Reflection

 And it's weekend again! After the long weekend, the week seemed to fly by.  Suddenly we're back on Saturday again.  No complaining here! Today was the kick-off to our community barbeques.  During the summer, we try to have one at least once a month.  It's a great time of hanging out with our neighbours.  Less people were able to stay than usual, but we had great weather for it.  I was excited that a new friend came and stayed to hang out.  We were also celebrating Veronica's son's birthday.  I can't believe it's already been a year since I attended cross-cultural training!

  Just now, I got sidetracked and started reading some of my old posts.  I think I may have been a better writer back then.  Reading through my archives brought back some great memories, some of which I had forgotten.  Apparently Kian was a ghost rabbit.  My children do so many interesting things that I forget many of them.  I try to tell their stories so that I don't forget as much.  The older children ask often to hear stories from when they were babies.  A particular favourite is the crocodile story.

 One day when Aris was two years old, we were at my parent's house.  Aris had been pretending to be a crocodile for about 4 months at this point.  She liked to use her arms as jaws and chomped just about everything, including the toilet.  When we were out in public, she would crawl along the floor because she was a crocodile.  (My youngest has decided that he is a doggy.  We get him to do things by bribing him with imaginary doggy treats.  It works!)

 While hanging out with my parents, Aris suddenly bit me on the behind.  As I was not expecting to be bitten on my bottom, I screamed.  Then I put Aris in time-out.  She sobbed pitifully which I attributed to being disciplined.  After a minute or so, she apologized.  Her apology broke my heart.  Sniffling, with her little lisp, she said " Mommy, I sowwy for tending to be a cwocodile." With a great big hug, I forgave her.  After the hug, we had a talk about not actually biting people while pretending to be crocodile.  Such is life in my house!

 My little crocodile will soon be eight years old.  I can't believe it! She's moved on from chomping things to gardening.  She moved some plants from the forest to a patch on the edge of the forest that she has christened her garden.  Aris waters them, gives them dirt and worm friends.  Today she moved some of the mulch from the main garden over to her little garden.  She also moved over the planter of flowers that my mom gave me.  Her garden did look very pretty that way, but someone(I suspect my husband)  moved it back to my garden.

 I've struggled this week.  But after an evening out and some reflection back, I have much more peace.  My children are such crazy little blessings.  Their antics add much texture and richness to my life, even though I don't always see it immediately.  Perhaps my goal ought to be purposely choosing to see those blessings, rather than getting bogged down in the details(like the child running around naked outside).