Bunches of things all smushed into one

This precious baby will be 9 months old next month. (sigh...he's almost grown)

I've had two or forty things rumbling around in my head the last few days. Here is my attempt to download a few of them:
One: Forty Bags in Forty Days. Has anyone read about this? Is it a Lenten challenge to donate 40 bags of your gently used wares to Salvation Army or Goodwill throughout the 40 days of Lent. The idea is to pack up one bag a day......easy enough for most of us to do. I am behind, in that Lent began last Wednesday, however, I'm pretty sure my first sorting will turn up more than one bag, so I'll catch up gradually. My closets could stand to lose a few hundred pounds in overage, how 'bout yours?

Secondly, there have been some hilarious things uttered in this house lately. Benjamin is talking now so between the two motor mouths, Jeff and I are lucky to get a word in edge-wise. On a serious note, we're trying to teach them "their place" which might be an old fashioned idea, but we will readily admit to being that way about some things. (read further and you'll see just how old fashioned we are.....not) However, keeping them from thinking they are the center of the universe and our sole source of entertainment is quite a challenge when we can hardly keep from laughing in hysterics listening to their conversations. They are a pretty good source of entertainment.......especially considering the lack of quality sources elsewhere.
Whatever Benjamin says, the last word is drawn out in an excessively country accent. This makes us smile and wince in pain. Is that how we sound?
"Da-yee, I saw a tyger at dug heee-yl." (Daddy, I saw a tiger at dug hill.)

The other day Virginia, busy as a bee as usual, called to me, "Mommm, I'm going to use my shirt as my napkin. Mkaaaay?"
I quickly dropped whatever I was doing and ran to assist.

Then last night she called to Benjamin from the bathroom, "Beeeeeeee, I'm done!" and he got up and ran in there saying "Ok Sissy, I come wipe you....."
Um, no.
No sir, you won't.
We're all about being helpful and serving others with acts of kindness, but my two wiping my three is totally out of bounds and completely gross. Ick. Being helpful has its limits.

I got the "two" and "three" from Virginia. She has about 10 puhtend children and they each have very complicated life stories. Just ask her about any one of them and she'll rattle off some plot worthy of a daytime soap spot. Drama. I truly believe girls are just born with it.
So, her babies are identified by name sometimes and then other times by age, for instance this is what I often hear: "my four and my six have a piano lesson today, but my two is still asleep"
And this next one you won't believe, but it really happened.
We are learning Psalm 100 as a family. We started out teaching it to the kids, but we've learned it ourselves in the process, such a great bonus to teaching your children scripture. It's the one that begins, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth."
We're down to the last few verses. They love this part: "Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us, we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture."
The other night, at bedtime, we were working on it. After a few attempts at reciting the whole thing, there was a pause and a little teeny toot escaped from someone, we weren't sure who. We didn't have time to speculate even before our quick-witted little girl announced rather enthusiastically, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord!" and then fell out laughing.............red faced, total har-harring at her own joke. We were too stunned to say anything at first. (Very shortly after that, against our better judgement, we laughed too.)
The funniest thing was that she said it seriously and then laughed, just the way an adult would deliver a punchline.
.....Not that we normally joke like that at our house. Never.