The Ethan Update, Around the World in Twenty Minutes edition.

Our ten year old, Ethan, has been at Servant Camp at our church all week, which means each day he did a service project in the morning and then did something fun in the afternoon.  So he has helped at a soup kitchen, spread mulch at a park, played bingo with elderly folks in a nursing home, given homeless pets some exercise at a shelter, and so on.  He has such a loving heart and I’m so proud of him.  I’m grateful to attend a church that helps kids learn to serve others.  This morning, I dropped him off at camp and the drive over gave us some time to talk.  NPR is usually on in my car and Ethan began asking questions, so we discussed Edward Snowdon, seeking asylum, and how people disagree whether what he did was good or bad for the country.  We talked about Nelson Mandela, what apartheid was, and why Mr. Mandela is such a great man (I got in a recommended reading plug for “Long Walk to Freedom” for when Ethan’s older).  And we wrapped up our tour of current events with gay marriage.  Not bad for 20 minutes on a summer Thursday.  

The Katie Chronicles: Classic Rock Lessons Edition

We were driving to the dentist and Katie wanted to hear some music so I was scanning through the channels. I asked her if she liked a particular song and she did, so we cranked it to sing Queen's We Are The Champions. (Ethan has always loved this song, too, so I've wondered if Freddie Mercury, in the Great Wembley Stadium in the Sky, is aware his legacy is strong with the elementary school crowd.) At the end of the song, she asked me what "no time for losers" meant. I tried to explain. Katie listened carefully and then said, "So really he's just bragging. That's not very nice, Mommy. He should be saying 'Good job' to his teammates even if they lost." Brian May and company, take note.

The Katie Chronicles, Tradition Edition

Shoes have been a big topic of discussion lately in our house. One of Katie's friends gave her two pairs of shoes with 1 inch (ish) heels on them. Jerome and I are pretty old school about clothing for our kids so this wasn't a popular gift. After much discussion of "But YOU get to wear high heels!" and how good people sometimes make different decisions than other good people about what kids can wear, I finally agreed to let her wear the shoes at certain times, like to church or around the house. Dad's not happy with this compromise and we agreed to let the heels die a natural death by not replacing them when she outgrows them. So fast forward to tonight. Katie needs another pair of summer shoes, so I took her shoe shopping at a local mall. She asked if we could please look for a pair of "appwopwiate heels" for her to wear, since she was growing out of the others. I said no, but she was happy anyway...because after the shoe purchase, I introduced her to one of the coolest things my mom ever did, ice cream for dinner.

When I was in second grade, my parents got divorced. My siblings, who are much older, were already out of the house, so it was just my mom and me. She was a working mom and was utterly depleted by the end of her 26 year marriage, which she had worked hard to preserve. And she didn't like to cook. So occasionally -- I suspect it was when she needed some extra cheering up -- she would announce that we were going to get Braum's Ice Cream for dinner. Their crinkle fries are divine, but no hamburgers or fries were on the menu for us. It was wall-to-wall ice cream for dinner. She always got a banana split and we would have a chance to talk about our day or whatever we were thinking about. My mother always talked to me like I was an adult, so these were serious conversations, at least to me. It doesn't get much better than ice cream for dinner and one-on-one Mom time when you're 8. So tonight, Katie got sensible, "age-appwopwiate" sandals, along with an introduction to a family tradition, mother-daughter ice cream dinner. My mom is smiling somewhere, I just know it.