My six year-old son, Will, can be exasperating at times but wholly adorable and endearing at others. When I think of a typical hyperactive, sensitive yet teasing "snakes and snails..." etc. kind of boy, Will comes immediately to mind. Yesterday he made me laugh so hard that I was in tears!!!

We had gotten snow on Friday, so the public schools were canceled. I have three children homeschooled and three in the public school system -- for now. We make our choices as the Lord leads. At any rate, this was really the first real snow we've had that was not immediately followed by rain and didn't turn to slush. So when the kiddies all wanted to play outside after lunch, I was glad to be able to bundle them up and let them run off some of their energy and play. They immediately went to work building forts, snowmen and the like, but because of the temperature I called them in about an hour or so later with the promise that if the weather stayed nice and it was not too cold, they could play outside on Saturday when Daddy got home from work.

When Saturday dawned, the kids were up early looking for their snow suits, gloves and stuff, but...we had a lot chores to finish up. Since this has been an area where I often have problems with the kiddies, I hoped that the promise of outdoor play later when Dad got home -- and consequently unlocked the garage to free the sleds from their year of dormant captivity -- would entice them to scurry and do their chores, to the best of their ability and as soon as possible. In our house this means without stopping to play with every toy we pick up along the way before it is put away or actually getting the laundry from the second floor into the basement - or better still, in the washer! - before we stop to do other things and forget. At any rate, it would be a few hours of chores before play was a possibility.

Well, unfortunately the children were not as focused on their chores and Les ended up working fairly late into the afternoon, so there was barely time to eat and clean up before we readied for church. Because Will hadn't taken a bath the day before (he's at that stage where cleanliness is apparently an "iffy" thing!) I had him go upstairs so he could get a bath. I followed behind, asked 12 year-old Zachary to get Will's bath water running, then stepped into my room to pick out a nicer shirt for church (ie, one not stained with flour and other remnants of dinner). Well, Les walked upstairs. He hadn't known I'd asked Will to get a bath and had planned on taking a quick shower too, so he walked into the bathroom to find Will sitting on the floor trying to pull off a snow boot. In the spirit of trying to be helpful -- not to mention hurry Will along -- Les grabbed at the boot and pulled it off only to get frustrated because he saw Will was wearing one of his socks.

I need to quickly state that the socks in our home apparently have lives of their own. Not only do they wander off from the drawers of their original owners, but they are also so mischievous that they jump into the hallways or under the tables or the sofa and have even hid from us for months at a time. In fact, some socks have even been known to go into the washing machine and the dryer as a pair, but come out as a single...I haven't even begun to tackle what connotations that could present!!!

So having a bunch of missing socks, and wanting to rush Will's bath so he could get his own shower, Les started to pull the sock off of Will...and found yet another sock under that one, belonging to older brother Zachary. Les proceeded to pull that sock off only to find another sock! This one belonged to either Kayla (12) or Sara (9), hard to say as both girls have almost the same kind of sock. By this time there is a little annoyance, as we're a big family and the regular amount of laundry can be a huge chore. Anything extra is just frustrating. Not to mention the issue of the sneaky socks. So Les - by this time upset that not only had Will dirtied other socks unnecessarily, but that he'd used socks that were certainly not his - pulled that "girl" sock off...And yep, there was another sock! This one was likely 7 year-old Emma's sock (another "girl" sock).

Having heard some of the conversation from the next room, I had come to the doorway by this time and was starting to chuckle. Les was a little confounded at the situation and pulled off the sock -- only to reveal yet another sock! This one was actually Will's own sock, and Les thought that once he pulled it off, he'd be done. But no...the final sock on Will's right foot -- for a total of six socks! -- belonged to 3 year-old Sammy! So not only did Will pile on the socks, but started with the smallest and worked his way up! I guess he was using a pattern??

By this time I was really laughing. In fact, I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face. I figured I knew Will's reasoning behind the whole thing, but just to be sure that I understood his little boy mind, I asked him why so many socks? His response was that he thought he was going out to play. That would have made sense, I think -- Will wanting to dress warmly in layers. And that would have been funny enough. But when Les started to pull the boot off of Will's left foot he found...only one sock!!! Which threw the logic out the window and into the snow...Ah the working of little minds...

But you know -- besides the Lord God who created everything...who can truly understand what goes on in the minds of young boys??!!