Motherhood (when it involves boys)

Ok, so my boys have discovered the joy of tooting. It usually starts with "Did you toot?" then a giggly little "yeah... 'scuse me" and a bunch of laughing. Then a big groan and "that's STING-KY!". We do this three or four times eating breakfast and then the whole thing gets repeated as the day goes on.

It's not the just the joy of bodily functions that I'm having to adjust to. It's the "boy-ness". I have two sisters and a brother. I am saying right now, in front of God and everyone, that my brother is THE most well behaved boy on the face of the earth (ok... aside from that time when Amy and I were trying to watch "Steel Magnolias" and Jason stood there with his boxers under his butt cheeks until we noticed). I had no clue what I was in for with these boys.

This afternoon, I was putting up shelves in my soon-to-be-completed scrapbook room. Out of the corner of my eye I see Liam tackling Sean. As I'm about to go in and tell Liam to get off, I see that Sean has taken the upper hand and is now on top. They're laughing hysterically and all I can think is that someone is going to lose an eye.

Liam won this old school paper monster mask (I think it's Frankenstein from one of the old monster movies) and they took turns wearing it and chasing each other around the house. Sean is shrieking (like a girl, I might add) and running into everything in the living room. It's just always chaos -- the good kind, the kind that makes you realize you're alive, I suppose. But chaos, nonetheless. And they're only 5 and 2 1/2 years old. How do I survive when they're 13 and 15 years old and giving each other atomic wedgies?!

I have these thoughts about God, and how far away He is. Then I look at Sean and Liam and think that maybe He's not as far as I think.