What could be better than chocolate?

the kid?

Last night as the kid was preparing for bed, he asked "Mom can I use mouthwash so I can freshen up my breath?" This mama is not ready for this yet. 8 years old!

Serendipity

"Serendipity as defined in Wikipedia is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely...

Consider this: My 7 year old calls me into the bathroom to tell me that he has sanitized the toilet. I asked him what he used. He told me, "you know, the sheet you and daddy use." We've had construction in our house for the last 2 or 3 months now and we've had many workers using our bathroom. So I was really delighted my 7 year old took the initiative. We had a conversation a couple of days ago about responsibility and independence and all that. So of course I was proud.

Consider this, germ free or free germs: While I examined his responsible work in the bathroom, he was still sanitizing the toilet tank and he told me that he'd just finished sanitizing the sink and the toothbrush holder and his toothbrush. So I start to wonder and asked and accidentally discovered something, not fortunate but..."Did you use a different sheet from the one you wiped the toilet with?" "No, it's the same one mom." He was actually beaming as he said this...then a rapid conversation/lecture along with "ugh'' and "you should ask me first before you do anything" followed by a lot of rolling my eyes and all that. Suffice it to say that my 7 year old was not beaming anymore and suffice it to say that I somewhat negated the conversation on independence and responsibility. And now we both feel badly about the whole thing. Instead I could have said thank you, thanks, thanks a lot or thanks a lot!

I was sitting in a favorite Thai restaurant when I overheard something wonderful from a table close by me. There were around 6-7 people sitting at this round table enjoying lunch as they were saying goodbye to a woman, a co-worker. After their meal, each one around the table shared a word and its meaning, which described what this woman meant to them. Beautiful words like generous, creative, enthusiastic were shared. It was quite moving. It was a simple yet powerful gift. The woman was clearly honored by these words.

I wonder, how often do we express kind words to one another? It is simple. It is powerful.

A Fine Day

A brisk fall day always puts me in a good mood! It's nice and cool, I actually had to put on turtleneck. Aah...so today was Rosh Hashana and for me it was "bring your kid to work day!" And so it was...we started heading south toward Chicago and I blurted out that I was low on gas. "Mom, you'll have to turn right on Oakton so you can get gas. I know where all the gas stations are..." Hmm...how does he know? So I headed straight down Ridge Ave, past Oakton and I hear this, "Hey mom, you forgot to turn on Oakton, are you going to the Shell station instead?" Hmm...allright, I did stop at the Shell staion. I really was running low.

The rest of the day went like this: Nicholas made a lunch date with Mae. Nicholas help put address labels on the church newletters. Nicholas spent time on pbssprouts. We had a wonderful lunch at Sabai Dee with Ramona and Mae. Nicholas devoured Pho Lao and Lychee Smoothie. Nicholas was taken to a park by Ramona. I was free to go back and finish up with work. We came home about 3:30. I did not have to cook dinner so Nicholas and I took our bikes for a spin.

Aah...what a fine day.

sum of our everyday

This is what happened yesterday, my seven year old boy asked, "Mom, what does confidence mean?" Of course this boy has a habit of asking questions when I am in the midst of fixing dinner or mid stream...so today was not an exception. When I am most preoccupied or when I am most vulnerable I get bombarded.

So what do I say, I can hardly think while I add cajun spices and taco sauce to a macerated rotisserie chicken (macerated, only because today I decided to practice using my food processor). Confidence, hmm...at this point I can think of "lack of confidence" as I attempt to answer this question. This is how the conversation went, as I had to turn off dinner to attend to some greater need.

me: Do you remember the time we took off the training wheel from your bicycle?

nwf: Uh-huh...

me: Well you cried and complained and you were afraid you'd fall that you never, ever wanted to ride the bike again. But we kept telling you that it would be okay, we would not let anything bad happen to you, we'll be right behind you the whole time. Meantime we lowered the seat so he could easily touch the ground, we biked him around, holding on to the steering wheel. There was a time when he would just scoot around or go down an incline and tried hard to balance himself. This went on for months. Then one day it all came together.

nwf: Yeah...

me: Well, just a couple of days ago, you decided to try again and because you practiced so many times, you had confidence that you could do it. You are no longer afraid. So lately, after breakfast I hear, "are we going bike riding today mom?"