Caiden and the Salad Fiasco

Its been fun having Caiden in school this year.  Just like homeschooling Elliott for kindergarten helped me learn more about him as a person, putting Caiden in public school for kindergarten has yielded equally rewarding results.

When I pick Caiden up from school she jabbers a million miles per minute and tells me all sorts of things that I only partially understand.

There was the one time she was chattering away while flailing her body about like she does when she talks when suddenly she got quiet.  "I did something bad, but I don't want to tell you!" she confessed.  Turns out, she told a little girl that she didn't want her to sit by her.   We talked and prayed about it, but I was just so happy that she wanted to talk to me about it!  Especially because I often wonder what is going on in her little head.  Now that we are apart for a portion of the day, she is just dying to tell me what's happening in her world/mind!

Last week, at Caiden's "back to school night" I was walking around her classroom looking at her various achievements and projects when I noticed a graph on the board.  It had different foods listed and had the names of all the people in her class in their respective categories, showing how many people liked which food.

There were options like "pizza," "macaroni and cheese," and other things that Caiden likes.  But there was her name (along with most of the rest of the class) under the listing "salad."  What?  I was so confused.  We eat a lot of steamed vegetables and sometimes salad, but I've never known Caiden to claim salad as a favorite food--never.  And Caiden is not wishy-washy.  What you see is (mostly) what you get.  Her teacher assured me that although she, herself chose salad, she had put her own preference down last so as not to influence the kids' decisions.

I thought the whole thing was weird, but...whatever.  I checked it off in my mind as another one of Caiden's quirks.  Plus, I figured she would have an explanation for it, but I totally forgot to ask.

Finally, yesterday, the graph came up while we were at the grocery store.  "We need some spinach," I said.

"Spinach?" Caiden asked.  "I don't like spinach."

"Yes you do," I chided.

"What is it?  Does it go in salad?" she asked.

"Yep,"  I replied, "And apparently salad is your favorite food.  That's what it said on the graph at school."

"Oh,"  Caiden said.  "Oh yeah, that was just supposed to be which one you wanted.  Its not really my favorite.  I just picked it because I wanted my name to be the highest.  Salad was the group that had the most."

Hhmmmm...  Well, that totally explains it!  I KNEW there had to be some kind of quirky Caiden reasoning to explain this salad fiasco.  She is the funniest girl I know.  She doesn't care if people erroneously think that salad is her favorite food.  She doesn't care what people think at all.  Ever.  She just wants to be on top.  She wants to win.  And she totally owns it.

You'll always be number one in my book, Caiden.  I love you, crazy girl.

Popsicle Tents

I'm always looking for ways to spend time with my kids that can combine all of our interests.   I enjoy building lego creations with them, but sometimes hunting for piece after piece among thousands makes me dizzy.

A few weeks ago, Elliott and Caiden had been working on a lego mockup of Carpinteria and they asked me to help build water for it out of legos.  "How about a piece of blue construction paper instead?" I countered.  They obliged, but after solving that problem, I started to think of ways I could make this undertaking even more awesome... (They totally sucked me in!)  I went to my craft dresser and pulled out popsicle sticks, fabric, and a hot glue gun and got to work.  It didn't take long before we had assembled two A-Frame tents, cotton batting stuffed mattresses, and tiny little campfires.  Soon, even David was sucked into our little project and he and Elliott got to work making a wave pop out of the construction paper with foam on it and everything.  The whole thing was pretty epic.  The best part about it?  It was fun and it totally "counted" as real time invested.

Verse of the Week | 2 Corinthians 2:14

"Now thanks be to God who always leads us
in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses
the fragrance of  His knowledge in every place."
2 Corinthians 2:14

Previously, I had thought this verse was saying that God causes us to be triumphant.  But literally the Greek phrase used there means "triumphs over us"(f) meaning that God triumphs over our lives by saving us and leading our redeemed lives about in victory throughout all the earth--wherever we go--demonstrating His ability to subdue and to save.

This whole passage is spoken in a militaristic sense.(f)  When leaders would have victories, in that day and age, they would have incense bearers along the way home (the triumphal procession), and the fragrance would be about them--ushering them in to the city.  It would be an evidence and boasting of their victory, power, and might.  Along with their captives that they would be leading and triumphing over...

So our lives are that fragrance--that evidence--of God's power.  Not only does he triumph over us, but we get to go in triumph with him.  Not as slaves, but as sons and daughters, having been redeemed.

Paul was the writer here and he is the perfect example;(f) Paul was a persecutor of the church and accuser of God's people, sentencing Christians to death.  But Jesus showed up and changed Paul's mind and his life.  God was able to subdue Paul's wrath and self-righteousness and bring him under God's rule and authority.  So Paul traveled throughout all the regions proclaiming Christ as the only way of salvation, being that example or trophy of God's power and effectiveness over the blindness and rebellion of man.  Showing that God can save to the uttermost!  The fragrance of Christ.

"Our only true triumphs are God's triumphs over us. His defeats of us are our only true victories"[ALFORD]. (f)

footnote: thoughts gleaned from Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible