Good Negotiator or Manipulator? You Decide

Last Wednesday evening I was cooking chicken soup and thinking about how close I was to the end of a very full day. I was looking forward to settling into bed with a good book and a glass of something refreshing. 

Tom had left for Lusaka the day before and would be away for a couple nights. 

As I chopped and stirred in the kitchen, Peter stopped by for a chat. The following conversation took place:

Peter: Mom, do you ever sleep alone?

Me: Sometimes.

Peter: Does it make you sad to sleep alone?

Me: *knowing full where where he is going with this* Why do you ask?

Peter: Well, I just thought since Dad is gone, I could sleep with you.

I was glad I had my back to him as I stirred the pot of soup because I was cracking up.

Peter has been asking to sleep with me for a few weeks now, but I always tell him no because "Mommy and Daddy need their privacy". And after I explained the meaning of privacy Peter had seemed to accept my decision. 

I guess he understood better than I thought and had simply bided his time. But rather than just ask me outright, he made it sound like he'd be doing me a favor. 

What would you do? Would you give in to the psychology that Peter employed?

Of course I let him spend the night with me. Creative thinking should be rewarded when possible. And it was fun to spend extra time with him.

One Year Ago: A Crazy 35-Hour Day

Three Years Ago: Some Mother's Child
Four Years Ago: Honey, Honey (another humorous parenting story)

It's All in the Wording

This morning I wasn't feeling well. While I rested in bed Peter came to play and keep me company. 

Troy didn't think this was a good idea and suggested to Peter that he leave since "Mommy has a headache". 

Peter: "Mommy doesn't have a headache. She's just lazy."

Me: "..........."

Peter: "Yeah, Mommy told me she is lazy today."

Me: "Dizzy, Peter! I said I was dizzy."

Good thing we cleared that up before anyone else asked Peter why Mommy wasn't working today.

Dude, Where's My Car?

When we had our fun, family outing in Lusaka before flying out, we decided to rent a car from some missionaries so we wouldn't have to deal with a taxi. The night before our big day, Tom and I picked up the car and then drove to a grocery store for a few items. We were only in the store for a few minutes, but when we came out we realized we had no idea which car was ours.

We had rented a Toyota Corolla which is the most popular car in Lusaka since it can be gotten quite cheaply from Japan and is frequently used for taxis.

To further add to our difficulty in locating the car, it was a gray color--probably one of the most popular color choices as well. 

We were well and truly stuck. Since we'd just picked up the car we hadn't put any items in it yet--no sweaters thrown in the back seat, or identifying pieces of trash. We did know which row we'd parked in, which was a relief--but we walked up and down it before deciding to try the key on the most promising looking gray Toyota Corolla. Thankfully it was the right one!

********

The next day we parked in the very small parking area of the lodge, next to a blue car, and headed inside for our day's activities. After our game drive Tom and Troy took off to see what else could be done. Because: Family. Fun. Day!

I sat down, with Jasmine, in one of the sitting rooms to take care of checking in online for our flight the next day. When we'd done that we started looking for Troy and Tom. I glanced down into the parking lot and saw the door to our car (or what I thought was our car) standing open. I thought perhaps Tom had decided to rest (though it seemed odd) and so Jasmine and I went down there. We couldn't see anyone though as we neared the car, so we made the appropriate scary movie sounds, and approached with caution.

The car was empty. It was weird. Why was the door open? We still weren't 100% it was our car, but it had the newspaper in it that Tom had bought on the way in that morning.

Not sure what to think I simply popped the trunk--stowed my laptop case in there--and locked everything up. Only after slamming the door shut did I worry a bit that perhaps Tom didn't have the key and that I'd just locked us all out of the car.

When we eventually met up with Tom and Troy, Tom was horrified that the door had been open. He insisted he had shut and locked all the doors. Now I began to truly worry. What if I'd just stuck my computer into someone else's car? 

