Great Quote about the U.S. Constitution

Thomas Jefferson, in an 1803 letter to Senator Wilson Cary Nicholas of Virginia respecting the Louisiana Purchase, explained:

Our peculiar security is in possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction. I say the same as to the opinion of those who consider the grant of the treaty-making power as boundless. If it is, then we have no Constitution. If it has bounds, they can be no others than the definitions of the powers which that instrument gives. It specifies & deliniates the operations permitted to the federal government, and gives all the powers necessary to carry these into execution....

from Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny, by way of Andy McCarthy at National Review's The Corner

Words of Affirmation

Green Pea had his first spelling test on Friday. He aced it, and his teacher wrote WOW! on it and gave him a sticker. Green Pea thought that his accomplishment deserved a little more celebration than that and he added his own editorial comments to the test: Grat! (great), Hip-Hip! Hera! (hip-hip hooray) and Tak Gonis! (thank goodness).

We'll keep working on that spelling.

Punctuation

A couple of weeks ago, Green Pea's Sunday School teacher shared a story from class with me. She changed the bulletin board in their classroom to an Easter theme, including, among other things, a cross and the words "Thank you Jesus". She gave the kids an in-depth explanation (at least for 4 and 5 year olds) of the significance of Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross to the kids and how under the Mosaic Law people had to sacrifice their best lamb to atone for their sin. She told them that it would be something like if they had to give up a favorite toy when they sin. She concluded by emphasizing how thankful we can all be that Jesus was willing to be the perfect sacrifice for our sin.

Green Pea raised his hand when she asked if there were any questions. "You forgot to put an exclamation point after the 'Thank you Jesus'", he corrected her.

because it's always been done that way...

Does anyone else ever wonder why we award diplomas based on the amount of time spent in school? (as opposed to how much you learned)

Why do we insist on measuring food for recipes by volume, when weight would create far less batch-to-batch variation? (and relatively inexpensive and highly accurate scales are widely available)

Monsters

Comma has reached the age where he is afraid of monsters at night. We're getting a little more insight into his fear than when Green Pea went through a similar stage because he talks to his brother about it. The other morning when he got up he was acting a little fearful and wanted to be snuggled. That led to this exchange:

Comma: (apprehensively) The monsters are dead?
M.E.: Yes
Green Pea: There aren't any monsters.
Comma: Yes there are. But now they're dead 'cause the sun came up.
(Long pause)
Comma: Dinosaurs are dead?
M.E.: Yes
Green Pea: No, they're extinct.
M.E.: Are you worried about dinosaurs?
Comma: No, they got stinked.
Green Pea: Are there monsters?
Comma: (indignant) No! They're dead. The sun came up and killed them!

My Cast of Characters

Green Pea: 5 years old, very creative, loves to pretend, fun-loving, thoughtful and considerate with peers, deep thinker, good at math

Comma: 3 years old, shy, very cautious, reticent about change, very cuddly and affectionate, craves order, loves being helpful

Goobee: 9 months old, happy, curious, loves to laugh, very social and vocal, flexible (a good quality in a third child)

Mother Extraordinaire: that's me (I'm not really extraordinarily good at mothering-quite the contrary-but it has a nice ring to it)

Wise Dad: my wonderful husband (who is also a great dad) who has also been known to be a bit of wise guy sometimes

First Post

Well, I'm going to try this again. I started a blog over 4 years ago and then didn't keep up with it, but I've had two more kids since then, which provides me with a lot more material to blog about.