Bedtime

Hearts are won each night with story,

Children sprawled across the stage,

Mystery, wonder, fear and glory

Found at tender age.

A father's time, his words, his touch

with fiction, prose, and song

Hearts won each night with such

Lessons learned as Truth and right and wrong.

A battle for my heart is fought

Each night with lessons taught

And reprieve found in a Fathers grace

For my children's lives and mine.

Hearts are won each night with story

Tender love displayed.

Thank you Lord for Your gift,

A father who gives You glory.  

Rourke and the Lion's Den

Rourke really likes tools.  He loves to build...legos, puzzles, anything.  He's been asking to build something for months now and today he started trying to build a house for the lion he received as a baby; it's one of his favorite companions. 

Our first step was to talk about how lions live in dens, not houses, so we could build him a den.  Rourke and his sisters gathered small scraps from our firewood pile, I found some finishing nails in the garage, we put the little girls down for their naps, and Rourke got his tools.  We were ready to work!

Using my limited building skills, we worked something out.  Rourke is a great hammerer.  We talked about how Jesus was a carpenter and he probably hammered his fingers a few times too.  I was proud of him for not giving up or complaining.  We started by building the walls and then as we tried to put the walls together, the pieces kept falling off.  There's a reason you build the frame of a room first.   Rourke encouraged us to keep going, so we did.   He displayed a lot more patience than I did!

 

Rourke and his den.

 

 Lion was very pleased with his new living quarters.

I gained several splinters and this beauty.