Childs Play

Abby, Erin and Samo can't seem to play without pulling everything out. Today the girls decided to lay on the swing outside. They took around 5 pillows and who knows how many blankets. I think Tracy, Lori and Giny used to do stuff like that. I remember one time when they were little they laid out in the sun at the end of the driveway(almost in the road). I'm sure they took half
of the house with them to lay out. I'm glad its getting warm so the kids can play outside. But.......when they play outside they pull EVERYTHING out of the garage and put it all over the yard. I mean they get the ladder , beach chairs, all the riding toys, the tent ,any tools Dave may have forgotten to put up, coloring books, pens, pencils, baby dolls, swords, guns, sticks(this is Samuels latest item to collect), and the list goes on and on. Why do they need all that stuff to play? What happened to hide and seek or freeze tag? Soccer, dodge ball or playing on the swing set? They do jump onthe trampoline sometimes. Samo got some rope for his birthday(thanks Jason:) and he ties everything up. Once he tied my bedroom door to the closet door in the hall with the tie from one of my robes. Iwas in my bedroom and had to wait on him to untie the door. He has tied Daves truck to the van. The lasted episode with the rope is when Samo and Erin tied the chest of drawers to the bunk bed. That turned out to not be such a good idea. The chest fell over barely missing Samo's head, the tv fell off and pulled the cable straight out of the wall. I don't think they will do that again. Do things like that only happen at our house?

All that said, I love my children. They are all healthy and happy(most of the time).They don't always do things like I would do them. They certainly don' keep things as tidy as I would like them to. But how much does all that matter in the scheme of things. This is a big lesson I'm trying to learn. How to let things go...maybe not having everything in its place all the time. This is hard for me. I can't relax unless the dishes are washed and a load of clothes is in the washer and dryer. I know it sound crazy. For those of you who pray for us, please pray that I would get better at this. I would like to be able to sit down and play Connect Four with Abby even if the laundry is piled to the ceiling and the floor needs to be vacuumed. I want to be able to play barbies with Erin even if the dishes are not washed. I want to read Samo his favorite book or jump on the trampoline with him even if I haven't dusted in a month.

Well now I'm off to see what the kids are doing. Erin has changed clothes a couple of times and they all keep coming in for more stuff. So now I'll go see what the outside looks like. While I've been typing they have been playing outside. Theres no telling what I may find........but I'm sure it will not be kids playing hide and seek.

Lisa