldfish by playing that game. But we knew the people manning that booth and, unfortunately, they had some fish leftover at the end of the day. That meant that they had to get rid of them somehow, so they gave us a fish.

We already had an empty fishbowl from years ago, and the fish-givers gave us fish food, so we thought it wouldn’t be too bad. It could have been worse: someone else there was giving away puppies (not for a contest, but for anyone who wanted one). So we took the fish home and setup the fishbowl.

The fish did not have a name. We got the fish on a Saturday, and my wife named the fish on Tuesday. I came home from work, and we sat down to eat dinner. As part of the dinner conversation my wife referred to the fish as “Floaty”. Sure enough, he was quite floaty. So now he resides in a different plastic bag – until next Tuesday when he moves to his new home courtesy of the garbage truck.

“Therefore the land mourns, And everyone who lives in it languishes Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky, And also the fish of the sea disappear.”
– Hosea 4:3

We had nothing scheduled for this evening, so we decided to do some things in the yard. First was to plant some mums that we had bought recently. We didn’t really plant them – we left the mums in their pots but set the pots down in the dirt a little. That was somewhat for better curb appeal but more to keep the wind from knocking over the pots.

Next was to water the vegetable garden and the potted flowers. That’s an easy job – the kids are eager to volunteer. “Who wants the hose?” I ask, and they come running. The hard part is making sure they take turns and don’t drown some plants while ignoring others.

Then, since the hose was out and running, the kids asked if we could get out the sprinkler. I thought that would be a fine way to keep them outside, so I got the sprinkler. It’s the type that spins, but they don’t like it to spin. Once it was setup, they started pulling plastic toys out of the shed. They also pulled out the lawn chair. I think it was meant to hold their towels, but I commandeered it so I could sit and read the issue of the Inspire that came today.

It was quite peaceful – the kids had found the T-ball set and placed it right next to the sprinkler and were playing waterball.  There were no bugs, particularly mosquitoes.  I don’t know whether that was because of the slight breeze or because I had sprayed for them last week.  I was thinking “This is what summer is supposed to be.”

Then I noticed some dark pick-up truck stop on the side of the road, just after our driveway.  A couple of people came around the side of the truck and started moving things in the bed.  I figured they just had to adjust their freight.  Then some more people appeared.  I saw the freight, and it was a cooler.  The local high school cross-country team was on a training run, and they decided to place their water break right in front of our house.

That’s when I realized that summer was officially closing.  Cross-country camp, football starting across the nation, planting mums – they all add to equal the start of fall.  All good things, but summer needs to last a little longer.

“You have established all the boundaries of the earth; You have made summer and winter.”
– Psalm 74:17

Since the football season is starting (and there was much rejoicing), I thought it would be appropriate to note some similarities between football and families with small children.

The first correlation is not specific to football, but to any college sport. A few weeks ago we checked into the local junior kindergarten/pre-kindergarten/young fives program. Our son has a birthday that is late in the year, but it is before the official cut-off date for enrollment in school. The principal of the school said not to think of having the extra year as holding back your child. She said to think of it as red-shirting your child. That makes it sound a lot better.

The second correlation has to do with the number of kids in the family. This correlation fits with fewer sports, but is still not unique to football. We were talking with someone who has four children. When he heard that we are expecting our third child, his comment was that we would have to switch from man-to-man to zone defense. Ah yes, our play-calling will have to change.

“So there was much rejoicing in that city.”
– Acts 8:8

We made sugar cookies today.  On the beach.

Ingredients:

• 4 tsp. sunscreen
• 2 cups sand
• 1 child
• 1 swimsuit

Instructions:

1. Place child in swimsuit
2. Spread sunscreen on skin of child, taking care not to put sunscreen on the swimsuit
3. Sprinkle the sand onto the child, rotating to ensure even coverage
4. Optional step: place child on towel and bake in the sunshine for a few minutes

As you may have guessed, we did not eat these cookies, so I can’t say how they taste.  But I would expect they would be a bit gritty.

“Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths {of an ephah} shall be {in} each cake.”
– Leviticus 24:5

For those of you who thought Uno was just a game – it can also be an introductory math lesson! You don’t make it into a lesson, of course. You just play Uno and ask the child about the numbers as you play.

The box says “Ages 7 And Up”, but our 2-year-old likes to play. He does not know all the numbers quite yet, but I have found that Uno is a good way to teach him the numbers. He knows a couple of them, and I figure that after a few more games he will have learned all his numbers. He already knows colors, so we’re all set on that point. We don’t play with any of the special cards, but if things keep progressing, then he will be able to read words like “draw”, “two”, “reverse”, and “skip”.

Do not be fooled by the other Uno options out there. They sell some sets with something other than the numbers as the prominent identifier. Stick with the original set. Otherwise the child will concentrate on the other thing, such as movie character, instead of the number. Eventually he will learn the number than goes along with that character, but I’d say move to those themed cards after he knows all the numbers.

“So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”
– Psalm 90:12

At a recent public event that my family attended, there were some sponsors with booths. My son grabbed a freebie bag from a sponsor. This particular sponsor happened to be a food manufacturer whose main products are sold in jars – the standard glass jars vacuum sealed with metal lids. The bag contained a few small jars of various stuff, some promotional literature, and a jar gripper helper pad. The gripper pad is just a round piece of rubber that you place on the jar lid to help you maintain a better grip on the lid when trying to open stubborn lids.

When my son was going through the contents of the bag, we didn’t know what was in it. We just heard him announcing what he got: “I got some jars!”, “I got some papers!”, and “I got a mouse pad!” We tried to explain what it really was, but he was convinced that it was a mouse pad instead of a jar gripper. He has complained that it is too small for the mouse, so he still uses the existing mouse pads instead of his new one.

“He said, ‘Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it.’ So they brought {it} to him.”
– 2 Kings 2:20