My mom-in-love came over and lived with us for 6 months, and Butch and Carla's crew were over and as usual, the boys were outside playing. We had a huge yard, no neighbors, and lots of interesting things to get into trouble with! Not deliberately, just the usual boys being boys things!
They had climbed the pear tree more than once and eaten wormy green pears, they had destroyed my green bean plants (one of them didn't like green beans!), but they also just had a lot of good, old-fashioned boy fun.
Their mamaw had mentioned someting about the pie plant we had growing in the yard. The plant had been there since we moved in, but the fact being that we didn't like rhubarbe, we usually just let church members pick it and use it. When Mom W. said "pie plant," well you can imagine what went through their minds! Pie's good, right?
One day, after they had all been out for a good while, it was time for gouter, which is afternoon snack time...an absolute must for all French raised kids! We called them in, and they were all looking not so hot...and very guilty! They didn't want their gouter, so we knew something major was wrong.
Suddenly, one of them bolted for the bathroom. Soon there was quite an epidemic and our one bathroom was much in demand. We finally figured out they had a joint secret and got it out of them. They had decided to eat the rhubarbe! They had eaten every stalk...and it was still not ripe! And it was a VERY large rhubarbe plant!
I can tell you this, God does take especial care of His little ones! Since then, I have learned green rhubarbe can be toxic! They all survived, though they were dog sick for a bit, and none of them ever wanted anything to do with rhubarbe ever again!
We did take the precaution of digging the plant up and giving it away! Who knows but what some other child would decide to do the same thing! As we had church in the bottom part of our house, we felt that was the wisest move!
Ya'll have a blessed day and remember, God loves us, even when do the not so smart things!
Rhubarb pie is delicious--but you have to use ripe rhubarb AND cook it!! (Or buy it already baked.)
ReplyDeletelol! Fran, I don't like it in pie either! But, hey, everybody likes different things!
ReplyDeleteHello, I visited your blog when you first posted, but I've been absent since then because of taking the month of April off.
ReplyDeleteI so enjoyed your story today because it shows just how literal children are. I'm glad that your boys suffered no lasting affects--except that they don't like rhubarb pie!
You have a wonderful way of expressing yourself.
Peace.
Thank you, Dee! Kids really are literal, and our crew were dealing with things in 2 languages and 2 cultures, so it was often quite confusing to them! But we had some fun times! I hate there all grown up and now the grands are getting so grown up...sigh!
DeleteI have never tried it and never really even wanted to experiment so I am clueless to this day about that plant. Those kids learned the hard way though.
ReplyDeleteI remember that!They all stood in line for the bathroom for hours it seemed like! lol This cracks me up! I'm so glad I didn't partake that day!
ReplyDeleteThey were sick puppies, all right! Felt so sorry for them!
DeleteJust realized I spelled rhubarb the French way...oops! I get confused when the words are so similar and it is always the French that comes out on top!
ReplyDelete