Wooted

My family went to camp this weekend, to our church's winter retreat. It's a totally rational thing to do in Minnesota in the height of an Arctic blast: Travel north. We packed up 4 tons of winter gear, plus bedding, diapers, and ice skates, and off we went. It turns out the ice skates were optimistic, because when the temps were still below zero in the warmest part of the day, strapping my 3 and 5-year-old into skates just didn't happen. 

In spite of the lack of outdoor winter sports (unless you count pulling the kids by sled from one building to another at camp), it was a great weekend. Of course, for this mom, any amount of packing and bundling up is worth it if every meal is prepared for me and I don't have to do any of the dishes after! My kids were just thrilled to sleep on bunk beds and run around with other kids from church all weekend. My mom got her kicks by placing 4th in the annual ping pong tournament, beating one of the usual top contenders along the way. Side note: Who knew my mom was so good at ping pong? It's been many, many years since we had a table in our basement, which leads me to wonder if she is in some kind of underground ping pong league that I am unaware of. More likely, her competitive streak just kicked into high gear (the French is strong with this one).  And my dad? I think he just liked watching my mom's ping-pong-fueled adrenaline rush. As did I. As for Rick, he got to do his own thing too when he and about a dozen others hit the ice for a 2-hour game of broomball. Outside. Brrrr. 

But what I really want to share here are a couple of videos of my kiddos. Our theme for the weekend was Rooted, based on Ephesians 3:17-18: And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide, and long, and high, and deep is the love of Christ.

SpongeMaisy SnowPants memorized the verse and pluckily shared it in front of the group at chapel on Sunday morning:

Maisy video

When we got home on Sunday evening, I also asked Tucker to tell me the Bible verse.

You guys, my Tucker says the most ridiculous things. He told me just last week, "When my finish my water, my going to pee on you." and then laughed like he had just told a hilarious joke. Hi-la-ri-ous. Because for a potty training boy, what is funnier than a potty mouth? 

And just today at nap time, after reading a wonderful piece of literature about Podracing, and tucking him in, and handing him his beloved Elmo doll, and brushing back his hair, and telling him I loved him, he looked sweetly up at me and said, "Elmo say he not like you." (I didn't believe Elmo, especially since Elmo asked for a goodnight kiss just 30 seconds later.) 

Tucker is silly and impulsive and says all these ridiculous things with his sparkly brown eyes and not even the slightest hint of meanness. But he still says them! 

Then yesterday evening, he bounces around, and he looks at my phone and says the words:

"My pway... dat be wooted... da deep... wuv... Jesus." 

And I smile, and I watch the video about 10 more times, and I show it to other people, and I share it with you, and I seriously pray that he and all my kids would be "wooted in the deep wuv of Jesus."