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Recently, while putting David to bed, he lamented to me the difficulty of being the youngest child in the house. Most of his complaints were along the line of, “everyone gets to tell you what to do and you don’t get to have any fun.” I tried to commiserate with him. Being an oldest child, I really haven’t any idea what it’s like to be a youngest child. I can imagine it’s probably quite difficult. Mostly, I listened to David and nodded my head sympathetically.

Further into our conversation, I tried to remind David of all his wonderful qualities, “you’re creative, you have a big heart…” David interrupted me, rolled his eyes and said, “I know all that Mom. You gave me that speech last week.” Oops.

We both laughed pretty loud after David reminded me of my tendency to rerun speeches. Oh well… sometimes in parenting, we hit home runs, sometimes we strike out and sometimes we’re the 7th inning stretch entertainment.

Blessings on your day, wherever you are!

During this past blizzard, we found ourselves tired of shoveling and playing in the snow.  This necessarily left us with plenty of time to sit on the couch and stare at each other.  No really, we don’t like to depend on TV overmuch, so we are left with playing games, reading, arts and crafts and just generally trying not to get on each other’s nerves.

Around Christmas time, Ana began to show an interest in crochet, long a hobby of mine, and asked that one of her presents be her own supplies.  We found her a basket with several balls of yarn, a crochet hook and a set of knitting needles.  To my surprise, she was actually thrilled with this present!  I started off by teaching Ana the chain stitch, careful to show her how to position her hands correctly so that she wouldn’t have to re-learn the skill, as I did.

In between blizzards, I received my yarn crafter’s email newsletter from Lion Brand Yarn.  It contained a crochet pattern for a flower pot with happy little flowers growing.  I decided there was no better time to start such a project and searched my yarn stash for leftovers that would work in the pattern.  Ana, squirrely beyond belief, decided to join me on the couch.

She had been practicing the chain stitch for so long that it was time to move on.  We worked on single crochets and double crochets.  Often, I would get Ana started, crocheting a solid foundation row for her and then she would take over.  Eventually, Ana learned to start from the ground up, stitching her own chain and starting a row of single or double crochets.  Once she got to that place of independence, I said, “That’s it.  You know all I know.  Everything else is more or less a combination of those stitches.”

And, it’s funny how much of parenting is just like that, building a solid foundation of prayer and sweat equity.  Everything else is bits and pieces knotted together to form patterns from the foundation up.  Our children learn from us how to pray and work, and those bits and pieces that make up the rest.  One day, they go off and start their own foundation, somewhat apart from ours, though I’m selfish enough to hope my children don’t travel too far from me.  Moreover, I hope I’m teaching them how to build that firm foundation and make those bits and pieces into something beautiful.

Blessings on your day, friends.