"Boys should be inured from childhood to trifling risks and slight dangers of every possible description, such as tumbling into ponds and off of trees, etc., in order to strengthen their nervous system... They ought to practice leaping off heights into deep water. They ought never to hesitate to cross a stream over a narrow unsafe plank for fear of a ducking. They ought never to decline to climb up a tree, to pull fruit merely because there is a possibility of their falling off and breaking their necks. I firmly believe that boys were intended to encounter all kinds of risks, in order to prepare them to meet and grapple with risks and dangers incident to man’s career with cool, cautious self-possession..." —R.M. Ballantyne, The Gorilla Hunters
"OH MY GOSH!!!! Why on earth would you ever PEE on your BROTHER????!!!!" spoken about 2 octaves higher than probably necessary and insanely stressing the word "brother", as if it would be entirely permissible to urinate on a non relative.
"Do NOT play golf with the stick horse and a real live chick!!!"
"Don't fall through the skylights!"
"Take the dead raccoon out of the house."
"No snakes in the house."
"You SHOT that????!!!!"
"Quit peeing in the flower beds!!!"
"Exactly why would you chunk a NASCAR at the glass window???"........asked as the window continued to splinter the rest of the way up.
"You THOUGHT Mentos and diet coke would be fun in the kitchen????"
"OK......I concede. You got me.......AGAIN"..... as a torrent of little boys go into fits of laughter over their accomplishments. For the 105th time I have been saturated by the rubber banded kitchen sink sprayer.
"Guys.......don't REALLY take each other out with your swords."
"GO wash your hands!!! There's fingerprints on your sandwiches!!!!"
"Do not fart on your sister."
"Mud sliding.....naked?????"
"Do NOT use your sling shot for peas and corn! Now......go pick them all up."
"Spit out the dog food."
"Honey....he's eating dirt with the spoon."
"Do not throw rocks at your brother."
"WHY would you even WANT to touch that???!!!"
"If you can't throw pecans at the window why in the world would you throw rocks at it????"
"Don't kick the turtle."
"Don't throw the kitty."
"Don't drag him by his tail!!!"
"Do not drag him by his overalls!"
"You caught a mouse???!!!!! Why????"
"Do not shoot the fish. Use your pole."
All things I never in a lifetime thought of saying.....until a world of little boys entered my life. I lay in bed at night and ponder the humor and irony of some of the things that have poured forth from my lips during the hours that have transpired between my waking with the sun and the quiet moments that I now soak up as the moon sits high in the starry sky. My mind replays like a broken record, "Mama.....I'm gonna marry you" as wiggly little bodies in a variety of camo, monster truck, dinosaur and race car pajamas are tucked under warm covers. Small fingers laced through my hair, fingering through it as they try to find words....any words....to stall the good night process. Finally after kissing and tucking in the little boys my eyes and attention turn to my bigger boy......who not so long ago was one of these....the very size that these little guys are. Lively green eyes still dance with the activity of the day as he tries to wind down and settle in. His head falls to the pillow and his exhaustion seeps in and suddenly I see in him the little boy I held in my arms not so long ago.
It is these thoughts that bring me to my current ponderings. As much of a little boy as he still is to me, change.....sometimes so very hard to embrace....is at hand. My heart tremors with excitement over what I see him becoming.....the man that lies within....yet grieves the growing of my little boy. In an effort to understand him and his changes as he seeks to become more of a man and less of a boy I have read voraciously so that Brad and I can be all that he needs us to be as he grows. Brad recognizes the searching of our boy's heart in his effort to better identify with men instead of boys but this is a very new wilderness for me. As I resort back to my long time favorite reference for parenting these many boys "Bringing Up Boys" and "The Wonder of Boys" my heart has again been reminded of how very amazing my job is as a mother to our 5 little men.
"There has never been, nor will there ever be, anything quite so special as the love between a mother and a son." 
