O be careful little eyes what you see. . . the voices on the CD rang out cheerily.

My three-year-old Carissa squealed, “I love this song!”

O be careful little eyes what you see. . .

“Why ‘be careful little eyes what you see’?” my six-year-old asked.

For the Father up above is looking down in love, so be careful little eyes what you see.

In an instant emotions welled up in my heart as I realized the innocence reflected in my daughter’s question:”Why ‘be careful little eyes what you see’?” How very quickly that innocence will be forever taken away!

But for the first time, I really heard this song. I didn’t have much use for it as a child. It seemed behavioristic: “Be good, kids. Don’t look at bad stuff. Don’t listen to bad stuff. Don’t go bad places. Don’t say bad things. . . God loves you!”
But now I’m the parent. I have seen bad stuff. I have heard bad stuff. I understand why it is so important to be careful where you go and what you say.

Now with a heart full of love, I’m watching these children who mean more to me than life itself and I’m imploring them. . . Be careful!

The last verse really gets to me now.

O be careful little hearts who you trust. . .

I can hardly listen to that verse without tears.

Our hearts are so deceptive. How often our hearts trust in the wrong people–or the wrong things! How I wish I could spare my children the pain of trusting in anything other than God!

And I realize it is so with our Heavenly Father.

Be careful, He whispers to our hearts. For the Father up above is looking down in love. . .O be careful little heart who you trust.

Yes, I assured her, Channels Only would be quite biblical.

Micah went to sleep over at Grandmom’s for the first time tonight. We were packing a few things for the overnight when he told me he needed to bring ALL his stuffed animals.  “Maybe you can bring one stuffed animal and one toy,” I countered.
“Well, this sword and shield count as one thing, because you play with them together,” he insisted. “And I’ll bring Ironman. . .” That wasn’t a stuffed animal, but it was two items, so–okay.
We packed his favorite blanket. . . “And. . . can I bring Wags?” he asked, holding up his favorite Webkinz puppy hopefully.
“Okay, bring Wags.”
Once the littles went down for their naps, Mara, Micah and I had our read-aloud time, and then Micah stood at the window for about an hour waiting for Grandmom. When finally she arrived, he grabbed his backpack and raced out the door. No good-by kisses. No hugs. Just running down the sidewalk toward Grandmom, calling, “C’mon, Grandmom! Let’s go!”
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Tonight at bedtime I rocked only David. We read one of his favorite board books: the lift-a-flap “Where Is Baby’s Mommy?” book. When I say “we” read it, I mean I read the question page: “Is Mommy behind the chair?” and David would lift the flap on the answer page and say: “No-oo! BALL is ‘hind chair!” It is so cute to hear him and he remembers all of the pages perfectly, until the last one, “Yes! Mommy is under the blanket!” and David just covers up that page and says, “No–no. Mommy not under binkit. . . Read again!”
I think this is his ploy to get me to read the book and “look for Mommy” again! I love listening to him “read” so I took him downstairs and he “read” it again to Daniel. After that we went back to the rocking chair, and he asked again, “Where Mic?”
Usually we read two books before bedtime: one for David, one for Micah.
I told him Mic is at Grandmom’s tonight, and he is having fun there. He will sleep at her house and come back tomorrow! David thought a minute and then asked, “Read Mic book?”
I love my boys!!!

Micah’s math worksheet says, “Write the numbers 1 -100.”

Of course, Micah never does anything the “normal” way. See the arrow he drew on the left side of the page? Instead of writing the numbers across, he wrote the numbers “down” in a row: 1, 11, 21, 31, 41, 51. . . I was afraid he’d lose track but he didn’t.

I said, “Can’t you just count from 1-100 the usual way?”

He contemplated my question for a minute and then said, “No, I can’t,” and went back to writing.

My crazy child! Of course, he can!

Oh! and because his “cheese” smile is so ridiculous, he’s started a new smile. It’s this one, which he calls “My ‘I-love-Davey’ smile.” He simply thinks about how he loves his little brother David and smiles. <3

Micah helped me make Martha Stewart’s Potato, Zucchini, Tomato Gratin tonight.

I liked it! Daniel said, “It still tastes like potatoes, zucchini and tomatoes. . .”

True. I’m not sure what he was expecting.

Micah helped me “layer,” so we worked on observing patterns and deciding what comes next: “Potato, potato, zucchini, tomato. Potato, potato, zucchini, tomato.”

Life learning in the kitchen!