We sent Jasmine down to unlock the car and check on our things. She reported back that the car wasn't there anymore because there was no car with a newspaper in it, and the only gray car had an unlocked front door (remember I had locked all the doors).

I. Freaked!

Hurrying just as quickly as I could, I rushed to the parking lot. There was our car. Still sitting there next to the blue car. With a newspaper which had fallen to the floor. And, yes, an unlocked front door (I guess I didn't lock it properly). 

Whew!

Thankfully, all our things were still safe in the trunk. 

Next time I rent a car, I'm memorizing the license plate--or taking a picture of it.

********

 

Yesterday I said this was Dude Where's My Car--edition two. I thought I'd already titled a blog post with this name--turns out I'd simply named a bug that. 

Exactly Two Years Ago: Nathan's Story

Exactly Three Years Ago: Sunday's in My City--London!

Movie Magic & More

The other day as I finished dinner preparations the kids all filed into the dining room for their dinner. I don't think I can properly convey the noise that 23 preschool children fresh off the playground can make as they file into a cement building. Let me just say it is LOUD.

In the midst of all this chaos Johnny walked up to the counter that divides the kitchen and dining room. He called over to me as I chopped vegetables at the island.

I could barely hear him over the din:

"Mommy, I wanna something something lucky dips."

"Sorry, what was that?"

"I wanna something something looby pips."

"What?"

Finally I asked Johnny to come into the kitchen. He stood next to me and I leaned over to hear him better.

"Mommy, I wanna give you love's true kiss!"

Awwwww!

"Ok, sweetie, how about I give you a hug?"

Any guesses which movie he's been watching?

***********

The other morning I was looking after the twins during shift change. It was early in the morning and a few of the children were gathered around the cradles with me.

Luke was fussing a bit so I was settling him down.

Peter said, "Look, he's like Spiderman!" I tried to figure out what he meant by that.

Then he showed me:

"His hands are like this!"

A moment later Peter said, "Now he's a bad guy".

"See?"

"His hands are like this!"

********

Even Jasmine has been picking on poor Luke. She pointed out that he looks like a comic book entity called The Watcher.

What do you think?

Poor Luke is gonna develop a complex if this keeps up.

Exactly Two Years Ago: My Girl Can Kick Your Tail
Exactly Three Years Ago: Super Story part two

Kids Will Be Kids

Today we had unexpected guests drop by. We took them for a tour and then they got a chance to meet the kids. As usually happens when a small change to the schedule occurs, the kids take advantage of this to run around and get some special attention from our guests. 

Peter came to find me. He has been especially cute lately. The other day I gave him a hug and rubbed his back, but he looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I wanna KISS you". How could I resist that?

Today he followed me around as I helped our visitors find lunch and soft drinks in the kitchen. He peppered me with questions: What is this? What is this? Whatcha doing?, etc.

Don't get me wrong. I was loving every minute of it. As I served ice into glasses, I gave him a sliver for his tongue and he learned the difference between hot and cold--especially when I dropped an ice chip down his neck.

Peter was standing right next to me as I chatted with our guests for a moment, when I glanced down and saw this:

I couldn't figure out what had happened. He hadn't gone anywhere. How had he managed to get into trouble so quickly?

Then I saw his hand.

Turns out our new kitchen lady had placed the sugar bowl on the coffee mugs shelf (makes sense, right?), which happened to be exactly at his eye (and hand) level and it was just too much temptation to resist. 

He wasn't quite sure what happened. He saw sugar. He ate a handful. It was delicious. Mommy wasn't happy. 

Truthfully? I had a hard time not laughing. He had to learn it isn't OK to eat sugar by the handful, but he sure was cute!

Lawyered

Yesterday as all the children gathered in the dining room in preparation for Children's Church, Tom noticed Johnny and Peter in the corner, huddled together, looking at something.

As he drew closer he saw that they were playing with Jasmine's new iPod touch. It had been left on the table and now sticky little fingers had found it.

