Today my daughter found another "treasure". In a box of crafting material that she had taken from Brian's house she found what appeared to be a large bag of old worn out socks. When she opened it and removed them there were 42 very rough versions of Brian's famous sock puppets! We all knew Brian's had made these infamous sock puppets but none of us had any idea there were so many or that he had kept them. What another true gift.
As a general rule he was a neat freak and his house was completely clutter-free. (Probably a holdover from having a mother that couldn't turn loose of anything!) Unlike me - he purged. His house was immaculate. His bills, his household files and old income tax records looked as though they belonged to a really picky accountant. But he, like me, still had a sentimental streak in him especially when it came to anything to do with his children.
Neither of us could believe he had saved all of those ragged home-made sock puppets. But how thankful to God I am that he did.
It all began when the kids were young as he was purging old badly-stained, unmated socks or socks with holes. He put one on his hand and started it "talking" to the kids - which was kind of always his thing. Everything when placed in Brian's hands "talked" and had a personality; bagels, tortillas, diapers - everything. The kids just loved it. So began the sock puppet menagerie and as everything tends to do - what started as a fluke took on a life of its own. He started drawing faces and funny mustaches on them. Then he began to give them names. Then the kids got big enough to get in on the game. Thanks to Hobby Lobby the sock puppets got brightly colored pompom noses, wonky eyes, yarn hair and even straw hats. He gave them all different voices and distinguishing characteristics and he began to make up fun stories "starring" the socks. And this was how a single dad entertained two active kids without a mother in the household for almost 10 years.
One day he got the idea to use the sock puppets as a teaching tool to help the kids learn the stories of the bible. With the sock puppets he made the stories come alive to them so that they could remember them, relate to the characters and understand the stories better.
He told stories of Daniel in the lions den; David and Goliath, Joseph as his brothers threw him in the pit and sold him; Joseph interpreting the dreams and how he went on to save his father's household through the famine. He told of the story of Boaz and of Moses in the bulrushes, then how he was rescued and later in life killing the Egyptian, He also told the story of Moses and Aaron leading God's people that had been in bondage in Egypt and the story of the plagues that God sent to the King when he would not let them go and later how God gave Moses the ten commandments. I'm sure that is not all but all I can remember.
The kids ate it up. They even reversed roles and the kids presented the puppet bible stories to him. So obviously his plan worked pretty good and consequently they probably knew the stories of the bible better than most Preacher's children at their age. The only difference was that in their eyes Moses will always have bright orange feather hair!
It was one of the sweetest memories to me and I just had to share.
As a general rule he was a neat freak and his house was completely clutter-free. (Probably a holdover from having a mother that couldn't turn loose of anything!) Unlike me - he purged. His house was immaculate. His bills, his household files and old income tax records looked as though they belonged to a really picky accountant. But he, like me, still had a sentimental streak in him especially when it came to anything to do with his children.
Neither of us could believe he had saved all of those ragged home-made sock puppets. But how thankful to God I am that he did.
It all began when the kids were young as he was purging old badly-stained, unmated socks or socks with holes. He put one on his hand and started it "talking" to the kids - which was kind of always his thing. Everything when placed in Brian's hands "talked" and had a personality; bagels, tortillas, diapers - everything. The kids just loved it. So began the sock puppet menagerie and as everything tends to do - what started as a fluke took on a life of its own. He started drawing faces and funny mustaches on them. Then he began to give them names. Then the kids got big enough to get in on the game. Thanks to Hobby Lobby the sock puppets got brightly colored pompom noses, wonky eyes, yarn hair and even straw hats. He gave them all different voices and distinguishing characteristics and he began to make up fun stories "starring" the socks. And this was how a single dad entertained two active kids without a mother in the household for almost 10 years.
One day he got the idea to use the sock puppets as a teaching tool to help the kids learn the stories of the bible. With the sock puppets he made the stories come alive to them so that they could remember them, relate to the characters and understand the stories better. He told stories of Daniel in the lions den; David and Goliath, Joseph as his brothers threw him in the pit and sold him; Joseph interpreting the dreams and how he went on to save his father's household through the famine. He told of the story of Boaz and of Moses in the bulrushes, then how he was rescued and later in life killing the Egyptian, He also told the story of Moses and Aaron leading God's people that had been in bondage in Egypt and the story of the plagues that God sent to the King when he would not let them go and later how God gave Moses the ten commandments. I'm sure that is not all but all I can remember.
The kids ate it up. They even reversed roles and the kids presented the puppet bible stories to him. So obviously his plan worked pretty good and consequently they probably knew the stories of the bible better than most Preacher's children at their age. The only difference was that in their eyes Moses will always have bright orange feather hair!
It was one of the sweetest memories to me and I just had to share.
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