Simple Pleasures

Sometimes it feels like being a mother is the most unappreciated job there is and that my children don’t listen to anything I teach them (say please, keep your room clean, you know all the mom rants). I often wish I could go back in time to my childhood and see things with my new eyes. I know I would find reasons to thank my mother many times every day and, sadly, I don’t remember doing it much. But I do want to say it now…Thank you, Mom, for all you did and still do. I know that you sacrificed so much for us. You taught us and loved us. Thank you.

I had a few reasons to smile during the week. Alexander answered me a few times with “Yes, please”. Amazing how nice “please” sounds. He was so good at saying it when he was little, but it has slipped away for some reason, only to return occasionally. But this week he did really well without any nagging from me at all. I was making dinner one day and Elisa came up and said, “What can I help you with?” I’ve told the kids before that that one simple phrase makes me so happy, but she is the only one who has picked up on it and asked me on her own. She’ll help me with dinner or whatever I ask. How nice! I’ve tried telling Alex that he needs to practice now so that he can be in the habit of saying that and meaning it for when he has a girlfriend later (much later!). Maybe one day he’ll say it. The third smile came when Sabrina saw her pajamas were washed, dried and put on her bed. She came to me and said, “Thank you for washing my pajamas, Mommy”. One last reason to smile…it’s after noon today and there have been no fights at all on their day off of school.

(I like her snow-covered Christmas tree she made out of jelly ring candy.)