Paybacks

"Who wants to be a dad when you can be a cool uncle. Nobody ever rebelled against the cool uncle." -Michael Scott

Hezekia chapter 3 says "Do unto others before they do unto you, for blessed are those who pay it forward." Okay, so it's not in there and there is no book of Hezekia. While paying it forward may be the nobler deed, paying back feels awefully good too.

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This is how it goes down when I'm a one man band with greater than or equal to 4 kids. First I should mention that taking on more than my own usually only happens with kids who are potty trained and do take no for an answer. So I'm no hero. Secondly, those days are already resigned to serving and teaching and playing with my own, so why not bring a few more who actually want to come along for the ride?

So far that's mostly been Elijah, Liddy, Jonah, and Luke M. These kids are all great together. There are more voices to hear, personalities to weigh, and muddy shoes to clean. Meal times are a little hairy. But in many ways it's actually easier and more fun FOR me.

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"No - nobody here eats just sugar cereal for breakfast. Treats are fine, but good food first."

"But I think my mom would probably not want me to have peanutbutter toast AND Frosted Flakes for breakfast, so why don't you just give me the Frosted Flakes?"

"Uh, no. But eat your toast and uncle Bob WILL give you just a little."
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That's usually about the worst thing I have to deal with. Probably also why I have repeat customers.

Today we picked up some McDonalds on the way home. Then four went outside for 10 minutes, half the time it took to get everyone in winter gear. We all cleaned up and played a little before Maggs goes to nap. My 5 training partners and I went to the basement for a workout. We ran and punched, wrestled and romped. I call it a warm up.

The workout today was a few warm up reps, then really only 7 sets. Basically I lift/exercise with relatively heavy weight for high reps, to the point of exhaustion. I sit or lay for a minute to gather myself before about 6 or 7 minutes of "rest." "Rest" being fetching milk and changing diapers, administering justice and rounding up loose edges.

"Oh, I don't know if you can do that."

That's how I play it with the formal exercise stuff. I hound no one. They see me kind of suffering under the weights, breathing hard and listening to music. It's never long until they approach.

"Mmmm. I don't know...okay, I guess you can try it. Do you think you can jump for 3 minutes without stopping?"

There is jumping on the mini trampoline and stationary biking and timed sprints around the basement and hanging on the barbell rack. Fifty minutes later everyone is played out and ready to chill. The rest of the entire day is pretty easy after the workout.

I've learned that with E. and Lidds, EVERYTHING is a lesson in worldview. When I don't know for sure, I tell them that, then make up possibilities that are at least consistant with what they know.
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"I Want It Now is singing about feeling miserable when you're rude and greedy."

"Megaladon maybe only ate fish that were already dead."

"Well, both of those things could be considered pretty zany."

"Optimus Prime probably didn't worry too much about the next leader."

"Malice means like when you WANT to purposely hurt someone."
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Only after a ten minute string of becauses did the malice conversation end, at the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

We play, eat, talk, sing, and chill. Just like when uncle Mark and Ed and Bill invested so much time and energy in me with backpacking and fishing and hockey games. We stayed up late on New Years, tearing, throwing, then cleaning up confetti and playing video games and board games we created ourselves. Pet Shop was Monopoly with all things animal, catching frogs with a net still qualified as fishing, and seeing the Pittsburgh Spirit lose in the Civic Arena was always a trip.

Those memories are why I'm just doing what comes natural. They're why everyone got a new net during our last trip to Bass Pro. Angie said that if someone saw a minority walking through the East Mall with 7 kids chasing and netting each others head, they would probably call human services. But I get away with it not because I'm white, but because the kids are screaming in joy. And the white dude is smiling.

Behold, the seed that fell on good soil, in the very process of making a crop a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.

That statement seems a little braggy until you remember that there's nothing the soil did to be "good." It all comes from a loving and merciful God above, raining down cycles of two way blessing.

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