The Neighbor's Water

My kids are under the weather. They both have fevers and lots of congestion, bless their little souls. I don't believe that either of them has stomach problems, but yesterday Lincoln was coughing so much that it gagged him. He lost his little tummy contents onto the kitchen floor. Jackson was witness to the scene and promptly followed suit.... which made Lincoln go again, which made Jackson go again - and so forth until they had each gone 4 or 5 times. I kept my cool pretty well and just stood there trying to comfort both of them, just thanking heavens that we were in the kitchen when it happened where clean up was easy. Getting them away from the mess and stopping the vicious cycle was the hardest part.

This morning when I was just about to head out the door for seminary Lincoln was pleading for me. I ran to see what was wrong and he said, "mom, the water at our house makes me cough too much. I need the water that they have at [our neighbor kids] house. That water doesn't make me cough." I attributed this nonsensical talk to a weird dream and sleep talking as he went right back to sleep. When I came home from seminary he hadn't moved from his position on the couch and I went over to check on him. I asked if I could get him anything and he said, "just the drink that I already asked you for." I guess he really believes that the neighbors have superior water. Maybe I'll have to run over there and ask what their secret is.

Sometimes

It can be very difficult to keep little voices quiet when little voices don't FEEL like being quiet.

Today though, when I asked Lincoln how his school day was, I couldn't get a word out of him. I thought he was just busy hooking his seat belt. I tried again...

"Lincoln, how was your day?"

[Nothing]

"Did you have a nice time at school?"

[Silence]

"What did you learn about today?"

[Could hear a pin drop]

"Hmm. I guess Lincoln doesn't want to talk to me right now."

Lincoln: "Sometimes I just want to be reverent."