Preface to my Book

 Preface

Now, before we get started, there is something I need to do.  I need to tell you a little story about my three children so you can better understand where it is that I’m coming from, and why it is that I said what I said about each of them. Remember, most of the blogs were written years and years ago; my children’s lives have changed dramatically since these writings, but for the most part their personalities have remained intact.  This is a little story I made up to explain the differences in my children. This event never actually took place. 

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One day I was sitting on the couch in the cold den because the heat had been turned down below 60 for some reason; no one really knows why, no one with three children in their almost teen years anyway. As I sat freezing under a couch pillow, contemplating getting up and finding a blanket, my son Reuben came into the house; big, brawny, bulky, he was covered in mud and had a really excited gait to his step, half breathing, half talking, he asked me, “Mom, where are the matches?  I want to burn the barn down out back behind our house so I can clear it out to play football?”   Did I just hear him correctly? If I did he’s not done it yet, and he’s actually asking my permission in his weird little way, letting me know both his intention, and saying he needs my help.   

As I was no longer sitting on the couch, but flying to the kitchen and over to the third drawer where I keep the matches, I blocked my son from taking them out of the drawer long enough to begin to explain to him why it would be that we should not, cannot, will not be burning any barns down any time soon!  Before I could finish my little mom-rant, my 2nd child Laura, cute as a button, never actually looking her age, and just smart as a whip, came walking into the kitchen with her little notebook. She always carried her little notebook so she could write out things she was thinking, or calculate things she needed to know. This time was no different. Her big brown eyes glanced at Reuben first, then at me, noting that I was blocking her brother from the third drawer she said, “Mommy, I took the matches. I saw Reuben coming and heard him talking to Jonathan outside, so I knew what he was about to do.  I hid them so he won’t get them, but here’s the deal; I made a list of all the reasons why Reuben should be allowed to remove the barn, and even made a chart with graphics to explain how it could be done without actually having to burn it down. Do you want to see?  To be honest, her actions even took Reuben by surprise this time, not me. She’s always been that way. 

Just as I was about to let Laura show me her drawings and have her try to engage Reuben into her means and ways of finding a better way to facilitate whatever it was that he needed or wanted to do, my ears were pricked by the sound of the city fire department’s truck and engines barreling down the side road behind my house.  Upon looking out the back window all three of us could see black smoke billowing upward into stark, twisted, dark plumes...it didn’t take any of us long to figure out what was happening. Caity found the matches.  

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Enjoy your read.