Looking more closely, Tom saw something very funny: Johnny was using Peter's fingers to move things around on the screen. 

Having seen enough, Tom said in his best and most gruff voice, "What's going on here?" 

Johnny jumped back and said, "I never touched it! My fingers never touched it!"

That kid has a future. I just don't know in what exactly........

Face-Palm Moments

Yesterday I was heading out the door to speak at a church gathering. I struggled to slip my feet into my black heels as I stood by the front door and my hostess waited patiently. After several seconds I realized I was trying to shove my foot into the wrong shoe. She laughed good-naturedly along with me and said she now felt better about a silly mistake she had made earlier at the grocery store. 

That's me....out to make the world a better place by making others laugh at me and my mishaps.

Several weeks ago, I went to the grocery store with my daughter, Jennifer. A little boy scout was sitting at the entrance selling coupon books for local businesses. Since I am only in the U.S for a short while, it doesn't make a lot of sense for me to buy a coupon book. At least this is what I told myself as I thanked him but kept moving on.

I bought a few groceries for the Indian dish I planned to make for my kids, paid for them with a $20 bill, grabbed my change and receipt in one hand, my small sack of groceries in the other and headed out the exit.

Just outside the door was another Boy Scout table set up with coupon books and two of the tiniest & cutest boy scouts ever. One of them walked over and lisped the spiel: "Can you buy our coupon books?" I was sorely tempted. I asked how much they were, thinking that if it was only a couple bucks I would buy them. "$10" was his response--still in the lispy, lilty way of first graders the world over.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I don't have ten dollars."

"Yes, you do!"

Poor sweet child--he doesn't yet know his numbers.....

"No, honey, I don't have........oh."

And there in my handful of change was a ten dollar bill. I truly hadn't realized my change had been that much. And now, I looked like a liar. 

I quickly stammered and stuttered about how that was meant for something else and the boy scout's mother jumped in to confirm that, yes, sometimes grown-ups need their money for other things. Bless her!

I felt guilty all day long. Poor little child. I can picture it now. He's all grown up and speaking to his therapist: "And that was the day I learned that big people LIE!"

Oh, the crying shame. 

**********

Not all my blunders are quite so public--until I post them on Facebook (or this blog), of course.

Tuesday morning I woke up bright and early to get my workout in before a 10 AM flight. After my exercise and shower, I decided to wake up my brain by playing a round of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader on Facebook. 

One of the questions was "How many U.S States begin with the letter K?" 

K is a silly letter, I thought, as I clicked 0.

How many of you know the right answer??

That's right. It's 2. 

The very day I was up early to fly to Kansas, and only two days after having had lunch in Kentucky, I got that answer wrong. Ah, me!!

Exactly Two Years Ago: I'm Not Smarter Than a Fifth Grader --Apparently I haven't improved with age.....

Exactly One Year Ago: Our Newest Babies

Fab Friday Foto XXXIII

"We hope you'll be our regular guests!"

Ba Dum Bum!*

Thank you very much! I'll be here all weekend.

I was in Mansa for two days. I'm very tired. Please forgive the Junior High Humor.

*Totally unintentional pun.

(Almost) Exactly Two Years Ago: Are We a Normal Family? A bonus chuckle for today

Pests and Pestilences

Poor little Joseph is sick again. About two weeks ago he contracted a cough. He also began getting fevers. We treated him for malaria--the smart thing to do when a small child has a fever--but he didn't improve. I hesitated to give him any antibiotics because after his hospitalization (and the huge amount of medication that was dumped into his system) his body has been all out of whack. He had a terrible fungal diaper rash and thrush as well.

The medical officer that came out to make a house call agreed. He wanted us to be cautious about giving more medicines.

I used natural remedies: garlic milk and Vicks (baby version for the chest and back and the real version on the bottom of his feet), and once even a dribble of whisky. He looked healthy enough but he couldn't kick the fever and his cough sounded ugly. Finally we took him to the clinic where they prescribed 5 days of penicillin injections. This means taking him to the clinic three times a day. 

