what this real mama heard today

We are off to a slow start on school today.  The children played together until around 10:00 before we opened the first book.  I personally love these types of mornings where they can enjoy one another.

I had to call Anna Grace back up to her room while they were playing because it seemed that she had a clothing crisis.  (Thank you, Jenn, for coining the phrase - it is so accurate to what happens some days to females no matter the age.  I think Anna Grace had her first crisis around the age of 3!)  She had several pants choices scattered all over her room.  I started calling her up; Caleb walked to the bottom of the stairs and came to my aid:

Caleb:  She is downstairs, Mama; she can't hear you.

me:  Will you please go tell her that I need her to come upstairs?

Caleb:  Yes ma'am. [He walks within earshot of Anna Grace] Anna Grace, the real Mama needs you upstairs in your room.

Apparently they were playing "family."  She comes up and looks at her room; gets her instructions about cleaning up the clothes and then says,

"Oh, Mama, sorry about the mess, we were playing. [I assume she is referring to her room - the clothes and toys out everywhere.]  You can't go in the bathroom downstairs.  It is our car.  So if you need to go to the bathroom you can't go in there you will have to go up here.  We needed a car so just don't go in there."

I have been obedient to the request so far but really only because I fear what all they have put in the car.  I guess after school we will spend a little time cleaning out the car!

The Things Boys Say...When They Have A Sister!

Anna Grace has a new love for Fancy Nancy the past few days.  This morning she came down dressed for school in what she considers to be Fancy Nancy exercise clothes...purple striped socks, navy exercise skirt, white shirt, pink furry jacket, light pink bracelet, hot pink heart shaped ring, hair in a pony tail with a pink and purple sparkly holder adorned with a pink check bow.  Oh and the fanciest part of all...hot pink cat-eye shaped sparkly sunglasses (thank you Mrs. Cher!).  I did make her take off the glasses to try and minimize the distractions while at school.

Her current fancy for Fancy is starting to rub off on the boys.  While at breakfast Anna Grace, Caleb and I had the following conversation:

AG:  Mama, have you heard about or seen the commercials for Sophia the First? 

me: No, I'm not sure what you are talking about.

AG: It is a show starting soon called, Sophia the First:  Once Upon a Princess.

me: Oh.  Sounds fun.

CS:  I saw that commercial on tv when I was a little girl.

me:  Really, Caleb, you were a girl?

CS:  Yes.

Then later this morning, Dean comes running up to me running on the heels of his feet...

DF:  Mama!  Look how fast I can run in high heels!

