The kids have done their best to make certain I know where I'm failing. Now, don't feel too sorry for me. I dish out my fair share of your failing remarks to the kids. At our house we've made it customary to let each other know how we really feel. Sometimes when the kids shoot from the hip it hurts and sometimes it makes me think. This week it hurt but then I kissed my wounds and spent some time thinking. I've really set aside some of the tasks that make our house feel like a happy place to be. It's not so much the cleaning and laundry, although I'm sure the kids would appreciate me participating in those activities regularly. It's more the time we spend together. Life is suddenly getting busy and I'm getting slower. I realize I have but a few weeks to go and it makes sense that I'm pretty much a bump on a log. I do, however, think I can step it up a bit. So this week I played with Isaak. We sat down and built with blocks. I made dinner (not every night) and we ate together without me saying pick your poison, I don't care what you eat just fill your gut. I watched (slept through) a movie with the kids. I promised we'd get back on track with better organized family home evenings and I tried really hard to listen to whatever the kids wanted to share. So my biggest smile from the week was me trying to smile when I looked at my kids. Simple smiles just to make sure they know I do love them.
Here's pictures of Isaak and I building a bank out of blocks.
I also found a smile when I called to find out why our recycle was not picked up.
Story goes: No pick up, strange..... yellow tag saying that garbage can not be included in recycle items....
Strange there is no garbage in these items, weird... Make phone call...."So I was just wondering if you could help me understand why my recycle was not picked up?"
"What was in your bags?"
"Cardboard, paper, plastic, cans... all recyclable."
"Were the items separated out?"
"What do you mean?"
Kind woman explains to me that certain bags can only have certain things in them. We are required to in one blue bag have paper and cardboard, another blue bag is plastics, aluminum, glass... etc.. and so on.
So you may say why so funny? Well I had to smile because I knew when I called Kjel he'd freak out and we'd be done recycling.
Guess what??
He said forget it. That's ridiculous. We are not going to separate everything out into specially marked packages. Put white bags around those blue ones and set them out on the curb next week.
As I was chatting with him I was going through Nic's school folder and came across this:
The big words across the top say REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLEOh, the irony that brings forth a smile.
I smiled last Sunday when Kjel drove through a monstrous puddle.
The last time I did that Kjel was disappointed in my childish behavior. Even after explaining to him the joy that we experienced as we watched the water consume the vehicle and how it was impossible to not turn the van around and have a second go, he was frustrated that I had not acted like a responsible adult. The second time through the puddle the van failed. Some belt in the van broke and I ended up in serious trouble trying to steer the van the last quarter mile home. I used every skill to manipulate the situation and explain the true coincidence. Kjel would not bite. I now wonder if he really was just angry because he had missed out on the fun. I think his irresponsible behavior last week proves my point.
Kjel took the van through the puddle at a good (safe) clip and we all enjoyed the water coming up over the van on both sides. I smirked and said, interesting, have we not learned from past experiences? He quipped, I'm only going to go through it once.
The view out my window of the van as we raced through the puddle.I smiled when Isaak one morning begged to go Visiting Teaching. It seems he doesn't get as much kid time with others as he would like. This week we've hit a few homes and the joy has been truly his as he's played with the kids. Poor guy, begging to Visit Teach. Maybe he could get his own route?
I smiled on Saturday when Anthony came downstairs with a Lego ship he and Kjel created and built together.
One last smile....
this week Isaak has been stretching his fashion fingers and designing some interesting attire. I don't have pictures of all the outfits but his favorite which was worn many days in a row was his army pants with orange stitching and his blue, yellow and white button up shirt. It was wonderful to be blessed with his fashion skills all week. This morning Kjel put his foot down and told Isaak he had to pick something that wouldn't hurt his eyes all day long. This is what Isaak chose:
It's hard to see the coloring but he's wearing his infamous blue, yellow and white button up shirt with a long sleeved army t-shirt over top. I'd say he went a much better direction with this choice!