compassion

today the kids were home from school.
again.
no school Thursday and Friday.
days like today confirm why I do not home-school.
yup.
its good to have that reminder now and again.
(now..and NOT again for a little while, thanks...)

When the kids and I are home alone, I provide structure.
I can do that. I cannot home-school, but I can provide structure.
Its actually the only way to prevent injury and bodily harm.
well, lets just say it helps to "keep the peace".

I like to divide the day into segments of  "quiet choice time" and "electronic time".
1 or the other.
Playing Harry Potter on Ps3 does not fall under the "quiet choice time" category.
Just so you know.

And since a routine and schedule are key factors to avoiding anyone (i.e. mother)
reatreating to the quiet car, in the quiet garage for refuge....
I have the very important job of monitering the oven timer.
you want 30 min. of wii time? you go to the living room and read for 30 min.

I like to spend all day sitting in front of the oven pressing minutes into the timer.
i enjoy that as much as I enjoy giving ideas of what to do throughout the day!
sometimes I say things like:
YOU HAVE 5 MIN. LEFT.
STOP FIGHTING.
WHY DON'T YOU PLAY OUTSIDE??
YOU HAVE MORE TOYS IN YOUR ROOM THAN THE ENTIRE TOYS R' US STORE. 
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU  HAVE NOTHING TO DO?
YOU ARE BORED?
THEN COME WIPE THE TABLE.
I LOVE YOU TOO!!!

In-between those brilliant exchanges of conversation I occasionally rise from my chair in front of the oven ...and do stretches.
Its good stuff.

Now i HAD envisioned that the children and I would at some point, take time together to write to our "compassion kids in Africa".
what a happy moment that would be!
no oven timer needed for those moments of bonding and showing concern for others....
but alas, drawing pictures/ writing thoughtful notes was not an appealing choice for any of their "quiet choice times".
Neither was UNO surprisingly.
I really like UNO.
by the way. you really can't play UNO by yourself.
especially if you are sitting in front of an oven and have to bend down to play the cards on the floor.


So. I wrote and sent greetings from Liam and Bronte....myself!
Mrs. Rygiel sends greetings on behalf of Liam and Brontë, her children, who prefer time spent playing their loud, addictive video games to writing a letter. We will try again another time.  For the time being, please accept my attached drawing of the Savannah and the elephants eating grass..... 
Yours sincerely, Mrs. Rygiel.

tempting as it was, I didn't keep the letter.
I pulled out a fresh piece of paper and wrote about winter sports instead.
I thought that would be an interesting subject for 8 and 10 year old children.?!

But how does one explain skating to a child who hasn't experienced or
most likely ever seen snow or ice?
I thought of that a little too late....
don't think I did a very good job.
I should have drawn a picture of a skater or perhaps just another elephant on skates!?! 
that would have been better.

The kids were however (thankfully) interested in this compassion video that I forced and threatened them gently persuaded them to watch. I wanted to to ensure they understood WHY we needed to write letters and stay in touch with our "compassion kids from africa" (we are working on pronouncing their names).
As the neat little video came to a close.... Liam responded with,  "i feel like crying!"-
and brontë said "yah mom, we should really write to them more."
hmmmmm.
ok.
good thing that hadn't thought of that.
must say, I was comforted in the fact that they seemed to understand the need to do the letters consistently. This wasn't just one of mom's ideas to get them to work on writing and spelling.....

Those kids.
My prayer is that we can somehow instill in our children, a love and a compassion for those less fortunate.
oh how I pray they will see the world beyond themselves.
oh how I pray that I will see the world beyond myself.