When Kids Say the Funniest Things

I hope you write down what your kids or grandkids say when what they say makes you laugh. Adults need more refreshing spontaneity of children and less duplicity from adults.

If you are a teacher of children, you have an unending supply of funny things that kids will say.

Somewhere I have a book that a teacher compiled after asking her students how to cook a turkey. She asked these young children to draw a picture of their Thanksgiving turkey and give instruction for how to cook it. The one I remember: “Get up in the middle of the night. Turn the oven to 2 degrees.” A child’s perception of the adult world invariably surprises.

Meet 6-year-old Jake

“You have to know what you’re doing if you’re doing it.” Grandson Jake said this to his Poppy. When Poppy repeated the words, Jake said, “That’s an official motto.”

With another completed journal that I began writing on January 11, 2021, I started reading what I had written so far this year. Jake’s words were written down on March 2, along with an incident that shows his endearing personality.

Jake’s dad, our son Jordan, had returned from a trip with a LEGO set for Jake and his brother. Jake’s older brother, James-Paul (aka. J.P.) naturally took over the project that their dad had helped them start. When J.P. went somewhere, Jake kept asking his dad to come help him. From the dining room where they had set up, Jake kept calling. Dad kept answering, “In a minute, Jake,” as he was in the middle of something. After the umpteenth time of hearing “I’ll be there in a minute,” Jake said, “I’ll be asleep when you get here.”

Writing this blog . . .

The blog I wrote earlier this week so that I could post before I left home, well, it fell apart. Rewrites left me not knowing what I was trying to say.

I remember when I taught in Bible Study Fellowship, training discussions leaders, I said, “Listen not simply for what people are trying to say but what they say without trying.”

Here, I’m trying to say I don’t know what I’m doing. Or where this blog is going. The direction this blog has taken confuses me. And if I am confused, no doubt you as readers are too.

I lack focus. My interests take me all over the map.

“No one who does not do needlepoint can fathom the hours, the decisions about threads and stitches, the actual stitching of a piece. No one who does not write or care about writing can appreciate the hours of thought and effort that goes into a single blogpost. Other people may be able to write in less time, give less thought, and care about writing less than I do. I can’t explain even to myself why I care, why I write, or what I hope to accomplish. In a way, my writing mirrors my needlepoint for both take tons of time to do––time I could spend in other ways. Yet I never feel so lost in anything I do as when I write. The blog has become for me a way to hold myself accountable to write and to believe . . . that someone will be listening. I don’t write for those who don’t listen or care.”

my journal entry, February 18, 2021

I’m confessing that I get lost in ideas, thoughts, and words so that sometimes I feel as if instead of pulling people out of the weeds, I take them with me into an ethereal realm, lacking clarity or purpose.

“You need to know what you’re doing if you’re doing it.”

Jake

A writer writes not knowing how readers will read what’s written, what meaning readers may derive, or how words from the ether could affect them. Yet I believe that if what I write doesn’t affect me, the words won’t affect anyone else either.

I think it’s time for you as readers to offer some input.

Because Jake is right. I need to know what I’m doing if I’m doing it.

Leave a comment, then let me know in that comment whether or not you want your comment posted.

Thank you. I need your help.