Lord, please put a hedge of protection around these little men and help this girl's influence encourage strong, godly, patient men!

~~~

On a side note, back in July when I was getting ready for this school year the memory verse chosen for this week was Hebrew 13:8.  Oh how it warmed my heart and encouraged me to hear my children saying it over and over this morning..."Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."  Praise the Lord our God does not change.  

Even in times, like Anna Grace suggested this morning, when it seems like someone falls on him.  When it seems God is being squished it is not true because he is "unsquishable." (Her unprompted political statement this morning not mine; she doesn't even know the outcome of the election.  I'm not sure she even knows who we voted for.)  I chuckled and then thought...out of the mouths of babes.  She may not know much about world affairs but my girl has been known to sit down and watch Special Report with Brett Baier and her favorite The Fox Report with Shepard Smith; which she has renamed "Around The World".

A Star Wars Education

At this exact moment Neal has all four of our children at the dinner table giving them a Star Wars education.  It consists of the names of all of the movies in chronological order and then explaining the order they were released.  After that he pressed on  to explain/introduce Roman numbers to the children (since they use Roman numbers to order the movies).

He then told them that there is now going to be three more Star Wars movies (VII, VIII, IX) and when they come out we would go see them in the theater.

Anna Grace thought it would be fun (more fun than learning about Roman Numerals on a Friday night, I'm sure) to suggest names for the movies.  So you heard it here first; the next three Star Wars movies and their names:

Star Wars VII:  Darth Vader Chops Open

Star Wars VIII:  The Big Spider

Star Wars IX:  Rooooaaaar!

(And if they get carried way and give us four more movies; I mean why stop at nine, right!)

Star Wars X:  The Jedi's Kill the Bad Guys

So Disney and George Lucas, if you need any suggestions the Hatchett children are ready to help you out with a few ideas.  But I should warn you, they have not seen the first six movies so their suggestions might be a little far fetched but probably not any more so than Jar Jar Binks!

Halloween 2012 Is In the Books

Call us what you want - we don't do Santa but we do trick-or-treat!

We continued our tradition of going with the Clark family.  Thank you, Clark family for graciously letting us come.  Caleb got in the car and passed out; Anna Grace is calling it "best night ever;" and Dean says it was "awesome!"

Introducing:

Cleopatra, Superman, Thor and the Cowboy Farmer

 Who would not want to give this crew candy?

War Eagle Anyway

Last weekend the whole Hatchett family (minus Hudson and me - we were both under the weather) made the trip down to Auburn for the Auburn/Texas A&M game.  They had a blast even though the actual football aspect of the trip was less than desirable.

Each of them had their favorite parts of the day.  Anna Grace's was the eagle; she said it almost left the stadium.   Dean's favorite part was the pre-game fly over and he said he liked all the kicking of the ball (he can thank Auburn for all of that...Auburn punts and A&M post touchdown kickoffs).  Caleb's favorite part was the half time paratrooper entrance.

Sleep Walking, Could it Be?

All of our children are good night time sleepers; they don't typically get out of bed unless it is something big.  However in the past week or so Dean has gotten up several times.  A few nights ago I woke to him standing by my head.  (Always a little freaky even if it is your own child.)  He said nothing when I spoke, just stared at Neal's blinking (charging) phone.  After a few times of questioning he finally spoke.  I asked him why he was up and almost tearfully he said he did not know.  I suggested he go back to bed and he took off.  Before I could get in there he was back in bed face down sleeping.

The whole episode has bothered me a little but I don't really know what to do about it so the next night I told him to wake up Neal if he wanted to get up.  Sounded like a good plan to me!

So last night I'm getting ready for bed around 10:30 and he starts screaming.  I go running in the room; he is screaming crying, standing towards the foot of Caleb's bed.  Thankfully Caleb was sleeping soundly through it.  I picked him up and he stopped.  I held him a minute and talked to him to make sure he was calm.  Neal came in; we asked him if he had a bad dream he shook his head no.  We asked if he wanted to lay back down and he nodded.  As I put him back in bed Neal left the room confident that all was well.  Just before I kissed his cheek I noticed that he had a strange look on his face - peaceful but staring at me, not blinking, not looking a way, eyes glassy - a little eerie.   So I decide to try and talk to him.  Again he shakes his head about a bad dream.  This time he tells me that his name is Dean then says it is Dean Freeman but can't remember the rest.  I ask him if he wants some water and he says yes.  He is coherent enough to sit up and drink without my assistance.  Thinking that now he must really be awake I ask again why he was standing "over there" pointing to where I found him.  He lays back down and looks at me with the same glassy-eyed, weird expression and says, "Because I was listening. [long pauses, while images of Poltergeist run through my head] I was going with Bob.  Larry was about to sing the silly songs."

All fears and questions exited my body.  I kissed him and walked out laughing.  All the screaming was somehow because of VeggieTales!  No night tremors or need for exorcism just a boy wandering in his room asleep longing for more Silly Songs with Larry! 

You Don't Ever Find Things in the Trash Can

Neal has spent our entire marriage telling me that things are never found in the trash can.  And for the most part I agree with him, even though on rare occasion I have found a stray toy in the trash can by the desk.

Last week it came out on the blog/Neal's Facebook that I keep a running inventory around here of things...toys, dishes, anything that I can count.  I can't help it; I am constantly counting things as I put them away.  I am sure there is some sort of drug I can take to make this quality go away or tone down but honestly I like it; it helps keep our home as it should be.

This morning, while unloading the dishwasher I counted 11 juice glasses instead of 12.  On alert I counted again...still 11.  First thing, I called Neal to ask if he for some strange reason took a glass with him to work.  Then I remembered that I heard a "glass clank" when I pulled the trash out of the can in our kitchen before taking it out on Tuesday night.  The first obvious thought is, "Someone accidentally threw away their glass while throwing away their napkin.  I will have to go get the trash bag out of the can and get the glass."  I report all of this to Neal; he said he would do it tonight but I can't wait anymore and the desire to have my glass back took over a few minutes ago.

