Vices and Voices

A few weeks ago the whole family went for a car ride through the beautiful Amish countryside. We were passing some of the cutest farms and homesteads, complete with buggies parked outside and clothes hanging from the line. At a lot of the homes, multiple families were to be seen playing volleyball, horseshoes, or just sitting around talking.

It was very picturesque and quaint. I love the Ohio countryside. I feel like I can breathe out here. We live in a small town in a cute suburban neighborhood but it only takes a few twists and turns and I find myself riding past huge open corn/soy/hay/empty fields. Nothing is crowding around, the noise is minimal, and I love to fill my lungs with the smells of grass, hay, and fresh air.

Back to the story... As we were cruising along we noticed two buggies coming towards us on the left side of the road. Which, buggies in Holmes County, Ohio is not unusual, what was unusual was that the first buggy was swaying wildly from side to side. As our two vehicles drew near to each other I noticed several things at once. The buggy was "misbehaving" because it was jammed with teenage boys who were leaning over the sides and shouting back to the rear buggy, which was also full of teenage boys in complete Amish attire. I started laughing because it struck me funny that this was the Amish equivalent of joy-riding. Two buggies packed to the gills with straw-hat and suspender wearing adolescents enjoying a Sunday afternoon ride while chugging beer. Yep, you read right folks. They were drinking and being merry with silver bullets in their hands. It was such an ironic sight.

After we started to head home(our Sunday evening family ride turned into a 2 1/2 hour excursion) we noticed that Aidan was looking very sleepy. Now, as I may have mentioned in previous posts, whenever Aidan gets really tired he starts saying really random things and asking insane questions about rocket fuel or death or some other deep thought on the universe.

As I noticed his eyes getting heavier Aidan piped up and said, "I heard a voice in my head."

Uhhhhhh, what? Nate and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows and I replied, "Oh? Um, what did the voice say?" All the while pleading in my hear, "please don't say to burn down the house, please don't say to burn down the house, etc..."

Aidan looked down and said sheepishly and a little defensively, "I don't want to tell you."

Like I've mentioned Aidan can be random so I was trying to be non-chalant, "Oh, come on Aidan, what did the voice say?"

Again, I was de-nied. I deduced that he had actually just recognized that he could hear his own thoughts. It was funny, cute, and I tried to forget how he had phrased this discovery.

Fast forward to two days ago and Camden and Aidan got into a stupid fight because Aidan kept softly sighing before he fell asleep and Camden didn't like it so he was telling him to stop and threatening with ignoring him forever and Aidan was now crying and Camden went to sleep on the couch and blah, blah, blah...I don't know why society thinks only girls are drama queens cuz my boys can give any diva a run for her money.

Finally Nate gets everyone straightened out and back to bed however one small detail bothered him. Aidan said he was sighing so he wouldn't hear the voice in his head. NOT AGAIN!! Seriously, I can see the headline now, "Five year old kills entire family because voices told him to." It's not funny. Not really. But it was kinda creepy/funny since he refused to explain his thoughts.

I was on a mission. The next morning I pleaded, and begged, and asked, and made doe-eyes at my beautiful five year old son to tell me what the voices were saying. He looked embarrassed, said he didn't remember, and then he suddenly remembered one thing.

Here it comes I thought. Do I want to know?

Aidan: it said that Jesus is my Savior.

Well. That floored me. That was the last thing I was thinking of but apparently the subject of Jesus Christ's love and role in Aidan's life was what was on his mind.

How sweet was that? And Nate was all paranoid....hehehe...yeah, it was Nate ...

GOODNIGHT!