Flower picture

This picture of flowers was at the Manassas mall art show. Patrick used a popsicle stick, clay and a bottle cap. He says it makes him remember beautiful flowers in a field.

Bird picture

Patrick made this painting of a bird when he was 7. It's in a rainforest.

Pocahontas picture

This is Pocahontas. Patrick made this texture picture when he was 6. She is standing in a field.
This picture was at the Manassas mall art show.

Some recent kids' thoughts on Church

Anton:
Look! These church tops look like bishops!

Ooooh, mom, let's fire up these candles!

Make some room
Patrick said that when we eat a lot, we don't have any room left for God, so fasting helps us make some room for Him.

Never seen God?
Anton said that some people don't believe in God because they just never saw Him and all they need to do is only come to our church and look at the picture (icon) of Jesus. I wanted to laugh thinking it was a silly joke, then I thought maybe there's much more to it...

Sin
I was telling the boys Lent was a time to seek God and repent of our sins.
Patrick, do you know what sin is?
Yeah, it's something my brother does a lot!

“I didn't do it”

If you're a mom, you could relate to the feeling like you're constantly cleaning something yet nothing is ever clean. There is always this out-of-reach reality somewhere, where every cleaning job is done, but it never comes true. Or maybe it's just me. I'm always in a hurry. This one place kept getting dirty strangely quickly – dirt on the carport was swept just to appear again. I got mad at the kids for tracking dirt every time after I swept, but they blamed it on birds. I thought it was a silly excuse, until one day Anton said, “here is the birdie again” as he looked at the light fixture. Then I saw a bird made a nest at the carport ceiling just outside the door and every time it moved, some dried nest pieces fell down. I felt guilty that I didn't listen to the children and just assumed they messed up. They are also much better at noticing things.
How often do we get annoyed at something that's actually a good thing?

Where do things come from?

ANTON:

1. Chocolate milk comes from a chocolate cow. I've seen one, it has brown chocolate spots!

2. If we plant burned sesame seeds from this bagel, will they grow sesame trees that look burned?

3. Tell me, mama, who made God?

No one.

Please, just tell me, whisper it to me and I won't tell anyone. Just tell me the first letter and I will guess!

Hello

The kids have said so many cute yet profound things and have taught us so much that I have been wanting to start writing it down, for such a long time.