Oh, That Girl!

That girl of ours keeps us amused, which is useful when schools are closed four days in a row because we received one to two inches of powdery snow on the 2nd day of cancelled school followed by several 50 degree days.  The public school's school cancellations were so conservative that by day four, our kids' private school changed their policy such that they will make their own school closing determinations and go to the extra effort of disseminating these closings via web, television, radio, and text announcements.

I woke up on day four of the cancellations to a hand written invitation on my nightstand.

Identifying info has been blurred out to protect the innocent.

Yes, I know she said there were five events and only listed four, but there were indeed five, but only four were judged with prizes.  Her invitation was so entertaining that close friends drove from another town to attend.

While preparing for her art show, my daughter and I had the following conversation:

9-year-old: I'm going to look up big words in the dictionary to use in the drama tonight.

Me: Why do you think the drama needs big words?

9-year-old: Because big words impress people.

Me: But our goal in life should never be to impress others, but rather, to honor God.

9-year-old: So does that mean I no longer need to waste my time cleaning my room before company arrives?

How does this right-brained child who thrives in chaos and declares to have no common sense or any appreciation for logic or order out smart me so often?  I did try to explain that a clean room honors God, the great designer and creator who is also a God of order, whether we have company or not.

The art show began with the Lego building event.  She and her brother each built a Lego man with an appropriate environment.  Then each kid wrote out a story explaining his or her Lego man and his life story which included many adventures.  While our daughter's story was most elaborate and lengthy and alluded to key historical events, she lost points for not placing those events in proper chronological order.  Her brother's story was simpler without so much drama, but his Lego display was most impressive, and the judges gave him bonus points for the enormous and very detailed dragon that served as his Lego man's bodyguard.

Our daughter won the art contest and Susan, who went with her favorite numbers instead of mathematical equations as I had used, won the "How many Legos are in the jar?" guessing game.

The drama event was a contest between my husband and me and the kiddo duo.  Since my daughter has been studying Shakespearean plays, my husband and I performed our own amusing rendition of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet which had the kids rolling on the floor in laughter.  Our kids acted out an inspiring little play they wrote themselves about conquering fear through the power of God's word. The skit included lots of dead time during a costume change in which music or a speech would have been appropriate, but with a theme based on Philippians 4:13 which concluded with our daughter flexing her muscles while dressed as Superman and announcing that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength, how could the kids not win unanimously?

My SD card for my camera was dead, so please excuse the poor quality from my cell phone camera.

Such is a day in the life of our family with that colorful girl always ready to spice things up a bit.


While all these school closings have had many of us frustrated, I thought of family members who have had the flu and some nasty stomach viruses, so perhaps cancelling schools had the added benefit of helping prevent a mass spread of nasty sicknesses. I try not to question circumstances as much anymore b/c God's ways are so much higher than mine.

Ironically, right after I had that thought and during the early morning hours before school finally resumed, that girl of ours got sick with some stomach virus.  She puked 8 times before 8:15 am.  So she got another day and a half off from school, but she was bored out of her mind while quarantined in her room.  Whenever she would need something, she would email me requests from her tablet and attach random pictures she had taken of the bunny and me (when I wasn't looking) over the past year. My oh my...I hope these are the worst pictures she ever sends electronically, and thank goodness the only email addresses she knows are mine and her father's. 

By mid afternoon, she was taking selfies and sending those to me as well.  This one was interesting.

The text for this one was simply, "I am bored."

So I snapped a photo of her bunny and sent this back to her saying, "So is Bun-Bun".  They do keep each other entertained.

And so the volley continued as long as she was in isolation.

Now that she is better, she is ready for fun activities again.  I purchased tickets for her and her father to attend a daddy/daughter dance this past Friday, but the ticket courier (a young student) lost them, so they ended up just going out to dinner for a daddy/daughter date instead. There they enjoyed several courses including a rich dessert.  A balloon artist entertained her at the restaurant, and she came home with a balloon corsage and a lovely pink and purple balloon horse.  She was thrilled as always to have special time with her devoted, doting father who always spoils her far more than I do.