Last year I attempted to do a thankfulness post every day in November, and kind of failed, yet I really enjoyed doing it and focusing day to day on what I was thankful for or what specifically had made me happy each day. I figured I'd give it another try this year, and although I probably still won't be perfect at it, at least it'll help me focus on gratitude and my blessings throughout the day.
I find that I really struggle this time of year. I have a hard time when it starts getting cold outside, and my kids don't want to go out to play, and when it gets dark so much earlier. Isaac gets very "busy" (read destructive and aggressive) when he is bored and cooped up inside and he and William get on each others nerves a lot more easily. It really tries my patience, and I find myself short tempered, easily frustrated and irritable. So this is a perfect time of year for me to make a deliberate effort to focus on the positive.
Today I am thankful for the public library. Seriously, it is the coolest thing ever that for free (yes, I understand that we pay taxes and that I also continually pay fines for late movies...but you know what I mean) we have access to thousands and thousands of books, and movies, and audiobooks and ebooks. And there is the internet access, and educational activities for kids, and summer reading programs, and story time, and all the other cool stuff at the library. And the fish. My kids love the fish at the library, and I remember loving them when I was a kid.
We went to the library today, and I picked up a book I am excited to read about teaching violin. I have started teaching violin lessons again and since it's been quite a while since I taught or took lessons myself I am a little out of my comfort zone and have been doing quite a bit of study on the subject. It's awesome that I can jump online and find all sorts of videos and posts and suggestions, but I also think it is awesome that I can check out books. There is just something about being able to physically turn pages and carry a book around with you that I'm not sure I'll ever quite be able to replace with a smartphone.
My kids did their usual things when we got there-the older boys ran in ahead of me while I got Elijah in the stroller, and were attempting to drive the motorized wheelchairs by the time I got in the doors. After yet another lecture about how the wheelchairs are not toys we returned our over due movies and proceeded upstairs to pick out some new ones, stopping for a minute first to check out the fish. Typically Isaac chose his movie in about 1 minute and proceeded to run all around and pull a bunch more off the shelves while William agonized over his decision. He absolutely refuses to try any movies I suggest and acts as if this will be his only chance to ever pick a movie in his whole entire life. This happens every.single.time. Finally when Elijah was trying to climb out of the stroller, and Isaac had run off somewhere I turned around to leave and William grabbed wildly for a movie and ran after me.
Once I located Isaac we headed upstairs to get my book which I did as quickly as humanly possible to minimize the amount of time Elijah had to pull books off the shelves, which he can do in those narrow isles, and we headed back down the ramp to pick out children's books. The boys grabbed the first few books they saw, Isaac insisting that his pet dinosaur also needed a book, then ran off to the computers to play games while I checked everything out and the sweet librarian oogled Elijah.
Later, when we were eating dinner I was really considering putting on a movie for the kids to hold them over until bedtime. Chris wasn't going to be home till late and I was tired and didn't feel up to the general evening shenanigans. .But then I saw our library bag full of books and instead of a movie we sat down and read through all the new books they had chosen. And even though each of the big boys ended up in time out at some point in our reading, and the baby dumped water all over the kitchen table, chairs and floor, I was able to keep my temper and enjoy having my kids snuggled up to me. It really was a blessing to look over and see that full bag of books and know that I had something peaceful that we would all enjoy doing for the rest of the evening.
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| Our cute library bag my SIL gave me, and a book about chickens. The big boys always get a book about chickens for Elijah if they see one because they know he loves chickens so much. |
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