Wrestling matches in the living room floor, cheerios flipped expertly across the room from a well aimed spoon, swords and toy guns still lying where they were dropped when the dinnertime call came, tractors placed not so gently on the hard earth, their front loaders paused in midair still burdened with a mound of dirt waiting to be dumped, the myriad of sticks transformed into fishing poles, rifles and swords that litter the grounds about our house, sap covered clothes that bring a piney smell to the laundry room at night, shaking sawdust, colleche, tree twigs and dry dirt from socks that lay buried in the heap of laundry, patching up hole after hole in jeans of all sizes, gleeful laughing eyes with mischievous little smiles, fire trucks racing through on hard wooden floors, worn out battery operated sirens blaring as they go, a trampoline overflowing with clean cut little boys.....this is my world...this phenomenon that I live everyday. As I read through these books I am once again absolutely in awe over the creation of our God and how intricately He carved out every detail...down to the very gender specific roles that each one of us are born with. This becomes so very evident as I raise both boys and girls and I marvel at their innate differences. I suppose being raised with just one brother, and the youngest of the 3 of us at that, was not much experience for raising many boys of my own. He was a bit girlified by his own 2 sisters and once he reached the age of exploring and really being all boy I just chalked it up to the fact he had different interest and was a little "weird". I never imagined the joy I was in for as we began to be blessed with children and our world of boys expanded so drastically. Despite the many challenges of raising boys there is nothing that will ever compare to the words, "When I grow up I'm gonna marry you, mama" or "If I weren't your son I'd marry you." To know that they think the absolute world of you.......so much so that they would give their everything for you is a daunting yet humbling thought. So soft, so pliable, so moldable.....these hearts I hold in my hand.
I hug them good night and breathe in deeply of clean baby shampooed hair and bodies that smell like grown men's cologne as they pride themselves on smelling like "daddy's soap". Bigger boy's hands are already calloused from outside work and days spent hard at play. Little boys' hands are still soft and not so far removed from their baby skin that clothed them not so very many months ago...but now wrought with scratches, bruises, cuts and dirt stains and every other mysterious stain that goes along with having a little boy or two. As I sit here and ponder what it is to raise a boy my eyes are magnetically drawn to the collection of "fossil" rocks that grace our table in a Dixie cup, the vast array of colorful chicken feathers brought to me as bouquets and the wilted flowers that I somehow have not found time to throw out yet....maybe because throwing them out seems a bit like throwing a little bit of their boyhood out...this time in life that is so fleeting. The clock, ever the bittersweet adversary lurking on the wall as its pendulum sways quietly back and forth, does not seem to sense my misgivings and continues on in its vigil.
These boys of our's...courageous, valiant warriors in the making.....God given gifts that will change the world one person at a time. These boys of our's....they are loved. My little destructo crew, as Brad has lovingly titled them, are a novelty to me. Very few ever look deep enough to find the joy that awaits when raising a boy. I find it ironic that most every pregnant person will tell you they are hoping for a girl and that the majority of all parents of boys cannot wait to turn them loose and be "rid" of them..usually camouflaged in a more subtle politically correct way. They do not see the treasure that awaits them each and every waking hour they are with their little men. When the attitudes come and the obnoxious behaviour that little boys can bring with them surfaces parents seem to throw hands up and walk away...when in those moments the true framework of the boy you are shaping begins to shine through...and you are no longer guessing at what you have to work with. As early as the age of 18 months and 2 years and certainly at 4 I can see in my boys how they handle stress, change, pressure, social circumstances, relationships and I see those areas that can be focused on and those to be encouraged in order to shape the boy into the man he needs to become using the attributes and temperament he has been given. It is never too early to shape the future of the world.
