Pulling Ponytails and Paying the Piper

Birdie told me her first story the other day. Yes, if you can play charades, you could have understood it too. Her friend, Beau, had been gone for a few weeks to see his Navy dad in San Diego but he was back on Sunday. Before he left, the childcare worker for the fitness ministry who has kept both of them since they were just weeks old, told me that Beau was getting rougher but Birdie was holding her own with him. On the car ride home from church, I said, "Oh! Beau was back today. Did you see Beau?" She nodded and said, "Beau." I asked, "Did you have fun playing with Beau?" She got a horrible little thinking look on her face and then dramatically reached up and pulled her own tussled ponytail and said, "Oww!" I asked, "Oh, did Beau pull your hair?" She nodded yes. It's not coming through as convincing as it was in the car but I feel quite confident I know what happened in Sunday School. :)

Let me throw down my usual disclaimer: Some of you work in schools, some of you have school-agers, I, however, am going through all of this for the first time in a loooong time with Beatle. So far this year, I have packed a lunch for her every day. It's not anything I'm doing for any particular reason besides I just haven't paid the lunch lady yet. Plus, I just find it a little expensive. Beatle's told me she can just go get milk so I don't always pack a drink. (Silly me, I just thought that it was part of some Obama-initiative for all children to have access to a serving of milk a day. We do lots of other weird things for people so I didn't know!) She hopped in the car on Monday and said, "I got stopped by the lunch lady today. She said I couldn't have any more milk until you send some milk money. But, (in her most honest voice!) I told her that my mom doesn't have money for milk and she let me take one anyway." Sometimes, I get so convicted about being such a cheapskate and talking openly about how "Dad doesn't get paid until the end of the week so we don't have a lot of extra money" or other similar conversations! Shame on me! And, the funny thing is, just earlier that day, I had a conversation with the counselor about doing our part to help some families through hard times; if the lunch lady went to the counselor to talk about Beatle's situation, they must have been really confused!