Goeffry the Dragon

This short story was written as a family activity using story dice. The words we rolled were: dragon, magnifying glass, bridge, bubbles, happy, fish, foot print, beetle, bee, fountain, fly, and flower. Here is what we came up with, enjoy!

Goeffrey saw a dragon. The dragon was so small he had to look at it under a magnifying glass. Goeffrey and the dragon walked across a bridge. They blew dragon bubbles to each other, and they were happy. When they were done blowing bubbles they went fishing. The dragon fell into a footprint that was two feet deep. The footprint was made by a large beetle. While he was in the footprint, a bee stung the dragon. Next to the footprint was a large fountain. The dragon started to fly away. He landed under a flower where he could rest from he day's adventures.

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“Mom, are House-Elves real?”

I was sitting in the kitchen when I heard one of our sons ask this question:

“Mom, are house-elves real?”

For those who do not know, house-elves are fictional creatures from the Harry Potter series. They are essentially slaves or indentured servants who can only be set free if they are given clothes. If that does not happen, they could end up serving the same family for eternity. They are tasked with everything from washing dishes, to cleaning rooms and shining shoes, to preparing dinner for the entire family.

In the fourth book in the series, Hermione discovers what she sees as the unjust treatment of house-elves and starts a political campaign to give house-elves more rights and liberties. Most people don't join the campaign, because that is how it has been for so long. Most also agree that house-elves would find themselves out of place without a master to serve.

One notable exception is the character named Dobby, a house-elf Harry frees by some trickery in the second book. We see Dobby later in the series working as a free house elf at Hogwarts, the wizarding school, under the direction of the headmaster. He receives wages, can wear clothes, and he can move about as he pleases for the most part.

So, with this background we return to the question: “Mom, our house-elves real?”

I immediately stepped into the room and answered his question.

“If you are asking if there are little creatures called 'house-elves,' then no, they are not real. However, there is someone who makes clothes magically appear in your dresser, and food magically appear on the table. And, like house-elves, they do not get thanked nearly enough for what they do. That person is your mother.”

My son looked at me with a strange expression on his face, and my wife gave a somber nod. So I went on to explain to him that we need to be much more thankful for Mom, and all that she does for us.

I work a 9 to 5 job, and am not able to go grocery shopping the majority of the time. So for all intents and purposes, my food magically appears in the refrigerator or on the table. I try to pitch in as much as I can on the weekends with the house work and the laundry, but I too am guilty of not giving enough thanks to my wife for all she does.

So this mother's day, I would encourage you to set your house-elf free. Buy her some clothes, (Dobby preferred socks, your house-elf may prefer shoes) and set her free! I might even go so far as to wish her a “Happy House-Elf Day,” but most importantly I'm going to help out with the housework a lot more, and not just for the weekend.

Walking Home in a Suit

I will never forget the time I walked home from work in a suit. It was early in our marriage and we had just purchased our first home, and so did not have money to buy a second car. Fortunately our house was exactly one mile from where I worked, so I was able walk to work for the better part of a year.

During that time I received offers on occasion from coworkers for a ride either to or from work, but these were few and far between. The day I wore my suit, however, was a different story.

As I prepared to leave the office, a coworker offered me a ride home. I told him that I could manage but “thank you anyway.” As I walked downstairs and out into the parking lot another coworker offered me a ride. I once again declined, “thanks, it's only a mile I can manage.”

That alone was uncommon. But as I walked home, a van pulled into one of the parking lots and rolled down a window, and a complete stranger offered me a ride home. It was all I could do to keep from laughing. Again I declined and said “no thanks, I got it.” They offered once again, and I told them I was almost home anyway.

This got me to thinking about how appearances change the way people behave towards us. And I was reminded of a story my father use to tell when I was a kid, again involving a suit.

He had been doing some home repairs and ran into town to drop some garbage at the transfer station. It was then he realized he was almost out of gas, so he stopped at a gas station. This was before the time of "pay at the pump" and for whatever reason he had his driver's license but no money to pay for the gas he had pumped.

He went into the gas station in his torn up jeans and his shirt that was covered with paint and sheet rock dust. He offered to leave his driver's license as proof that he would come back and though the clerk was skeptical he agreed.

That evening my father was headed to a religious meeting and was dressed up in his suit and tie. When he went into the gas station to pay the bill, the clerk did a double take and scrutinized the driver's license carefully. Once he realized that the man in torn jeans and the one that now stood before him were the same person, he handed the driver's license back to my dad who then paid the bill.

What is it about a suit that makes people respect you more? It is interesting to me how much our behavior towards other people hinges on appearances.

The Wise Man and the Baby Jesus

With the lack of snow this year I have really been struggling to get into the Christmas Spirit. We have our tree set up and we have been practising Christmas hymns with our church choir since Thanksgiving, but it just hasn't felt like Christmas. On top of this we have been trying to sell our house so the majority of our decorations are all boxed up and inaccessible.

As a family we finally decided to go ahead and set up some of our decorations, so I took the kids with me and we dug out a box of nativity sets that my mother-in-law had given us last year.

We brought them home and began unwrapping the tissue paper that each piece had been carefully stored in and started to assemble the different nativities. It took us a minute to separate each set from the others, and when we were finished I realized that there were a couple of odd pieces that didn't match any of the others. It was then I remembered that I had given her an incomplete set I found on my mission.

Incomplete is probably too generous a word, the set was all but gone! It consisted of two pieces, namely the Baby Jesus and a Wise Man. As we set up the nativities on top of the piano, the thought struck me at the significance of this odd set. Of all the pieces to survive it was a wise man and the Savior.


Mary and Joseph were important and the angels and shepherds played their part, but in today's commercial society it is the wise men (and women) who continue to seek the Savior. Even when all else is lost, even when their situation is less than ideal they are the ones who continue to seek Him. Isn't that really what it is all about? Each of us individually choosing to swallow our pride and political affiliations to seek the Savior?

If you think about it carefully the journey of the wise men makes absolutely no sense. They were wealthy men who lived a comfortable life nowhere near Jerusalem, and yet they still chose to make the arduous journey through various lands and countries with their entourage to find the lowly babe.

How many of us today would be willing to make that same commitment of time, energy, and money just to find a little infant residing in humble circumstances? How many of us are willing to set aside our idyllic lives filled with smartphones, tablets, and streaming entertainment to find the simple ways taught by the man called Jesus?

Perhaps I am making too much of an incomplete nativity, but as I set these pieces alongside the complete sets on the piano I felt a deep stirring in my soul and felt impressed to share my feelings with those of you willing to listen. I want to hear your thoughts and feelings about this, please share in the comments below.

Human Eye

Date: March 10, 2014
Medium: Pencil
Description: The human eye has always fascinated me as a drawing subject. Over the years I have taken several lessons on how to draw the human eye, however I still struggle with eyelashes!

Mark Crilley Landscape

Date: December 14, 2013
Medium: Pencil
Description: Mark Crilley has an excellent YouTube channel. While most of his work is in Manga, he has done several "How to draw" tutorials in other areas as well. This drawing is based on one of his mixed-medium tutorials.

Seascape

Date: August 28, 2013
Medium: Watercolor
Description: I have always struggled with watercolor as a medium. I was able to scrape this seascape from a tutorial and it turned out pretty well.