Every morning at 6 AM, every afternoon at 2 PM, and every evening at 8 PM, Tom and I climb into the car and drive the 1 Km. (half mile) down to the clinic. The clinic person is rarely there on time so I will call them up or go to their house to remind them that it is time for injections. I'm not the only one there. To keep things simple, the clinic schedules all injections to take place at the same time. This is good for them, perhaps somewhat good for us since we know the nurse is supposed to be there at a certain time, but also not so good because it means a bunch of sick people loaded with germs and little regard for personal space have all gathered in one small area.

Usually I try to wait outside so there is some fresh air helping to blow away icky bacteria. Standing outside is better for Joseph in another way too. He recognizes the treatment room now. As soon as we enter the room, his little face scrunches up and he begins to fuss. He knows what's coming next.

So, the other evening, I arrived at the clinic and there was already some delay because the clinic had run out of syringes and the medical officer was hustling from room to room trying to locate some. It was dark and drizzly. I stood under the eaves of the clinic so as to avoid the worst of the rain, with a blanket thrown over Joseph's head to keep him dry. The treatment room was filled with people and even more were crowded around the doorway along with me.

I had been standing there about five or ten minutes when something landed on my neck. Something soft and rubbery. I pushed it off immediately and willed my heart to keep beating. My first thought was that it might have been a gecko. Every once in a while a gecko will fall from the ceiling when either through love or war, they get too frisky and lose their footing. 

Gecko picture taken by Tom.
You can see more of his African Creature photos by clicking here and looking at the photo gallery

I fumbled with my BlackBerry to find the flashlight app to see what it was that had hit me, and more importantly where it had gone next.

Then I spotted it. Crawling up the wall in its unique hoppity, creepy way. A bat!

This is not the same bat. This is one that was photographed about a year ago on our front porch. I was so shaken this past evening after my close call that I couldn't get my camera working in time.

All the ladies standing in and around the clinic found my adventure quite entertaining. At least I did some good that night.

It has now been 24 hours so I'm reasonably certain I'm not going to grow fangs. My good friend in Belgium asked that if I do begin to sparkle to please eat the goats and not the children. With the adorable specimens we have around that may be a challenge.

Almost Exactly One Year Ago: Life, or Something Like It

Africa's Next Top Model?

The other day as we sorted through donated clothes, we came across the most adorable outfit for a baby girl. It was a sundress, with matching hat and diaper cover. Adorned with red, white and blue stars and stripes, it would be perfect for the Fourth of July, if that were actually a holiday over here.

Anyway, we couldn't wait to dress Naomi up in the teeny-tiny dress. Still slightly big for her, we put it on anyway. And then, of course it was time for a Photo Shoot!

She looked so beautiful with the backdrop of the green grass. The sun hat covered up her bald head and made her just a bit cuter.

Then, as I stood her up to take another shot, the excitement of playing Baby Super Model proved too much and she was visited by the Ghost of Milk Past. 

Even with regurgitated milk on her face, she's adorable. Don't you agree?

Exactly One Year Ago: Randomness in my City on Sunday

Exactly Two Years Ago: Excuse Me, Ma'am, Your Hyperbole is Showing

Honey, Honey

My daughter recently sent this photo from Secret to Humor is Surprise* to my son. It brought back some funny memories.

You see, when my kids were little, they were a little squeamish about eating the spots on the banana that have gotten a bit over-ripe. Being a really good (and really smart) mom, I told them they were honey spots and, since all children love honey--who wouldn't after watching an episode or thirty dozen of Winnie the Pooh?--they ate those bananas right up. 

This little white lie meant I could buy the cheaper bananas and even leave them sitting on the counter for awhile without worrying about them getting too squishy. The squishier, the more honey**! I couldn't lose!

I don't remember how old my kids were when they finally discovered the truth about bananas but they were old enough to shoot me looks of pure disappointment at the fact that their beloved mother had deceived them. Bananas are not really a source of honey. 