I go out to the big can; push my sleeves up; pull out the bag and begin to dig.  I think about how gross our trash is as I rummage through.  An overwhelming sense of disgusting over comes my left arm as I dig deeper to get beyond the egg shells and sandwich scraps.  I finally get to the glass, the glass spaghetti sauce jar!  Then it hits me. I agree with Neal once again; you don't ever find things in the trash can so why am I so willing to look?  Why is it almost always my first thought, "guess it got thrown away; lets go look in the trash."?

I come inside, scrub my hands (and arm) and think "WHERE COULD IT BE?!"  Then on some whim I decide to look under the chair.  Not a dining room chair but a club chair in the living room.  Not sure why I did but there under the chair was the glass turned on its side.  If only my first instinct was not the trash and I had looked there first!

I hate it when he is right!

I Go for Two Teams

I realized today that it has been almost a month since my last post.  Neal and I went on an anniversary trip a few weeks back.  That took some planning up front and then we were gone and it has also taken some time to get back into the swing of things around here.  However with the excellent help of some friends and much family everyone had a good time while we were gone.  The running joke that Neal and I had before we left was that there was no telling where things would be when we got back.  The funny thing is the list of what I still have not been able to find...

1 salad plate 

the large container of feta cheese 

(consumed?)

one of Neal's Auburn cups

Anna Grace's hot pink hair band and a few of her ribbons

(currently blaming Hudson for this one)

However I can't complain about any of this too much because we did come home to find...

happy, healthy children still in tact

a couple of bottles of partially drunk wine in our frig

children on fire for more time with their grandparents

a playset in the back yard

When looking at the two lists I say the pros certainly out way the cons.  Therefore making our time away even more worth it.  

Since we have been home though there have been some great quotes by the children; none of which have anything to do with missing us or anything of the sort.

"Hey, Mama, when I think I have silly poop I go upstairs to the hall potty.  But when it is regular poop, like right now, I go in here."  Dean

~

"God said I can pull everything up."  Caleb
(He said this after I asked him if he needed help after coming out of the bathroom.  I chose to nod my head and roll with it;  he had done nothing wrong and who am I to argue with what God says!)

~

"I go for two teams:  Auburn and God.  God has the really good team."  Anna Grace  

Confessions from sassy, half-hearted hearts

All of this happened a few weeks ago but things have been going too fast around here for me to get this posted.  And I promise this all took place in one lunch I shared with the children.

Rewind:  One of my sweet grandmothers has cancer...again.  This time being in her 90s she has declared that she does not want any sort of aggressive treatment.  I completely understand that and am thankful that she is prepared to step into eternity with her faith secure in Jesus.  This however has meant that our family start praying for God's mercy in her life during all of this.  The children knew she had been in the hospital with some other complications.  Neal and I felt that we needed to have an honest conversation with them about her health.  The first conversation was fast one evening at dinner with not much said other than she was really sick, she might die before Christmas and we needed to pray for her.

Well in typical fashion that lead to thinking which lead to questions...

Now here we are:  There were some concerns expressed by the children about her dying during lunch.  I told the children that she was going to die; that we all are at some point but we needed to be thankful that she would go to heaven.  Instant relief hit their faces but Anna Grace asked how I knew for sure.  I told them that Jesus lived in her heart and he was in charge of her life....la, la, la...Caleb asked some relevant  yet uneventful question; I answered it.  Anna Grace tried to interrupt I pressed on because I wanted to share the gospel with my children again.  Dean continued to enjoy his meal.  Anna Grace stopped me and said she already did that then finished the gospel in her own words.  I agreed; all was well.  At some point during the meal it was said, "You have to ask Jesus to come into your heart before you can go to heaven when you die."   Dean, who had said nothing up to this point continued to stare down at his plate and eat as if he was a homeless child, says at the first silent moment: "Oh!  Jesus come into my heart.  Amen.  Did that!"  And he took another bite never looking up.  I almost fell out of my seat!  I quickly told him I did not think it worked quite like that you had to really mean it in your heart.

For some crazy reason, I foolishly thought going back to Anna Grace and whatever she wanted to talk about when she was trying to interrupt me had to be something more normal and maybe it was for a family like ours.  "Mama, there is something I've got to ask you about it.  I've been wondering, if Jesus lives inside my heart then what's going on with my attitude?!?"  (I wish I could convey the amount of sassy attitude and frustration in her voice as well as her body language as she spoke.)    I could continue our lunch discussion with poise no more; I erupted in laughter.  Somewhere between our once somber and serious conversation turning into an at best half-hearted sinner's prayer followed by an enormously sassy attitude confession, laughter bubbled from my soul.  Anna Grace even laughed when she realized how crazy she sounded.  After a few minutes she told me that she did not know that she was supposed to be praying daily for the Holy Spirit to help her use self-control.  She was hoping for full sanctification this side of heaven.

Through it all I could not help but think think that God had to be laughing too and sadly their actions funny and somehow appropriate for their age are but a glimpse of our sinful adult hearts wanting only short-cuts, easy roads and a checklist.

Four Amazing Imaginations

I went to the grocery store today.  The children on the other hand went on a boat ride (the buggy) through a swamp (the floor was brownish) with killer rhinoceroses all around (the other buggies) and one roaming giant green crocodile (the large green dust mop that was moving about the store) that was looking for children to eat of course.

Out of our trip I got groceries...they experienced an adventure.