Today was one of those days where I seemed to take one step forward and two steps back.
There are not enough parenting classes in the world that would leave me feeling totally equipped for what lay ahead...or is that simply "perspective?"
It's never a good thing to awake like Miss Clavel in Madeline thinking "Something is not right!" I jumped out of bed and raced through to the boys room (good guess!) and found the younger two quickly pulling up their covers and initiating synchronized snoring noises. I'm still not entirely sure what was transpiring but I'm fairly certain I foiled the plan! After a brief "I'm going to have a bath and I'd best not hear any more" I head to the bathroom with intentions of breaking my bath speed record.
Despite my best attempts at hurrying...I had my bath while listening to extremely loud thumping. I feared there was jumping from high places while role playing oh.....I don't know....Tarzan, Superman,.....some Star Wars hero.....(note to self....clothing is much easier to put on if you have taken the time to properly dry off!)....I raced through the door to find one with another in a head lock that surely was cutting off oxygen!!!
The oldest..."the more mature one" after politely advising me I was having a bad hair day suggested he had done his very best to control the two, still sat with that smug look of pure entertainment on his face. I thanked him for noticing my new hairstyle and suggested he move quickly to complete his chores and get downstairs for breakfast.
This was all before 7am!
I'm resigned at this point I believe that finding my happy place and relying on well practised deep breathing exercises would be mandatory for survival! Their survival!!
All this to say the day progressed as expected with a larger than usual number of distractions, meltdowns, pouting episodes, tantrums, refusals, and just downright naughtiness.... At least it's predictable!
By 10:00 I had "nuked" my coffee at least eight times and still was working on the first cup. I had implemented the do not sit within arms length of your brother rule and spent the rest of the time trying to enforce said rule while jumping over the gate to stop the baby from climbing on everything, pulling the light cord on and off at record speeds, and emptying his mouth of "whatever" that was he found under the couch cushion!!! I taught language at two grade levels and marked tests, celebrated with my five year old the success in his math program and encouraged reading, reminded several times that the planner has all the information regarding "what now?" if they would read it and said "Please sit down on your bottom with your feet flat on the floor to do your work" no less than 50 times!!!
Lunch time came and went, the baby was down for a nap and my taxi-ing to co-op complete I sat to eat my lunch while the children had some free time. I recapped the morning in my mind wondering what I could have done differently to make things run a little smoother and then I realized as I often do that I was doing the very best I could and although it seemed to me to be totally out of control we had accomplished all that I had set out to accomplish this morning and I should just "collect" myself and get on with it!
One of my boys is struggling these days. He's a very bright child, capable of all I ask....all that is, except any and all social cues, impulse control, boundaries, following rules even when he can recite them verbatim, and a clear understanding of dangerous behaviour (both to himself and others)...piece of cake if I sit and hold his hand all day but alas.....I am divided in eight directions and that is not possible. Here's where I insert the "thankful I home school" plug!
He is the one who "melts" at the first sign of not completely "getting" the math lesson even though with brief instruction he's off and running...he gently loves on his biological brother proudly "helping" him without being asked one minute and the next is wailing...."I'm not doing this...I'm not helping...You just want me to suffer!" My precious woven rugs (read my last post) are exceptionally intricate.As I finished my teaching day and I was trying to wrap up my marking I struggled with how I might have made this day easier for this same child. How might I better serve him to make his journey easier and to be honest....to make it easier on all of us...I opened his spelling work and the stress of my day dissipated as I found myself laughing out loud at the response to the final question in his work....
Complete each sentence with a spelling word that means the same as the boldface word.
#17. allow God will not __________________ the foot of the righteous to be moved (Psalm 121:3)
Very carefully he had inserted the word........ "smell"...........I'm still laughing and I'm reminded of how important laughter is in my day.
I called him over to go over his work and when I got to this answer he looked at me waiting for instruction...."Honey....did you look this scripture up?"...."Nope I knew it all by myself!"
His honesty.....my day went from "suffer" to "smell"....to "smile"!!
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