More importantly, they learned that moms don't always tell the truth. It was a dark day in the Morrow household. Some of them may still hold a grudge--I'm pretty sure T.J does. 

For my part though, I have no regrets. I would do it again in a heartbeat. And that's one of the things that makes me a great mom!

Have you ever deceived your kids for their own good?

*While this page on Facebook has some truly funny stuff, much of it is inappropriate or as they say on the Interwebs, Not Suitable for Work. Read at your own peril.

**Have no fear, my children were never in any danger of bodily harm. A bubbling banana was thrown away--all others were fair game for snacks or baking.

 Exactly Two Years Ago: Invited to a Ball

Laws of the Universe

One rule that Tom and I have lived by for years is "If You Brag, They Will Sag". I know this, and yet, I don't think twice about sharing good news on the blog. Naomi started sleeping better and so I let all you you know. 

Big. Mistake. Huge.

Not only was Naomi up every two hours last night, she was up bright and early at 5 AM. And like Caren commented on yesterday's post, she was adorable and full of smiles, but I wasn't ready to be up yet.

She has been extraordinarily fussy today, needing to be held nearly the entire day despite being given homeopathic and natural colic remedies.

Which brings me to another law of the universe. The day your baby demands to be held nonstop will be the day you absolutely MUST be at your desk meeting very important deadlines. I'm so thankful for my teenagers who absolutely saved me today.

Also, if you desperately need to put in long hours at the computer to meet those deadlines, the power will go off periodically all throughout the day.

If you have a power outage at night and the electric company calls you to say he has no idea when the power will be restored because, "it's something serious", you should be a bit worried.

But, if you send your kids to collect candles since the generator will soon run out of gasoline, the power will come right back on. Just don't voice this fact out loud during the power failure--the universe is listening.....

Last, but not least, if you hear a ping on your phone at 5 AM letting you know you've received an email, don't open it. If it's good news it can wait a few hours. If it's bad news.....you really don't want to have to deal with it at that time of day, now do you? Just sayin'......

Exactly Two Years Ago: Don't Open This Post--but it's kinda fun if you do....

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

Most of us are familiar with the children's story:

If you give a mouse a cookie……

He’ll ask for a glass of milk….

...and on and on it goes.

 Here now is the Africa version:

If you spy a mouse in your office…..

You’ll start to move furniture around trying to catch and dispose of the little sucker…

Once you’ve moved furniture around you’ll find that the mouse has been living in your file cabinets….

So, you’ll empty your file cabinets onto the floor….

When you’ve emptied the file cabinets onto the floor….

They’ll be nice and empty but you’ll see how dirty they are….

So, you’ll haul those massive cabinets out to the front lawn….

And once they’re out in the front lawn you’ll give them a good scrubbing with bleach….

Then, you’ll realize that all those piles of debris on the office floor have to make their way back into cabinets…

And, you’ll decide that first those piles need to be decluttered... 

Once you begin decluttering, you’ll come across a journal you used for years....

Flipping through it will bring back so many memories....

You will hold it in your hand for long minutes deciding whether to pitch it or not…

It will be set aside without a decision made…

Eventually all those piles will be sorted and make their way back into the cabinets....

It may not be today or tomorrow, but it will happen....

In the meantime, If you spy a mouse in your office…..

You might want to close the door and just walk away…..

********* 

Thank you to all who have voted so far in the Halloween costume vote. There's still time to weigh in with your opinion. Click here!

(Almost) Exactly One Year Ago:Tuesday's This and That

Exactly Two Years Ago: I Need Your Help

Keeping Married Love Alive

This post is rated PG-13. 

Tom and I last year after I returned from the States

 Tom and I have been a team for a long time. Either God gave us the perfect gifts and abilities to balance each other out or we developed those abilities to fill a vacuum or a mixture of both. 

When we're apart for these months every year, it can be challenging to not only keep up with our work on either side of the Atlantic, but also to keep our love alive.

