Women's Conference

We have quite a bit of time in the car as a family.  Driving from one practice to the other or dropping off at the various schools.  If we aren't jamming out to Kidz Bop then I usually keep the radio tuned to classic rock.  My Happy Place.  It was the week leading up to "National Woman's Day".  They were holding a conference in town and it was being heavily advertised on the radio.  On 2 separate occasions the two older boys brought to my attention how I really needed to attend the conference.  As chance has it, being a women is something that is quite an anomaly here in this household.  The conference day approached and C3 woke up with a fever which meant he probably had an ear infection and needed to go to the doctor.  In the car that morning C1 lovingly told me, "Mom, I'm sorry that you have to take the baby to the doctor today."  I thought that he was being so kind.  I thought, that for some reason, he understood how painful of an experience it was to take C3 to the doctor and have his ears looked at.  Amateur.  That's not where his mind was at all.  He followed up by saying, "I was really hoping that you'd be able to go to that conference.".

The Middle One

The Middle One usually has the colorful personality, they're lovingly known as the clowns.  Unfortunately a lot of times being the middle child can come off in a negative light.  They're the ones that are known for being failures to launch.  I know some middle kids who have turned out JUST GREAT, but I also have a hand full of others that fit the mold perfectly.  Now that we have 3 kids, Brad and I joke about the Middle One.  BUT, he gives us really good reasons to.  He's the kid that at 13 months, when all other are just tying to figure out how to walk, he would put a bucket on his head and walk around the house.  He's the kid that would put his underwear on outside of his clothes.  I will never forget, one time we had come back to the house after a long morning out and about.  we had run some errands, hit a park and played outside in the WARM sun.  After lunch I asked him to change into some napping clothes.  He pulled down his pants and we both realized that he'd been wearing his pajama pants underneath all day.  We would joke that he would be the one living in our basement, when we lived in the Midwest and had one.  But the minute we moved to Texas we changed that thought to him needing to get his act in gear because the pool shed isn't really a functional living space.

Just the other day, at a fresh 5 years of age, we were discussing what his life would be like when he was grown.  He informed me that even after college he would still be living with mommy and daddy.  With him only being 5 years old, that's not a REAL threat, so as a mother I truly appreciate his showing his love.  I asked him what he wanted to do when he was older.  I think I phrased it something like, "What do you want to do during the days when you get big?"  His reply was confident and simple, "Just Chill!".  I think that we have more to worry about than we really know.

Little Red Hen

You know the story of the Little Red Hen... where the hen tries to get others to help her, but everyone is always too "busy" to do so.  So she takes on the tasks all on her own.  When it finally comes time to reap the rewards of her labor, suddenly everyone's schedules have been freed up.  Well, back in 2015 sometime, my house was turning into that story book.  And C1, especially, was turning into the other farm animals.  Amazingly my mom always knows exactly what we need.  She promptly mailed us a copy of The Little Red Hen to read.  I was so excited to sit down and read it to C1.  I couldn't wait for him to have that light bulb moment and to start being more helpful around the house.  C1 and I sat down to read the book.  As we were getting to the very end of the story it read something like this...
                    {The Little Red Hen asked, "Who will help me eat the bread?".  And the                                                 Dog and the Pig and the Cow all excitedly shouted that they would.                                                       "No you won't said the Little Red Hen!" shaking her head."}

And to my surprise C1 responded, "How Rude! She should share her bread with others!"  Remember, beauty isn't the only thing that is in the eye of the beholder, so are life lessons.