Of Sickness, Health, Gratitude and Weird Family Rules

    Every time I get sick I vow to be more thankful for my health and I usually am for a period of time, but before I know it, I am back to taking it for granted. While musing over that fact I began thinking about my children and how they so quickly forget the things we are trying to instill in them. Simple things like closing drawers and doors, picking up dirty laundry and putting their shoes away rather than kicking them off inside the door. Then there are the more complex things such as asking for help instead of throwing a fit when the zipper on their jacket gets stuck, reporting a siblings offense to mom or dad rather than whopping the offending person and using kind words and gentle hands. I get frustrated with them sometimes, but how often does God have the "right" to get upset with me when he is trying to instill a simple lesson in me, such as patience or gratitude and I just cannot seem to retain what he has spent so much time teaching me, yet he kindly keeps teaching, training and showing me his perfect will. 
   Yesterday Kobi's new cage/pen/bed whatever you want to call it came. Dean set it up and Lia promptly crawled inside.
                   
           

    Kobi is spending most of his time outside. Getting the stomach bug the day after he came hasn't made me more accepting of having him in the house. For some reason my brain associates him with being sick to the stomach. I told Dean we should have named him Puke or Nausea, no one thought that was very funny or clever however. I will admit I am able to tolerate his presence much better today since I am feeling better so hopefully the "yuck" feeling will not always come to mind when he is around.
       During the last week of school, I cleaned the children's bedrooms. I also made a list of rules and taped it where they could easily see it. A certain young man thought that was really weird but at this point in his life I find I am doing a lot of things he considers weird. :) Anyway, one of the rules was: You must have a sheet on your bed. Yes, we have strange rules around here. One child told me he doesn't put a sheet on his bed because it saves me laundry. "If I don't put a sheet on my bed, then it won't get dirty and you won't have to wash it." Makes perfect sense, right?
   One day Joseph was telling me what he wants to be when he grows up. First he will be a dentist then he will raise horses at his cousins place. He plans to tear part of their horse barn down and build a milking parlor in it's place so he can milk cows as well. He has high aspirations! Joseph then turned to Kiana and said, "You will probably be a mom." She told him in no uncertain terms that she is going to be a cowgirl, insinuating that being a cowgirl has a much higher status than being a lowly mom! I put on a sad face and said, "But I wanted grandchildren." She thought for a moment and replied, "My boy (husband) can be your grandchild!" She has been set on being a cowgirl for the past 18 months, we will see if she changes her mind in the coming years.
  Another "weird rule" we have is writing our feelings and emotions down in journals. Tristan told me exactly what he thought about such goings on but I have scientific proof that writing is therapeutic and I hope to win him over before the summer is through. I will write another post about therapeutic journaling and it's benefits in another post.

   Shared on: Tell It To Me Tuesday's