On the work side: Tom is great  with graphics, photography and layout. When writing our update letters over the years, it has always been his responsibility to choose photos and art, layout our pages and make everything visually perfect. He does a wonderful job. It falls to me to do the words and text because.....let's face it....I love to talk. :)

One year, (and this was ages ago) Tom was in the States and I was holding down the fort, much like right now, only this was before Skype and twitter and Facebook and all this delightful technology. It came time to put out our monthly newsletter, so Tom did the layout and put in all the pictures and text boxes and then emailed it to me. I was supposed to then add the text and mail it out. 

On the keeping love alive part: In many of those text boxes scattered around the pages, were racy little messages to me. Tom had been quite creative in letting me know exactly how he felt about me and what he was looking forward to upon his return. 

I giggled, changed the text to match the pictures and update our family in friends about our adventures in Africa, saved a copy and mailed it out.

A few years (and annual separations) went by and nothing more was thought of that little document. Nothing, that is, until a fellow missionary here in Zambia asked us for advice on newsletter writing and Tom sent him a few examples from our archives. Almost immediately, this very nice man wrote us back saying, "I'm fairly sure you didn't mean to include one of those files". and he named the file. We opened it up and sure enough, Tom had sent the draft copy, that one with all the very adult, very racy, meant-for-my-eyes only, notes. Oops!

Now with Skype, Facebook, Twitter and all the rest, our communication is hardly hampered at all. We get to discuss things nearly every day and in great detail. It's such a blessing.

Occasionally though, we'll be in the middle of an 'adult' conversation and one of our children (on either side of the Atlantic) will walk in to the room and peek at our computers and all of a sudden our chat window has to look like this:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Keeping married love alive is such an adventure!

A Little Comic Relief

You'll be happy to know that the riots have calmed down. If all goes well, I'll be able to get shopping done on Monday. I'm not sure what I'll find when I get down there. I'm not sure if the store has been restocked and what will be available.

I'm hoping that our milk delivery service will be up sometime this week. We're running super low on supplies. I've been buying formula and milk powder locally but it is nearly double the cost. Our regular delivery service missed a month and then when they were supposed to come up they had a breakdown in their truck. In a way, it's a good thing because if the truck had been working they would have been passing right through Mansa at the exact time of the riots. God was watching over them.

Yesterday we had a all day power failure. It actually started Thursday evening following a big storm. It took the electric company 26 hours to restore power. Thankfully we have two sources of back up power: a inverter and battery system and a gasoline generator. The battery system kept our lights going until about 3 AM the first night and then the following evening we turned on the generator for the last few hours while waiting for power to come on. Even though we don't have power all day at times, it's so nice to have the option of lights at night.

So, however unplanned (& unwanted) it was, we did Earth Day right. Just sayin'.

And now, here is the comic relief I promised above:

Tom celebrating Earth Day at the Houston Zoo

You can take the man out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the man.

Exactly One Year Ago: Fab Friday Foto (super relevant for today!)

Bloopers

I wanted to show you some of our portrait taking bloopers. It was a long day and the poor kids had to endure the sitting session twice because the first time we tried taking the pictures the sun was too high in the sky and as it came through the trees, some of the children were shaded and some were bright patches of sunlight. 

Poor Henry was in a complete shadow while the baby above him reflected the sun off his white blanket. Not good at all.

One of the main reason for the kids all looking in different directions was that we had too many 'cooks in the kitchen'. Each nanny and grown up present was doing their level best to get the kids to smile and look at the camera but it ended up being very distracting to the kids. 

Never mind, we got a good photo in the end and some funny moments out of it all.

 

 

 

 

Eventually we got everyone lined up and a pretty decent shot!

In case you missed the first time I posted this, here it is again!

Update: A few commenters asked how many shots it took to get this one. I took about 50 total. Probably 25 in the second session. It had to be done very quickly because kids have very short attention spans.

Exactly One Year Ago: San Diego