Sunday Morning Walks with Dad

As much as we all know they should be, and would very much like them to be, Sundays, generally speaking, are not a day of total peace and calm reflection. Don’t get me wrong. Sundays are one of my very favorite days of the week. I love after church when Mike and the kids and I are all in the kitchen pulling out snacks and lunch items and happily joking and chatting, I love mellow evenings going for walks, I love the occasional dinners with family. But, Sunday mornings in particular are usually fairly hectic. Last minute lesson preparations, rounding up diaper bags and shoes, getting everyone ready and hair done for three small girls, etc. Whew.

That is why I love so much that Mike often takes the kids for a Sunday morning walk while I get myself all . . . well, I don’t know . . . in calm Sunday mode maybe? I usually get ready early then work on kids. Inevitably by that point, the house is a mess and I still have something or other to do on a lesson, etc., but it is just then when Mike usually swoops in and rounds all the kids up and out they head for a nice little stroll. I’m left in peace and quiet to finish what I need to finish, tidy up a bit, and maybe even relax.

It doesn’t always happen. We’ve had times in our marriage when Mike has had to be gone to meetings long before I even wake up, and times even now when Mike is out of town, or has a lesson to prepare himself; and before too long it will be too cold and church will start too early for such a luxury as a morning walk. Still, I have quite appreciated Mike doing this occasionally. This morning as they headed out I stopped them to snap a few photos. Mostly I just thought it was funny seeing my girls all done up for church with very non church shoes on to head out for walking. And I thought it was cute that they all had on little Converse this morning.

(Note in this picture that Abe had clearly not yet gotten ready for church. He loves those cut off shorts. More than once I’ve had to put the kabosh on him wearing them to school).

Also, when they aren’t fighting, I love love Abe and Daisy interacting together. They think things are so funny and laugh away at their great ideas. I heard them laughing in the kitchen the other day. Turns out they were making pirate treasure maps. Here was Daisy’s:

Oh how they laughed about “evil island” and “extra evil island” and if you don’t think they thought “big chicken” was a hilariously terrifying thing to add, well, let me tell you. Funny.

Yesterday I heard them chatting again.

Daisy: “Abe, would you rather be a spoon, a fork, or a baby bottle?”
Abe: “Umm. A fork.”
Daisy: “Wrong answer. If you would have said ‘baby bottle’ I would have given you a dollar.”
Abe: “No you wouldn’t have. If I would have said ‘baby bottle’ you would have just changed the right answer to something else.”
Daisy: “Abe, no I wouldn’t, but anyway, would you rather be a division problem, a multiplication problem, a subtraction problem, or an addition problem?”
Abe: “A multiplication problem.”

I don’t recall what was said after that. It went on in the same manner, but it just makes me laugh listening to the things they come up with. Who on earth wonders what kind of math problem you’d choose to be? And how was Abe so confident in his answer? I’d really have to consider . . . in fact, I think that should probably be a question on some sort of personality test. I’m sure there is plenty to analyze from it. And, you know, probably out of the fork vs. spoon and baby bottle question as well.