I've been doing my best lately to not get too worked up about the little things. I will admit, right now, as i am sure my daughters will tell their therapists in the years to come, that this is not my strong suit. As I said, I'm trying. And slowly but surely, I'm getting ever so slightly better.
The difference is noticeable in everyone at my house. I noticed this phenomenon in past lives – both as a teacher and as a camp director – when I am calm the troops are calm, when I am well behaved, the troops are well behaved, and when I am balanced… So on and so forth and vice versa of course!
So tonight, when I found ruby in the living room gluing the pages of a book together, I didn't get worked up about this hopeless effort. There was a part of me on the inside that wanted to snatch the glue stick from her and tell her to go back to colouring, especially because I was in the middle of making supper when Charlotte ratted her out for doing this, and thankfully I was able to reign in the beast and that didn't happen.
Rewind back to this morning and you would have found me having a serious and stern talking to with ruby about not ripping books. And it wouldn't have been the first one either. That aside, when I found her trying to glue the book back together I had to love her for trying. After all, putting things together is precisely what glue is for and she had taken the initiative to try and correct this little misstep on her own.
Writing this now, i realize that what I need to do is sit down with her and a roll of tape tomorrow after breakfast and give her the chance to put it back together. I know this will resonate with her and at the same time, it's just one more thing to do in the morning amidst all the other things that are supposed to happen so we can walk out the door on time. And if everyone cooperates and dad gets through breakfast, it just might happen.
3 Ginger Snaps 