(Hello. Yes I’m still here. And yes, all is well. I’ve just been sleeping for the last 2 days! :0) )
Today is a special day because Grace is 5! Yes, she’s the birthday girl today. We are having her party tomorrow with the family. On Saturday nights, we have roller skating up at the Christian School gym. So we are meeting together early to have her party, then people will come and skate afterwards. Even more important is that she thinks it’s all for her: the party and the skating (even thought the skating has been planned for awhile). I am so grateful for it, too! I am in no frame of mind to be planning a party. Grace wants cheeseburgers, french fries, chips and ice cream cake. Everyone is bringing something, which takes a lot of the pressure off me.
This week has actually been a good one. Compared to the last few weeks (or the last month really), I’m far more calm and non-irritated. Well, I guess I’m still getting irritated, but I’m handling it much, much better then I have before. Why? I’ve been wondering that too, and I think I have come to at least part of the answer. It’s impossible to go through what we have gone through and not come away with a different perspective on life. I see things in a different light and my priorities have been re-arranged. I don’t feel so uptight about things. I do have certain “goals” for the day, but they have amounted to meals being eaten at certain times. And I seem to be “going with the flow” better than I was before. It appears to be easier for me to say, “This does need to get done. But if it’s not done by this time, that’s okay”. I’ve never really been able to say that before. I have been so concerned about crossing things off my “list”, that I lost sight of the things that are really important (hint: getting the laundry done in one day is not one of those important things!). Granted, this is the end of the first week and we haven’t gotten back into our “groove” yet (like school). And last week was certainly anything but calm! But I am encouraged about how I’ve handled situations this week and how I’ve reacted to the children (or in most cases, haven‘t reacted to them!).
One more thing that is interesting is that even Adam has been more calm this week in the way he’s talked and interacted with the children. I’m not sure if my attitude has anything to do with it (probably not), but it is an interesting observation non-the-less.