"We as parents are raising the next generation of men who will either lead with honor and integrity or abandon every good thing they have inherited. They are the bridges to the future. We must make the necessary investment to build within our boys lasting qualities of character, self discipline, respect for authority, commitment to the truth, a belief in the work ethic, and an unshakable love for Jesus Christ." James Dobson, Bringing Up Boys
Rocks and NASCARs through windows, golf balls, cell phones and rubber duckies down toilets, very well "watered" flowerbeds, playing catch with the kitty, playing golf with the chick, projectile underwear from ceiling fans, rubber banded sink sprayers, rock collections in the windowsill, baking soda and vinegar volcanoes erupting over entire bathroom cabinets, mentos and diet coke explosions splatter painting any and everything in it's upward path and downward fall, bruises in places I never knew one could have bruises, scraped knees and elbows, dirty fingernails.....this is life with boys and I embrace it......their fun loving adventure seeking ways. The allure of cause and effect experiments. I cannot imagine being without it. How empty life would be. How boring and void of entertainment.
Today I celebrate the miracle of little boys. And I am ever humbled and amazed that God has given us not 1 but 5 leaders to raise. Sometimes I feel so inept at this thing called parenting but when I look at my boys and see the men they will become, the vision we have been given and the work God needs to accomplish through them I find a peace. I know that we have indeed been given the grace, mercy and strength to carry this calling out and produce His warriors.
"Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart."
"How much we would miss without a boy in our life."
"Between the innocence of babyhood and the dignity of manhood, we find a delightful creature of a boy."
"Never underestimate a boy's ability to get into more trouble."
The "I love you's"
"Half the time when brothers wrestle, it's just an excuse to hug each other."
"Some parents say it is toy guns that make boys warlike. But give a boy a rubber duck and he will seize its neck like the butt of a pistol and shout "Bang!" George F. Will
"A boy is trust with dirt on it's face, beauty with a cut on it's finger, wisdom with bubble gum in it's hair, and the hope of the future with a frog in it's pocket."
"What we have a right to expect of the American boy is that he shall turn out to be a good American man." Theodore Roosevelt
"When you teach your son, you teach your sons' sons."
"To become a real boy you must prove yourself brave, truthful, and unselfish."~ Pinocchio
"The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful."
"There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life that he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure." Mark Twain
"Boys are found everywhere... on top of, underneath, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around, or jumping to."
"The boys are in such a mood that if someone introduced the Ten Commandments, they'd cut them down to seven." Norris Cotton
"Come boy, climb up my trunk and swing from my branches and be happy."
".....the gift of brothers...."
"Build me a son, whose heart will be clear, whose goals will be high, a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men, one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget to weep, one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past."
"It used to be that I could look at you and see traces of the baby you once were. Now I look at you and instead catch glimpses of the man you will become."
"If I have a monument in this world, it is my son."
"The day a boy becomes a man, is the day he shoots his first buck."
"In a boy's world...there's nothing that beats climbing a good tree."
"One of the scariest aspects of raising boys is their tendency to risk life and limb for no good reason. It begins very early. If a toddler can climb on it, he will jump off it. He careens out of control toward tables, tubs, pools, steps, trees and streets. He will eat anything but food and loves to play in the toilet. He makes "guns" out of cucumbers or toothbrushes and likes digging around in drawers, pill bottles and Mom's purse. And just hope he doesn't get his grubby little hands on a tube of lipstick. A boy harrasses grumpy dogs and picks up kitties by their ears. His mom has to watch him every minute to keep him from killing himself. He loves to throw rocks, play with fireand shatter glass. He also gets great pleasure out of irritating his brothers and sisters, his mother, his teachers and other children. As he gets older he is drawn to everything dangerous - skateboards, rock climbing, hang gliding, motorcycles and mountain bikes. It's a wonder any of them survive." James Dobson, Bringing Up Boys
"You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes."
The spirit is there in every boy; it has to be discovered and brought to light.
Robert Baden-Powell
"A boy is naturally full of humor." Robert Baden-Powell
"Boys are God's way of telling you your house is too clean!"
"I'll love you forever,
