That make me kind of warm inside….

‘We should just buy it at LLBean, Mom’
and
‘You should blog that’

Caleb is very motivated right now to earn money, find money, make money. He has found something in the Lego catalog that has his attention.

In the past, we have paid Caleb for out of the ordinary jobs, but that usually is when we have outdoor work to be done – like moving bricks. With the colder weather, it is harder to get creative with the jobs.

I’m a big proponent of his doing work just because he’s part of the team. And he get’s a small allowance because he’s part of the team ($3 every paycheck – $1 for God, $1 for savings, $1 to spend).

Last night, Caleb asked if he could do the laundry as an above and beyond job. I thought that sounded like a good thing. I certainly would consider his doing the family laundry as above and beyond. So I agreed. Honestly, I didn’t think he would see the project through. After all, I am intimately acquainted with the drudgery of the laundry chore.

I am pleased and proud to report that Caleb completed four full loads of laundry today: from sorting, washing, pouring detergent, turning on machine, transferring to dryer, turning on dryer, emptying dryer, folding, and putting in piles to go to our rooms. At 25 cents a load, from start to finish, Caleb is the pleased recipient of the dollar. And for the dollar I feel like I had a day’s vacation, and a more grown up and appreciative son then I had when the day started.

Here is a photo of Marc and me that was taken at the Inland Christmas Party this past weekend. I think it came out pretty good.

This week has been largely spent getting the house ready for Christmas. Living room furniture moved around, decorations out, Christmas tree bought last night. Shopping online almost finished. Now thinking about the task of Christmas cards, making cookies, maybe some more ornaments.

One glitch in our Christmas preparation… Baby Jesus has gone missing. That’s right. Missing.

A couple years ago, some good friends gave us the Playmobil Nativity Playset. It was something I had been wanting to buy for years, and never got around to it at the same time that I had money for it. So it is a very treasured and dear part of our Christmas tradition.

This year, Anna got to set the pieces in the cardboard stable on the end table at a convenient height for little fingers to play with.

“Mommy” I heard. “Baby Jesus isn’t here.”

Hmmm. Okay. I remember a few pieces didn’t make it into the box last year and I put them safely somewhere.

I look in our storage room. Found a sheep. No baby Jesus. Thinking quickly about how to ease Anna’s mind.

“Anna, I found a sheep. And while I was looking for the sheep I realized why we can’t find Jesus.”

“Why Mommy?”

“He’s not born yet. He’ll be here in time for his birthday. We just have to get everything ready for him.” (BTW, I’m sure this is bad theology, but she can sort it out when she goes to seminary.)

She didn’t really buy my explanation, but she’s okay with playing my game. And we are enjoying all sorts of cool questions coming from our 4 yo’s mouth. “Daddy, when is Jesus coming back?” “Mommy, when is Jesus going to show up?” If you didn’t have the context, you would think either ‘how cute’ or ‘what kind of end-times freaks are her parents?’

And in the meantime, I think I’m going to have to do all out cleaning of our storage space looking for the missing Baby Jesus.