[begin somber voice-over]As the pendulum swings…these are the days of our lives.[end voice-over]
Ever feel like you live your life swinging from one extreme to another? It’s maddening, isn’t it? I don’t like extremes much. Absolutes are fine, but extremes I avoid.
Schooling the older boys in particular has not been easy over the years. The good news is that it’s gotten better each year, but it feels like that improvement has come at a glacially slow pace. More often than not, we’d have tantrums and tears on a daily basis. Gradually that has slowed to the point where (dare I say it?) they appear to be willing to cooperate with the grand education plan.
If we weren’t having an awful day, then we would instead have a terrific one. For the most part terrific was an unusual occurrence; in other words, we swung between extremes. Yuck.
I was pleasantly surprised to realize this evening that overall, today was a pretty decent day. I’m feeling healthier and the boys all decided to cooperate and get their work done. Even when it was discovered that The Mercenary had overlooked doing his grammar, he simply got out the book and did his assignment. No fuss, no muss.
Captain Earthquake usually manages to start every day by getting angry at a brother, and today was no different in that regard. However, when his older brothers accused him of acting like a two-year-old and I surprised him by agreeing, he actually stepped up and found a way to get along with everyone. This resulted in a lot of wild giggling and singing “blump blump blump blump bluuuuump” to the tune of Jingle Bells in the car on the way to piano lessons, but hey…laughter is better than anger any day.
It’s been a long road, and we’re certainly not at the end of it. But having days like this, where schoolwork is finished and I have time to cook, bake, and tackle some large piles of paper that had (ahem) cropped up mysteriously? That’s nice. It feels good to finish with smiles on faces.
It’ll feel even better if we can do it two days in a row.
Earnest Parenting: help for parents who want to be balanced.
Image courtesy of jenly via Creative Commons license, some rights reserved.
I like extremes much… Life seems so interesting with it. Really cool… If people dont like extremes they dont live full life. We should grab everything we can…Thats my position.
Hi Amy,
hahha! That’s not gonna happen two days in a row. The extremes are good because then we really appreciate the “regular” days. With four boys, one of them is always going to be out of sync with the others. You must have the patience of Job.
hey, come and visit me on TGIF. I launched a give-away today with Genuine Health Gift Baskets to give away. Send a link to enter, be a guest poster or leave a comment. Very easy!
Cheryl
“It feels good to finish with smiles on faces.”
Wow! I’m sure that you’ll have more days like that. Just seeing the boys, I’m sure will put a smile on your face and that’s all that matters. There’s always hope everyday with smiles.
Single Maria, it depends on the extreme. I don’t avoid ALL extremes….that would be extreme. 😉 However, the pursuit of extremes can become a goal unto itself and take over an individual’s life. If you think that you can only be happy when you’re doing extreme things, then it’s natural to progress to doing more and more extreme things until someone gets hurt. There is wisdom in being able to be content with moderation. And then have some extreme fun every once in a while. 🙂
Cheryl, we didn’t do too badly today! Not as good as yesterday, but still halfway decent so I’m happy. Patience of Job. Hmmmmm. Sometimes yes, sometimes really really no! OOoo, a giveaway! I’ll be over shortly!
Online Printing, I hope so! Today went rather well although I did speak sharply to certain individuals who were more interested in a gadget than eating their lunch and getting on with the day. All ended well though. 🙂 Laundry done, bellies filled, and I even had time to vacuum and make a loaf of banana bread. They should enjoy that tomorrow! The bread, I mean. I doubt they care so much about my vacuuming.
Hello Amy,
Hope you’re doing fine.
Its good that all your kids are cooperating with you from such an early age….Hope they will do the same when they grow up and we grow old.
Thanks
TC
TC,
Hanging in there. You?
I hope you are correct. 🙂 That would be nice.