Are You Smarter Than a Five-Year-Old?

One just never knows the direction in which the spinning wheels are headed in Reiss's head. One thing is certain though, he will come up with numerous inquiries that boggle the mind on a variety of topics every single day. If you want to feel like a big dummy, just come to my house. The invitation is open any day of the year.

Here is a sampling of questions posed to me by Reiss and my responses. These are just from today.

Why don't jets fly in space?
Jets are not equipped to break through the Earth's atmosphere.

Why can't fish walk?
Fish swim in the water with their fins. They don't have feet.

How deep is the sky?
There are different heights in the sky, Reiss. The sky doesn't really start or end anywhere.

How many gallons of water are in the ocean?
I don't know. We could look it up on the internet.

How many teeth does a seal have?
I don't know. We could look it up on the internet.

How deep can ducks swim down in the water?
I don't know. We could look it up on the internet.

Why is this flower yellow?
I don't know. We could look it up on the internet.

Why is z-o-d-d-r-e-g not a word?
I don't know.

How old is God?
I don't know.

What would happen if somebody dropped a truck down and smashed God?
Um......

Okay, see, I don't have a clue. How in the world does a person answer something like that?

Apparently, I Am Older Than God

Or so Reiss thinks, anyway.

All this week, Reiss has been asking me questions about elephants:

"Is an elephant bigger than Kong?"

"Would an elephant eat as much as you weigh, Mommy?"

"What would an elephant do with it saw a mouse?" This is not a typo. Reiss almost always uses the word "with" when he means to say "if."

"Do you weigh as much as an elephant, Mommy?" I am terrified he may ask this to someone out in public, and as my luck would have it, it will invariably be directed at someone who is rather large.

Reiss has been asking questions about God for a couple of weeks now as well. This generally happens right after he has watched a few minutes of a Veggie Tales dvd but has occurred at random, out of the blue, times too. For instance, I picked him up from his social skills playgroup one afternoon and he asked, "Is God higher than the sky?"

I had to quash my urge to laugh and reply with "Well, I hope God is not high at all." That one I kept to myself and instead of telling him the truth - that God is all around us - and encouraging mass confusion and a long series of other difficult-to-answer questions, chose to go with the explanation that no one knows where God is.

This morning we were eating breakfast and Reiss asked, "Is God seventy?" to which, my response was a simple "No."

Reiss thought about this for a moment and then came, "Mommy, did you come before God?"

So now I am trying to decide which is worse: to be older than God (because that is really old!) or to weigh more than an elephant.

Swine Flu Vax Is A Moral Obligation???

Really? Seriously?
Read what I'm talking about here.....

Swine Flu Vax 'A Moral Obligation'

I am speechless, yet totally outraged at the same time, by the audacity of these people who are supposed to be "religious leaders" for their labelling the H1N1 vaccination 'a moral obligation.'

Um, no, I don't think so! Plain and simple. Who the you-know-what do they think they are, anyway???

And because I refuse to get off on a tangent and get any madder at these ignorant souls today, this concludes my post for the day, folks!

Enjoy! And don't shoot me....I'm just the messenger.

What Would A Duggar Do?

The photo above has absolutely nothing to do with my random bunch of rambling that will constitute as my post for the day. I just had to post it because it was one of those photos that was caught by sheer accident and turned out spectacular. It ranks right up there in the category of Best Reiss Photos Ever. And tomorrow is Picture Day at school. What a coincidence, huh???

As anyone who read my last post knows, I just finished the Duggars' book, The Duggars: 20 and Counting! It was one of those thought-provoking kind of books that has left me thinking about it day after day. There is absolutely nothing complicated about the Duggars or their book, so when I say it's thought-provoking, I mean it has me inspired in many ways.

One thing that struck me and just plain amazed me was the incredible dedication this family has to God. I knew this before reading the book but there is a part where Jim Bob writes about how he was bound, gagged, and robbed at gunpoint several years ago in his own home, which also housed the office to a used car lot he owned, while Michelle and a few of the children slept in another room. The criminal couple doing the robbing made off with a car from the lot but were caught a little later. Jim Bob took a Bible to the jail where the man was being held. He was going to give it to the robber himself but was not allowed in to see him.

I can only imagine any ordinary person would wish for such a criminal to sit and rot in a cell but not Jim Bob. His philosophy was and still is to do something nice for those who do wrong to us.

So, with that in mind, I have been trying to use that philosophy in my own life the last few days. Now, granted, it's not every day that I feel someone has wronged me - thank goodness, right??? But I've been thinking about this and here is an example of something I've done along the lines of Jim Bob's do-good philosophy....

My mother and I have a pretty rocky relationship. No, that's not quite right. That would imply that we argue often, however, we just don't talk much at all anymore. She lives several states away and moved there right after Reiss was born. Apparently, when her possessions got moved, so did her caring a hoot about me or my family.

While I did try to do the right thing and call and send birthday cards and gifts at Christmas and so on, my actions were never reciprocated. Now don't get me wrong - don't think I'm one of those people who only does that sort of thing to get a big ta-da out of the recipient, because I'm not.

Well, after a few years of my mother barely acknowledging me, let alone my children, I gave up. I told myself I don't have time for people who don't have time for me. I realize this may be very difficult for people who have very close relationships with their own parent or parents to understand. At the same time, please know that because of the way I was raised, it's just as difficult for me to even imagine a close relationship with a parent.

Anyway, so a few days ago it was my mother's birthday. I did not send her a card. I did not call her. But all day I thought about it being her birthday and even though she doesn't have much to do with me, I do still think about her in the days before her birthday and for much of the day on her birthday. I wasn't really feeling guilty about not doing anything for her this year but I wasn't feeling like I was doing the right thing either. And then I thought about Jim Bob and thought, "Hmmm...what would a Duggar do in this situation?"

At around 9:30 that evening, I got on my facebook account and posted "Happy Birthday!" to my mother's facebook "wall." No, I'm fairly certain that's not exactly what a Duggar would have done but I felt pretty good doing it and I even got a "Thank You!" out of it. Again, I didn't need the "thank you" but I felt good in knowing that what I had done was the right thing to do and that it was recognized and maybe just that little bit of do-good attitude will result in my mother doing something good for someone else. It's kinda like those commercials for some insurance company where the people watch others doing good deeds and then they do something nice for someone else and then that person does something nice and so on and so on....

I believe in God and I believe in doing right simply because it's the right thing to do. It's sad that I sometimes have to remind myself of this. Shouldn't I be doing right anyway?? Just because???? It's kinda pathetic that I need to read a book that's not even religious in nature to remind me of this and if I'm this way, I know I can't be alone. Hey, I know I can be an oddball...but....BUT.......

Anyway, here's a challenge for anyone reading this (Is anyone reading this??): The next time you feel someone has wronged you or hurt your feelings, ask yourself "What would a Duggar do?"