Saturday Smiles—Part 1

Today, I'm going to give you some excerpts from a journal Mum kept when I was young (3 years old).  I'll be posting a continuance of this (or another thing I have in mind! :D) for another three weeks or so--one every week. Maybe I should call this my memories, part one. That's what it feels like. Enjoy! 

NOVEMBER 16, 2001
You can be such a sweet girl! I am thankful God has given you to us. You love to help me, but your impulsiveness gets you into trouble frequently, too. Just this morning, you wanted to stay inside while I hung laundry, because you were cold. Against my better judgement I let you. You squeezed a toothpaste tube into the shampoo bottle and a cup.

Just now you came in from a few minutes running around the house, announcing that you'd found “fourteen-fifty eggs.” Now you're helping by putting papers in the bedroom.


NOVEMBER 20, 2001
I wanted to tell you about your first game of kickball! We had a singing here on the 11th of this month, and after dinner Daddy went out to play with the little children. He organized a game of kickball, and helped you play. When you were up to kick, you always bunted the ball, then had to be told where to run. When your team was in the outfield, you would take first base—in a horizontal position! {Probably where I learned to love playing the game. I remember the bases being made out of shingles—that had fallen off the roof of the old house on our place! (no—we didn't live in there. After we left the farm, the new owners knocked it down—it needed it! The foundation was crumbling, and the whole thing was VERY old. Made a fun place to play, though. Sweet memories...)}


NOVEMBER 26, 2001
…You “read” me this story this morning:

“God told Noah to go to a big city, Nazareth, but he was afraid. He loves all his money and all his barn. God told him to go to Nazareth but he didn't want to. They sang “ba – ba – be(?)” but God said not to. He's all covered up with cow uckly and you can't see Noah any more. But now he came back to life!” There was a little more to the story that I didn't get written, and twice you stopped to ask me questions in the style of the “Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes” {by Kenneth N. Taylor, we don't like the new BPLE because of the pictures, but the old one is a great book! We love the pictures!}


DECEMBER 10, 2001
Saturday morning we got around later than usual, since Daddy didn't have to go to work. (You usually get up before 7:00.) Sometime soon after 7:00 that morning, when I was praying in the bedroom, I heard you get up to use the bathroom, then go back to bed. Later, after you got up, you told me you'd been laying in bed, “thinking about things.”

I asked what you'd been thinking about. “Oh, Norman and Elmer, bananas, Shelley's, Daddy and Mommy and Simon and Seth.” Norman and Elmer are the people Daddy works with, and Shelley's is a clothing store.


DECEMBER 20, 2001
…This was part of your lunch-time prayer a few days ago: “Thank you for Elmer and Norman. I pray keep them in their life.”

Last evening, you were using your toy phone. You came and told me, “Uncle Pete {my Mum's brother} said, 'A skunk ate all the cats!' He's going to bring more cats home.”

“Oh, you brought a doggie! Mom, Uncle Pete said he brought a doggie home. That is nice!”


JANUARY 2, 2002
One day, you were asking about spring, summer, and if we'd find more caterpillars next summer. I told you the butterfly lays an egg, and the caterpillar turns into a butterfly. You told me this story: “The caterpillar lays an egg and gives it to God, then lays another egg and it turns into a caterpillar. The butterfly-killer lays an egg and it turns into a butterfly-killer and the caterpillar turns into a butterfly.


JANUARY 29, 2002
Dear Esther,
You like to read books. You like to write. You like to cut too many things.

You've been saying some very interesting things again lately. I think it was last Friday you asked, “Will we have toys up in heaven?”

You took a cookie [biscuit] downstairs to Seth, and said, “That's because I love you, because you like to eat it. Just because I love you.”

Yesterday morning, you and Seth were having worship in the kitchen while I washed dishes. You put your hands on Seth's head, “I pray for Sethy not to get a headache. In Jesus' name, Amen.” Then, you said, “I want you to pray for me.” He put his hands on your head and mumbled. {At that time, Seth wasn't talking yet, so mumbling was the best he could do!}

Last evening, you were going around singing, “God is good, God is bad, God is good...” Suddenly, you asked, “Mom, is God bad?” I told you no, God is all good. You went on with your song: “God is good, God is good...And we thank Him for our food.”

PICTURES OF ME AROUND THIS TIME:

One of the earlier family pictures--notice how
young Dad looks? He was 28, Mum was 25,
and  I was, well...0 years, 6 months.

Well, I'd better go. :)