Persevering In Family Time

 It's rare to have a perfect day with my family.  Perhaps this is common in most families, I can only speak for mine.  My children, while being beautiful, energetic little blessings, are not easy children. I have only to mention my children's names to get wide-eyed looks and whispered "How do you manage?"  They are not bad children, just spirited.  Very very spirited.

 Yesterday being Sunday we opted to have a family day.  After getting very good burgers for take-out, our family went for a bike ride.  It was a beautiful day, not too hot, not too cold.  It should have been perfect.  Instead, Steve and I exercised great patience and restraint in not ordering our children back to the house immediately after starting.  Kian was perfectly happy with his bike attached to Daddy's.  It was the other two who were too scared, or frustrated or tired of trying that tried our patience. There was much wailing and stopping of bikes directly in front of adults.  Thankfully, none of us wiped out(although Zane did fall off the monkey bars while playing at Steve's old school).  After much perseverance, we made it to our destination and back, without using our mean words.  This was indeed a victory!

 After accomplishing two family favourites(bike ride and special lunch), we decided to try for a third.  It was then that we almost struck out.  It took much negotiation, patience and some tears before we managed to get everyone out the door.  Even as we headed to the local games store for board game night, there were some very sullen expressions on little faces.  The children each picked out a special treat and then we snagged a corner to set up our game.   Much of the drama stemmed from the recognition that we did not have enough time to play Star Wars Monopoly.  Instead we cruelly forced our children to play one of their favourite games, Kids of Carcassonne. They love this game and ask to play it often.  But on the one night we only have enough time to play it, they seem to have relegated it to the list of "Things Parents Use to Torture Children". *sigh*  Once we started playing, they had a great time, even though one of them was still a little touchy.  I may have "helped" certain children win around the same time so as to avoid meltdowns.   Again, perseverance and patience were needed, but eventually we had a great family outing.

 I had to leave for youth group immediately after returning home.  I was a bit anxious after all the shouting that had been happening.  Oddly enough, the rest of the evening went quite well according to my husband.  Either they got it all out of their systems earlier, or we just need to be persistant more.