Tuesday, May 7, 2013

A dog, four guppies and a mean-spirited goose

Wow, I didn’t mean to be away so long ... I guess time flies when the weather is beautiful and spring projects beckon me away from the computer!

I have tons of photos yet to download from my camera, some of which show how my Dad has restored our 140-year-old front door (I’ll try to have those ready for tomorrow), but for now I just have to share this conversation I had today with five-year-old Nora, whom I was spending some time with while her mom was attending a Bible study.

Nora lives out in the country with her Mom and Dad and three-year-old little brother, who, the last time I talked with him back when he was two-and-a-half, said he didn’t want the rest of the sausage stick from his packed lunch because it was “too feisty.” (I tasted it, and sure enough, it was a little feisty.)

Anyway, today Nora and I were sitting together on the floor, drawing with crayons. I drew a picture of our dog, Matilda, and she drew a picture of her dog, Isi (pronounced “I see”). Then we started drawing various flowers to make a garden.

Me:  Are you the one who feeds Isi?

Nora:  Yep. That’s my job. Wyatt’s job is to take out the trash. The LITTLE trash. My dad takes out the BIG trash.

(She pauses to study her flowers, chooses another crayon and continues her coloring.)

Nora:  I love drawing.

Me:  Me, too. Do you have any other pets?

Nora:  Yes, four guppies. They’re in my room. It’s my job to feed them, too.

Me:  What else?

Nora:  Ummm ... we have some geese.

Me:  Geese! How many?

Nora:  Four.

Me:  Cool.

Nora:  Yeah.

(a few seconds of silence while we color our flowers)

Nora:  One of them bit me.

Me:  One of the geese?

Nora:  Yep.

Me:  Where?

Nora:  On my thumb.

(She holds up her thumb and we both inspect it closely. It looks perfectly fine.)

Me:  Hm.

Nora (going back to coloring):  God healed it.

Me:  Oh. (going back to my coloring) It’s pretty amazing how He loves us.

Nora:  Yep.

(A long silence as we each concentrate on our artistic endeavors.)

Nora:  (without looking up from her coloring) Now it’s Mom’s job to feed the geese.

Me:  (secretly congratulating myself on keeping a straight face) Mmm-hm.