Trinity is off at Babunya’s (Hubby’s Mother) house this week, as per her birthday request, so we are down one child. It’s quite strange how the entire character of the house changes when one of the kids is missing. Hmmm, this is probably a preview of how it will differ when someone heads off to college or gets married.

By 9:30 on Monday morning, the difference became apparent. You see, Georgie is the oldest and tends to act like the oldest in that I’m-the-boss, do-what-I-say-now type of way. Anika, though not the oldest is in no way receptive to other people bossing her around. Trinity, however, is happy to sort of do whatever Georgie wants to do.

Georgie and Trinity spend most of their time playing together happily. Anika spends most of her time playing with the little girls and enjoying being the oldest of their group. When Georgie and Anika are together, they spend most of their time fighting. With our usual Trinity-buffer gone, Monday morning began with lots of yelling, crying, denials, and accusations.

As I looked at my two whacked-out children, I realized that if this wasn’t fixed immediately, this week would be utterly miserable for the entire house, and I hate being miserable! Misery by screaming children is the worst. I asked them if they remembered what the sermon was about on Sunday, and they both remembered that it was on I Corinthians 13 (often referred to as the “Love Chapter”). Good, and what are you supposed to do when you love someone? Be patient and kind. And what does “kind” mean in this context? The word used also means “useful.” So find something useful that you can do for the other person to show them that you love them.

I told them that I wanted them to each find two things to do for the other person that would be useful to show them that you love them and then tell me at the end of the day what the two things were. Hmmm. Silence. Staring at the ceiling. Thinking, thinking. Guess what? No more fighting all day!

By the end of the day Georgie had made lunch for both the little girls when I had asked them each to make lunch for one, and Anika had cleaned up most of Georgie’s mess in the bedroom when I told them both to go clean their room. Neither of them had quite made it to two things, but since the rest of the day passed with no more fighting, that was ok.

Today they didn’t even come down for breakfast until well after 9am (usually they’re down around 8). Apparently they had been reading Georgie’s anatomy book he got from the library. Anika wanted to know where food goes when you eat it (??) so Georgie pulled out this book of the human body and they had been scoping that out together. Georgie told me that they decided they are going to be on the same team now and friends and aren’t going to fight anymore because neither of them likes fighting with the other. Wow! Okay then. True to their plan, I didn’t hear any racket from either of them all day. Phew! They’re so charming with the yelling dispatched.

We’re switching to year round school this year and the way it all lines up, they have June and July off and then start back up in August. August and September will be three days a week and then full schedule begins in October. I’m starting to look forward just the teensiest bit to August. They’ve been exceptionally well behaved so far, but to maintain this behavior I’ve been keeping them quite busy.

We go once a week to the library, the wading pool/park (often 2x here), my Mom’s house (or she comes here), and a local farm store. We get together with each side of the family twice a month for Family Dinner Night, and I’m planning to add softball practice once a week too! Keeping them really busy has the unintended byproduct of keeping me extremely busy on top of my normal household and work duties. I’m old! I’m getting tired! I’m also getting very tired of listening to endless stories of Bionicle histories and plans for new ones, and of the general increase in noise and chatter. My ears are tired.

Every year I tell myself that I’m going to not be quite so fussy about the housework and am going to take the kids to the pool/park/whatever to relax and enjoy summer. Every year this somehow does not quite work out, so I’m feeling pretty good that this summer feels summery and I’m doing the Summer Mom stuff I should be doing. Good job, Me! Sometimes you just need to pat your own back.

Rachel

Yes, good job, Rachel! I’d pat you on the back, too, if you were here. What farm store do you visit weekly?

Good job, you!