Wordless Wednesday

My beautiful baby boy with pizza on his face after our first picnic lunch of the year. 

I am mother

I have been working hard to instill confidence in my children and give them a strong believe in their self worth. I think that children learn so much more through the examples they interact with than any words we can direct at them. I also have experienced that because of this they make wonderful mirrors of those around them as they reflect back and put into practice what they are learning through their observations. This is how I came to realize my lack of confidence and self-esteem and quickly adopted a plan to remedy such malady.

I saw my children questioning their choices and actions. I watched them heaitate or straight out decline to participate in events with their peers. I heard them struggle to speak to when addressed. These are certainly not traits I was intentionally teaching them so what was the source of this behaviour?

It took me a long time to identify that what I saw in them was reflective of how they saw me and how they perceived I saw myself. What an eye-opener that moment of revelation was. I knew I had been struggling (still am) but had not recognized the impact this was having on the impressionable little minds in my world. 

The plan was to develop a simple set of affirmative statements that I would say to them (thus providing a positive example) and then have them repeat these affirmations (thereby putting into practice these new concepts). We began with four simple ideas and then I ask an open-ended statement that they are to complete with a positive quality or strength they see in themself. At present, our affirming statements are:

1) You are smart.

2) You are kind. 

3) You are strong. 

4) You are loved. 

They took to this new step in our bedtime routine with incredible ease and with only a few weeks behind us I can already identify changes in behaviour. It has also been a good challenge to me, especially when they decided to turn the open-ended statement back to me. After careful consideration, these are my current affirmations:

1) I am confident. 

2) I am able. 

3) I am deserving. 

4) I am mother. 

I am a work in progress and He is still working on me but I am providing my children with a healthier example and for that I am grateful. 

What are you or would you benefit from intentionally working to improve?

Field trip!

I was able to attend my son's grade 6 field trip to the demonstration forest today. It was a great opportunity for the students to be hands on with their science unit and they even had to use some math skills. I am so thankful it was a sunny day as our trek into the mountains revealed areas of knee deep snow and where the snow had melted we had to traverse mud and slush. Good thing for rubber boots or we would have had wet feet and that does not sound like fun.

I was also very impressed with the students. In comparison with the trip I did with them last year, this was a much calmer and more mature group. It is so nice to see the growth. 

The down side is that it was my daughter's class's turn to present at the liturgy and I missed it. It is often a challenge to arrange life so as to be able to attend as many of the kids events as one can. We really felt that this winter with all the activities and became quite accomplished at the divide and conquer approach. Unfortunately, this still means choosing to miss something. 

Perhaps a mini study on the current parenting challenges I am facing would be in order. I think it might also be quite revealing and help to realign priorities. 

We are back in the city now so until next time...

Let it rain

I look forward to spring for the refreshing feeling that comes with it. After sitting under blankets of snow all winter it feels so good to see everything washed clean by the spring rains. Unfortunately, this year winter seems very reluctant to let loose it's hold on us. Here we are nearly a week into May and I am looking out on a fresh falling of the white stuff and frankly, it feels suffocating. It has been a long hard winter apart from the weather but this lingering dreariness has become almost unbearable. My soul needs renewing and the rains do that for me. So, let it rain!

I am seriously lacking in motivation and optimism and as much as I would rather cocoon myself away from the world I have responsibilities that can not be denied. So I pray for revitalizing rain that I may be able to do life rather than get through it. 

Pi Day and random musings

This past Friday was March 14 or 3.14 aka pi day. It is one of those fun days that are an excuse to do things. For our family that means having pie and other round shaped foods to honour the mathematical concept of pi. So we had MYO pizza pie for supper and apple pie for dessert.

       

Friday was also day two of sick kids. This time it started with a croup cough and congestion accompanied by a low yet persistent fever. I had parent teacher interviews that morning and the kids were off school. Thankfully, I had booked them all back-to-back and so was only gone an hour. The afternoon was quiet as my oldest was invited out with a friend and my eldest daughter had a date with gram. That left me with the two littles who were the sick ones so, after my husband got home and we had lunch they were laid down for naps and we got to enjoy a quiet afternoon to ourselves. We cuddled and watched a few episodes of a tv series we like. Time well spent. We finished the day with our pi themed dinner and then watched The Lorax.

Saturday kids were still sick so it was a low-key morning then I went off to work and hubby had the kids for the afternoon. He did have to get everyone out the door for my oldests hockey game and when I got home from work he had them all down for naps execpt for the sick baby who had slept for a while but woke with a fever, again. More sick cuddles. The oldest was out for the night with friends for a hockey game and we had another quiet night watching a hockey game on TV. The kids will tell you that the bast part about Saturday was that we were puppy sitting a sweet little black Havanese.

    Can you see the little black fluff ball sitting next to boys?

Sunday morning we still had fevered kids so kept things mellow. The only things on our schedule were two games and a team dinner for my son's hockey but he ended up stuck between the bathroom and his bed with an upset tummy. The other kids had all gotten ready so we took them out for a bit as we had all been stuck in the house so much with the little ones being sick. We stopped in at the garden center and began to plan for when the snow finally all melts. The bonus is that we found these beautiful windchimes on sale original price $11.99 marked down to $0.67. I thought they would make great additions to the girls treat bags for their upcoming birthdays and so we picked up a dozen. Total cost $8.44 and I had enough left on a gift card so no money out of pocket.

Then we wandered the hardware store and dreamed about what tile we would replace the linoleum at the front entrance with and looked at deck railings. The kids shared a free bag of popcorn and we all were happy.

Kids went for some quiet time after we got home and we just finished watching Tangled. Time for baths, stories, then off to bed. I am praying for a peaceful night and to wake to healthy kids.