Haydn, my 6-year old, and #4171 in the pic, ran his first race today. He ran a 10:50 mile. I had the joy of running with him. He was so excited. He came to me last night, shortly after 11PM and said he was ready to go. He woke up, thought is was morning, and was ready to run his race.

Lucia also ran her first 5K today. She cut two minutes off her time. She was fantastic. Unfortunately, we had some camera problems and couldn’t get a pic of her.

It was a perfect morning with a slight mist and in the sixties.

Just never know what you’re gonna get when you go to the mailbox…

Today was such a good day. It was our first day serving in Children’s Ministry. We work in the K-5 class, one of 12 classes on our upstairs hall. Tristen and Haydn get to serve with us. They go to Children’s Ministry the second hour, so our Sunday routine looks like this:

• We serve as a family the first hour in Kingdom Kids
• Lucia and I go to the second hour worship, while the kids go to their respective Journey Children’s Ministry Class
• We sit in the cafe the third hour and drink coffee and eat Pop Tarts

It is a complete day from 8:30 to 12:30. We get to serve, worship and fellowship. And praise God for Dunkin Donuts who supplies all the free coffee we can drink. A definite plus.

Haydn was so excited today because we were teaching the class that he attends the second hour. He attends Mr. Ed’s class. Mr. Ed is an icon, so I have been told. The kids that serve with him were in his class when they were K-fivers. And some of the parents who bring their K5 kids to Journey were also Mr. Ed’s students 30+ years ago. He is an energetic, scooter driving, God-lover. He may be unique in that he has been riding a scooter since he was 13.

Something transformative has happened to Haydn since he has been in Mr. Ed’s class. It has been very good for him.

I think he told me about 7 to 10 times today, “Mr. Ed does it [this way or that way]. I got complete instructions from Haydn on how to run the first hour class. It was very cute as well as encouraging. Male leadership and influence has always been a big deal for us and I’m glad my son is so eager to be at the meeting and interact with the older generation.

After the meeting we went shopping at several places, including Talbots & Lowes. While Lucia tried on some clothes me and the kids found stuff to do. See pic above and below!

We gave mom the day off today since it was her birthday yesterday. After eight-years of being a mom, one day off seemed generous. So she took leave early this morning and dad was in charge of the kids. As you can imagine, that can make for an exciting day.

However, before mom left, she was still a mom and she set me up with coupons from McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Jack in the Box and Chick-fil-A.

The kids played with the neighbor children for a bit and then off to pick up all our free food. On the way to one of the stops, Tristen asked Haydn about sharing. It went like this:

Tristen: Hey buddy, you gonna share some of that?

Haydn: Sure, let me lick my fingers off first.

Tristen: Oh great!

Haydn has always been a thoughtful kid.

Next up, the pool. Being homeschoolers has it advantages. All the other kids were in school and the pool was ours for the afternoon. Ansa took advantage of the situation and preferred to swim in the nude. It was pretty cool. It’s an urbanites version of being a country girl.

From there, we went to Bloom for a cartoon video and their free cookies. The kiddos were worn out, but pretty much sin free. My personal highlight was Tristen’s interpretation of the church meeting yesterday. She said,

Hey da-da, yesterday was sooo much fun at the church meeting. During our class we had our teaching time and then went to see the spaceship (not sure what that is) and from there we went into the AWANA room and had worship time and then our time was over. It was so much fun, that I forgot that we were at the church meeting.

This was super-encouraging to me. I want my children to fall in love with God’s people, particularly at God’s meeting place. This was one of those rare moments in her life where she emoted in such a way. God is so kind.

It was a very good day. They were worn out. Daddy too.

Mommy had her nails done, got a hair cut and bought some new clothes for her b’day!! Girlfriend is looking good!!

Haydn, my 5-year old, asked me the other night if he could sleep with his gun and bullets. Praise God!! I gave him the big thumbs up and an enthusiastic YES.

Every man needs to sleep with his gun and bullets. It does a daddy’s heart good to know he wants to do that. I checked in on him a few hours later and there he lay in his “footy pajamas” and gun and bullets.

Tristen was so excited tonight about Ariel’s bath. Lucia put her (not Tristen) in the washing machine and gave her a good going over. Tristen announced tonight that she was so clean, no maple syrup and other accumulated things that Ariel had acquired over the past year.

Ariel was not quite whiter than snow, but good enough for Tristen.

Haydn announced Thursday night that he threw a mud ball at himself. This was his answer as to why he as so dirty. They were playing in the mud while Lucia and I were running our Thursday night exercise group.

Haydn showed no embarrassment about his blunder. In fact, it seemed quite normal to him. He was just letting us know. I hope I can grow in such a way where I can come to my Father and let him know when I have “hit myself with a mud ball.” I still am tempted to hide my immaturity.

God used my son in that moment to let me know that it is okay to let him know about my immaturity.

Ansa learned how to swing herself today. She has been trying for months to get the “push and pull” thing right on the swing, with no help. She got’er done tonight. The next hour was spent on the swing with a grin that was clear across her face.

My little girl is no longer a little girl in some ways.

Today we were up early and out to the “coffee track” with our friends running. By 9AM we were off to Home Depot for their monthly kid’s workshop. This month it was a miniature cork and white erase board.

Then off to Academy Sports for their Grand Opening. We got free hats and T-shirts and hot dogs. That was fun.

By noon we were whooped. We came home, put the kids down and were back up for our next door neighbors 6th birthday party at 2PM. That was fun. Haydn said, “That was a great party.”

We then watched This Old House on TV, our kid’s favorite and then to the backyard for a fire and a couple of our own version of Wipe Out the TV Show games. Haydn picked up a man-scar as he was getting wiped out. He cried and then jumped back in the fray.

We finished the day with a fireworks show in the cul-de-sac. Our neighbor finished his son’s party with fireworks. That was pretty cool. We took the remnants and all the paper leftovers and threw them in the fire to make sure all were exploded.

And, as we surmised, there were remnants. That made for an exciting post firework event.

Off to bed. A very good day in God’s world.

Today was national cow day or something like that at Chick-fil-A. The kids were up early and ready to go to breakfast with their friend, Samantha. Anybody who wears a cow outfit of their own making got a free meal.

Lucia was up at midnight last night finishing up their costumes. Chick-fil-A was proactive enough to put paw prints, spots, tails, noses and ears on their website. Lucia printed them off and taped them to their T-shirts.

The kids had a major memory.

They had breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had a break in counseling long enough to join them for dinner at the local Chick on Pelham Road.

Lucia said she had her chicken quota for the day. Her cals were shot, but she will go running in the AM.