Crazy Life of a Logger's Wife: Pondering Gratitude With Kids

It is just a few days before Thanksgiving and the kids are home from school for. the. week. Yeeeeessss. They finished last Thursday and so we have been home Friday. Saturday. Sunday. Monday. And today is Tuesday. We have strep throat in the house so we can't go anywhere. And there's a greta thing about my kids....they never get really sick. They just get whiny. Even with strep and a fever. No lying on the couch sleeping it off, resting quietly. It's like they go into panic mode and just try to kill off the infection by incessant whining. First we had to have water in a sippy cup. Then it was dripping, even though it wasn't. Then we had to have water in a sports cup because we apparantly outgrew sippys sometime this last week. Then Brody touched the cup and we don't share germs so then we had to have a fresh sippy cup, which was the wrong color. And Brody of course thinks they are all his and I am trying to keep him from catching strep, which is impossible, and I am going to loose my mind. Please just lay in the couch. Take a nap. Rest it up. Please.

And then I think about all the things I should be doing, but if I don't sit and "attend" to the one who is sick, they forget to rest. So I sit here and we cruise through hours of tivo'd Cailous and Arthurs hoping he'll just get bored with it and rest. But no naps happen in this house. Ever.

All the while, Cameron has lost the meaning behind her life and is so bored because I have threatened her with her life to leave her poor brother alone. Without being able to boss and demand him to do things, she has the Easter eggs out and she and Brody are having Easter egg hunts. Which means that I will be picking eggs out of the shelves, cupboards, and cushions for the next couple of days. Why I save those things I have no idea!

Yesterday was parent conferences for my oldest. Being a teacher it's always a little interesting being on the "parent" side of the table. But I can say I am so proud of Cameron because she is doing AWESOME! She is becoming a reader right before our eyes and I just marvel at how far she has come in just three months of first grade. My baby is gone and in place of her stands a well behaved, hard working little girl.

I'm really trying to keep the focus on "Gratitude" in our house until after Thanksgiving. It's so hard for kids to understand time and two months of Christmas hype is ridiculous for this age. Toy catalogs in the mail, Christmas commercials, lights on houses already, I have even slipped and played a few Christmas songs. Instrumental music only, but still..... Cameron asked me if it was time to make a list for Santa yet. So during this month we have been working on a "Gratitude" list. She sits at the counter and writes things to be thankful for. I spell them for her. The joys of having a first grader.

Of course even after all the commentary on Gratitude and appreciating the fact that we are so blessed, and listing items and considering things that other people go without, I look on the bulletin board at Tucker's preschool and see that the one thing that Tucker is thankful for is....toys. Out of family, friends, food, safety, our dog, all the things that we have listed on our Gratitude list, Tucker picks the toys. Nothing wrong with it, really. But I try so hard to instill a vision in my kids. And it's toys. So we probably should have just started making that list for Santa back in October anyways.