More Tales from Edisto
These are too good not to share!
On Her Last Leg
First, I should tell you that Riley likes to play this annoying “nose-eating” game with Mom in which she puts her lips on the bridge of Mom’s nose and pretends to “eat” it. This is one of those only-a-Grandma-would-play-it games. I can tell you with 100% certainty that I will not be playing it.:) It is so annoying that there will be no lips on the bridge of my nose even when I am rested, much less when I am tired.
While Mom was sitting on the porch with the kids one recent afternoon, Riley indicated that she wanted to play the “nose” game. Mom said, “No. Riley, I am just too tired to play that this afternoon. I’m on my last leg.”
Now, if Mom was unwilling to play, I can tell you that she was way past tired. She was EXHAUSTED, truly “on her last leg,” as she put it.
The funny thing is that just as these words slipped from her lips, Mom happened to look over at Zoe, who was sitting on her other side. Zoe was staring down at Mom’s legs with a very puzzled expression. I can just imagine what she was thinking: Well, it still looks like she has two legs. What does she mean by “on my last leg????”
Doorkeeper
When God had the Israelites build the tabernacle, He designated a certain group of Levites to guard the entrances and also to move the holy things whenever the camp relocated. The Korahites liked being special but thought they weren’t special enough because they didn’t get to be the priests, so they rebelled. God responded by opening up the earth beneath Korah and his two cohorts, and they and their immediate families died in one ugly catastrophic event. After that, the surviving descendants of Korah penned a psalm that reads, “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked (Psalm 84:10).” Well, I should say so. Suddenly, they understood that they should feel gratitude for the job they’d been given.
In our family, Adam is the self-appointed doorkeeper, especially of the oven and microwave. He needs no significant lesson to understand the importance of his position, nor does he want any other job. It brings him sheer delight to yank open those doors every time a timer beeps, and you dare not stand in front of the microwave for more than half a second and leave that door hanging open. Our doorkeeper will take off your head. Korah would’ve done well to be as zealous.
On Saturday, Mom had all three kids in their rooms resting for an hour. She was making communion bread for the worship service on Sunday morning, and she’d walked outside for just a few minutes. From outside, she heard the timer on the oven beeping, so she sprinted in doors to get the bread out before it got too brown. When she walked in the kitchen, there was no sign of anyone, but the oven door was wide open (bread still inside…he’s just the doorkeeper, thankfully. He might forget to use a hot mat.:)).
Adam is so serious about following the stay in your room until rest time is over rule that he struggles with leaving the room momentarily even if he needs to go to the bathroom. So, we now know just how seriously Adam takes his doorkeeping. He’d heard the oven, left his room and his rest time to open that oven door, and disappeared just as quickly back into his bedroom.
Becisions
While the kids have been with Mom and Dad, they’ve had the joy of running on the beach every afternoon. On the first day, they all got wet (Who can resist the call of the waves?), but the girls quickly decided that the water was just too cold (Wow…Grandma and Papa were right!) and they have since been more careful to stay dry, preferring to spend their time racing each other and playing Frisbee. Adam could care less about the cold, however, and he continues to plunge in, day after day, clothes and all.
On a recent visit, Zoe walked up to where my dad was sitting and declared seriously, “Papa, I’m not going to play with Adam because I don’t want to get wet.”
Dad probably raised an eyebrow, thinking that before they left Zoe would probably manage to get wet some other way. He engaged in a brief interrogation. “So, let me understand this. You made a decision not to play with Adam so that you won’t get wet.”
Zoe paused a moment, considering. “Yes.”
“Papa, what’s a becision?”
