May 23 – “Lunchtime clash”

It was great fun to hang out with Zak and Caleb, even in the “routine” situations of life.  One time I was watching a video of some people swing dancing.  Caleb joined me and watched over my shoulder.  I mentioned to him that his Mom and Dad used to dance like that all the time when they were in college.  In fact, they even did a swing dance on stage in front of a lot of people.  He looked long and hard at his Mom as she moved about the house, feeding Luke here and picking up some clutter there.  I guess he saw some potential there, because he finally convinced her to dance with him.  Now that was a video I wish we had taken.  Especially when she tried to do that twirl thing under his arm.  Not an easy thing to do when your partner is only three feet tall. 

I know that was a really sweet moment.  There were “others” as well.  One of my favorites came during lunch.  It wasn’t one of those everybody-sit-down-at-the-same-time affairs.  Josh was already at work and for some reason Christi wasn’t at the table.  She was probably off being the consummate hostess or the ever-caring Mom.  I don’t remember whose idea it was.  But come on.  Put a seven-year-old and a five-year-old together at a table, add to that the fact that they are brothers, and sprinkle in a dab of DadDad, and you can never tell what madness may erupt.  This time it was … Grape Fight.  They each had plenty of ammo.  Mom wasn’t around.  They looked nervously at Nani, but I don’t think she realized what they were up to.  Then their looks turned to DadDad.  Now, I’m not saying I encouraged anything.  I never said a word, in fact.  And I couldn’t see my own face, but sources say there must have been a twinkle in my eye that somehow – without my knowledge or ability to resist – cried out, “Do it.”  And “do it” they did.  Zak got in the first lick in typical big brother fashion.  He only threw one grape in the whole fight, but he made it count.  Bounced it right off of Caleb’s head.  Then it rolled back across the table to him and he grabbed it up and ate it, completely destroying all evidence of his participation.  And Caleb retaliated in typical little brother fashion.  He let fly with six or seven rapid-fire shots in a row, all of which hit their target.  It all happened so quickly I had no time to accumulate any weapons of my own.  Er, I mean, I had no time to even encourage them to stop this madness.  Caleb already had more grapes loaded and ready to fly when the unthinkable happened.  Mom walked in.  To her vast credit, Christi didn’t automatically assume that all the blame lay on Caleb.  In fact her first instinct was to glance over at me, but I can’t imagine why.  She stayed calm and collected, quietly insisted that the barrage stop, and patiently waited until the cleanup was well under way.

Psalms 24:8 says, “Who is this King of glory?  The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.”

 
Father, thank you for fighting the toughest battles for us and the minor skirmishes with us.  Amen.