I keep thinking about Andrea and what she said on Sunday. She is easily thrown into a bad attitude. We had another good conversation before bed after she was stomping around mad. I talked to her about what she can do when she gets to the point of being really upset. 1st. Remove yourself from the situation. 2nd, Go to a quiet place and take some deep breaths. We practiced breathing. I told her to release her anger and frustration as she breathed out and let it go. She felt a lot better. Each child takes a lot of physical or emotional energy. Its a lot of work. Have I talked to each of them today? Is everyone feeling heard and happy? sigh
My Sister-in-law dropped off a piece of vinyl white picket fence with a cute Christmas sign hanging on it. I put it up on the worn out desk in the living room that the children color on or do homework on. I started looking at it throughout the day and realized. I have my white picket fence! You know the one everyone talks about.....they were living a great life with the white picket fence.....they even had a white picket fence. We all have that white picket fence. For me its lots of things. Firstly the gospel of Jesus Christ, my family, our health, Love......its all perspective. I would have to say that having a piece of white picket fence inside my house as a decoration is a great symbol! Symbols are very important if you don't already know!!
I'm determined as part of my repentance to teach my children to love the holidays and focus on the WHY of the holidays. Its the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ being born on the earth and that He still lives. I started trying to play some Christmas songs on the piano in hopes that I'll be good enough on a few songs by Christmas that the family can sing along. It is really helping me feel good about the holidays.
Last night my mom took Andrea on a little one on one and they went looking for white baptism shoes. She found a beautiful pair at Payless but they were not comfortable for her. They searched and searched and couldn't find any. My mom got worried but Andrea said, "It doesn't really matter what shoes I wear. What really matters is the going into the water and the coming out." I felt so proud of her when my mom told me that. It makes me again feel like I need to repent for arguing with Wade about the white baptism dress. What is wrong with me? I'm too worried about what doesn't matter. I'm going to try those breathing exercises on myself to let that stuff that doesn't matter go and quit worrying about pleasing everyone. I'm so Human!!
Love and Light~
