Snow days, baby books, and journaling

We had a "snow day" today -- no school due to the extreme cold. This is the third or fourth snow day this month, so it's getting a bit old. I coped by pulling out a project I've been neglecting for a few years -- J's baby book. (That's J as a baby in the picture . . . first time eating solid food.)

The other two kids have baby books that go through their second birthday; they pull them out and look at them every few months. J can't read yet, so when she sees her older siblings looking over their books, she pulls out one of our family journals that has her in it, and pretends it's her baby book. Every time I see that, I think . . . heh, heh . . . better get her baby book done before she can read!

So I worked on that while the kids went about the grim task of dismantling the house; I responded to injuries as necessary. Looking over all those old journal entries was actually heartening, since I generally only record the highlights. Here are a couple that made me smile; both of these are told by S. The first is from Easter two years ago:

I told (M and B) the story of Good Friday (basically a short version of the stations of the cross).  This made them very sad; B actually began crying (although he said he was crying because his throat hurt).  Unusual kid comments this time:  When I was explaining the flogging, B said “Do you know what Jesus should have done?”  “Okay, what B?”  “He should have grabbed the whip and starting whipping them back!”  “Well, B, that would have been tempting, but Jesus knew that would be wrong, and he knew if was important for him to suffer.  I’ll explain that in a minute.”  “Okay, but maybe Jesus should have grabbed the whip, threw it away, and run away!”  “Well, that's a good idea if that ever happens to you, but Jesus knew he had to suffer and die, so he didn’t run away….”  At the end of the story, a sad B said that the story of God creating the world was a better (read: happier) story.  They both thought the crown of thorns was the meanest thing they had ever heard.

And from a few days later:

While taking B to school this morning:

Ben: Mom, I know why we had snow yesterday.

Me: Because it was cold?  (I'm pretty literal at 7am)

Ben: It has to do with Easter.  It's still Easter, right?

Me: Right, for 50 days.  But what does snow have to do with Easter?

Ben: Welllll, snow reflects the light, and you say Jesus is the light of the world, so God sent the snow to celebrate Easter because now the world is full of light!

Me: (stunned, thinking...are you sure you're 6?)

And then there's one that I can't locate at the moment, but it's about how B game M a big hug and said, "We're best friends, and we'll be best friends forever!" And M said, "Yeah!"

Creating these journals is a lot of work, but they're a gold mine once they're done.