This is the first summer that I can truly trust William and Kate outside without my immediate supervision.  They have been outside nearly every waking moment for the past few weeks and their skinned knees and brown arms are showing it.

This week I thought a tornado had hit the house.  Laundry, toys, dishes, and general debris was everywhere.   I took advantage of two outside-happily-playing children and tackled the mess.  I opened enough windows that I could hear them alternately chatting and screaming, chatting and screaming, chatting and screaming.

And then it was quiet.  For too long.

I didn’t see them in the usual places, so I got a little panicky.  I stepped outside on the deck and found this scene (Please look past the gangly dandelions.  If you look close enough, you will see my kids.).

It was so sweet to see them reading together.  But it got better.

“Mom!” William yelled, “We’re reading our Bibles!  Come out and read yours with us!”

I took one glance at the tornado house, had a mental argument with myself, and decided I would regret saying no.  Really, how could I refuse that offer?  So out I went and we sat and read our Bibles together, talking about our Annie, prayer, and things that concern three year olds and five year olds.  I love being their Mama.

Now lest you think that my kids are wonderful and spiritual and very mature, just let me tell you that in the fifteen minutes I spent outside with them, Kate had a meltdown because William told her that her Bible “wasn’t real because it had pictures.”  She then decided to rip the spine off of hers so it matched William’s worn Bible.

William is beginning to read.  He is SO PROUD.  And so naturally he wanted to choose a verse and read it out loud.  He chose 1 Kings 1:1.

For those of you who don’t already have this verse memorized, let me refresh your memory (as you read it, read it in that s-l-o-w sound-it-out voice of a five year old):

“When King David was old and well advanced in years, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him.”

This is the point in the story that I decided to look ahead and see what came next.

“So his servants said to him, ‘Let us look for a young virgin to attend the king and take care of him.  She can lie beside him so that our lord the king may keep warm.'”

And thus ended our devotional thoughts for the day.  I think we’ll just stick to the Picture Bible from now on.