Memory is a funny thing

Sunday night, Mosey came to me humming a tune and wanted to know what it was. I told her it was “Rise up, oh men of God,” and she went to look it up in the Trinity (Presbyterian) hymnal so she could play it on the piano.

It wasn’t in that hymnal, which I thought was odd — I know I’ve played it a lot in the last few years, and that’s the hymnal I use most often — but I told her to check the Baptist hymnal, the one I grew up with. Sure enough it was there. St. Thomas is the tune’s name, so I looked it up in the Trinity. “I love thy kingdom, Lord” is one of the two hymns sung to St. Thomas in the Trinity. It’s also the hymn we had sung before the Gospel reading that very morning.

As if that weren’t bad enough, not only am I the one who picked out that hymn, but I’m the one who played it during the service! And yet, the words that came to me when I heard the tune by itself were the ones I grew up with.

That's muh boy

Yesterday while we were turning the calendar page over, I mentioned to my little man that his 8th birthday is next month. And that’s when it struck me… he won’t be home for it. My mom and I spent at least an hour on the phone together Saturday going over our upcoming commitments (and they are legion) and planning how to get all the kids out to her house, half-way across the country, for their regular summer visit. We’ll be doing it in two batches, the boys one time and the girls next.

So I told him, “You’ll be at Grandma’s on your birthday this year.”

It fell out this way two years ago too, and I would have thought he’d prefer it that way. But he said, “I’d rather be with you on my birthday… When I’m with you I get tools, but when I’m at Grandma’s I only get toys.”

:-D