We put the boys to bed. After just a bit I heard them arguing loudly. I stood outside their door to eavesdrop. They were arguing about who should call for us. They know they're not supposed to keep calling or come out or they will get their special thing (moose or blue blanket)taken away. Eli was not being a very nice big brother and was calling his little brother a chicken and telling him to wrestle him.
Finally Evan was fed up and said, "House dog!" (A put-down they picked up from Lady and the Tramp.)
Eli was not easily outdone: "Fart ball house dog onery coconut poop pee poo poo!"
Well that ticked Evan off: "Don't call me poop!"
Eli didn't want his skills to be underestimated: "I didn't call you just poop!"
True...
By the way, soon after that I intervened. I admit that my admonishment came out along with some laughter. But they did get quiet and go to sleep after that. So all is well on the homefront tonight.
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Lao-tzu
July 1, 2008
This journey so far has taken me one thousand and four miles from my hometown, but I’m having trouble putting my finger on the single step that began it all. Was it Monday afternoon at the border when they gave me my official document allowing me to pass? Was it Saturday morning when we started the car and drove out of Goshen in our funny little caravan? Was it in February when we came up to Red Lake for a job interview at the hospital? Was it two Christmases ago being up here with Kendall’s family and all of us rating our desire to live up here? (I can’t say my number on a scale of 1 – 100 was high, but it was the highest of all the in-laws, so I guess I’m the chosen one.) Was it three years ago almost to the day that Kendall first said, “What if we’d move up here?” (I tried to ignore that one for several months, thinking surely it would go away.) Or was it June 10, 2000 when I married Kendall and made some solemn promises before God and all these witnesses? Was it a night before Kendall and I were married when we talked about moving to Red Lake? (It was a far off and romantic possibility at that time.) Or was it living in and visiting different cultures at different times in my life? Could the first step have been when my parents brought me as a baby to this same area for a year of voluntary service? (Kendall wasn’t born yet, but I surely saw his parents as they chatted with mine from time to time.) What about when my dad lived on a nearby reserve for two years before he was married? Or when my mom visited this town with her family as a teenager? Or maybe it had something to do with choices my grandparents made? Or other ancestors farther back?
At any rate, moving into this house where I slept for a few weeks as a baby and where my dad stayed as a teenager, has made me very aware of roots. And how they affect our lives and choices and passions.
I suspect there is no single step that began our move a thousand miles away from Indiana. It seems, rather, to be a coming together of so many different factors. (Not the least of which is marrying a man who has taken this land as a very part of his being. And for all the ways I can tease him and get annoyed at some of his woodsman ways, I really do mean that in a reverent and respectful way.)
So here we are, a thousand miles from nowhere. (Oops…I meant a thousand miles from Goshen.) I know that we safely made the journey here, but mostly our journey is just beginning. And mostly I’m excited.
This journey so far has taken me one thousand and four miles from my hometown, but I’m having trouble putting my finger on the single step that began it all. Was it Monday afternoon at the border when they gave me my official document allowing me to pass? Was it Saturday morning when we started the car and drove out of Goshen in our funny little caravan? Was it in February when we came up to Red Lake for a job interview at the hospital? Was it two Christmases ago being up here with Kendall’s family and all of us rating our desire to live up here? (I can’t say my number on a scale of 1 – 100 was high, but it was the highest of all the in-laws, so I guess I’m the chosen one.) Was it three years ago almost to the day that Kendall first said, “What if we’d move up here?” (I tried to ignore that one for several months, thinking surely it would go away.) Or was it June 10, 2000 when I married Kendall and made some solemn promises before God and all these witnesses? Was it a night before Kendall and I were married when we talked about moving to Red Lake? (It was a far off and romantic possibility at that time.) Or was it living in and visiting different cultures at different times in my life? Could the first step have been when my parents brought me as a baby to this same area for a year of voluntary service? (Kendall wasn’t born yet, but I surely saw his parents as they chatted with mine from time to time.) What about when my dad lived on a nearby reserve for two years before he was married? Or when my mom visited this town with her family as a teenager? Or maybe it had something to do with choices my grandparents made? Or other ancestors farther back?
At any rate, moving into this house where I slept for a few weeks as a baby and where my dad stayed as a teenager, has made me very aware of roots. And how they affect our lives and choices and passions.
I suspect there is no single step that began our move a thousand miles away from Indiana. It seems, rather, to be a coming together of so many different factors. (Not the least of which is marrying a man who has taken this land as a very part of his being. And for all the ways I can tease him and get annoyed at some of his woodsman ways, I really do mean that in a reverent and respectful way.)
So here we are, a thousand miles from nowhere. (Oops…I meant a thousand miles from Goshen.) I know that we safely made the journey here, but mostly our journey is just beginning. And mostly I’m excited.
Blog Archive
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2008
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October
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- Happy Halloween!
- Trick or Treat
- Here are some pictures of some of the fun details ...
- The Joy of Diarrhea
- Proud and Muddy
- First Snow!
- Pirates and Hunters
- A Couple Cute Reports
- “Street People” (continued)
- “Street People”
- Fall!
- Eli's Thoughts
- So Proud
- Overheard
- Happy Thanksgiving
- Happy Hunting Cake
- Clarification
- Inuksuk: Our Ebenezer
- Home Again
- Spots on the Wall, by Who Flung Dung
- Kendall’s Hometown
- Girl Interrupted
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4 comments:
I love Eli's combination put-down. If one insult is good, a whole line must be great. Wish I could have been there to eavesdrop as well. And is coconut an insult by itself, or does it have to be an ornery coconut? I just want to use it correctly next time I'm mad at Nathalie.
Rod
Man I have to remember not read this in public places. I'm guessing people watching here in the library can't tell if I'm sad or happy as I am laughing so hard I'm crying... tell the boys hi for me!
What a intelligent vocabulary you are teaching those lit'le ur'chins!! Makes me lonesome!! Hey by the way... when can we have Christmas with the Miller fam?
They are hilarious!
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