I also read a another quote a few weeks back that stuck with me for a long time -

If you have not slept, or if you have slept, or if
you have headache, or sciatica, or leprosy, or thunder
stroke, I beseech you, by all angels, to hold your
peace, and not pollute the morning.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

This just made me laugh too.  But the longer I thought about both of them, the more I realized I needed to learn something.  When I worked as an accounting manager at a software company, I would come to the end of my week SO exhausted, and almost every Friday evening I would complain how tired I was to my dear friend Letty.  Letty is just cut from a different cloth!  I rarely, if ever, hear her complain about anything.  She is one of the most willing people I know, she's always interested in others, and she has a way of making friends with anyone.  One night as I was going through my usual tirade of how exhausted I was, I had the realization that you could record this conversation and put it on a continual loop, because it was always the same.  I saw the patient look on Letty's face and silently wondered why she put up with me (still do).  I also realized that Letty's answer to "How are you doing?" was NEVER a complaint, but always telling you something interesting about her week.  I don't mean to put her on a pedestal, and she is NOT a Polly-Anna, but the way she approaches things is much more plesant than the way I do most of the time.

I read the book, and my "love language" is definitely acts of service.  I take joy in taking care of my family and home, and would be one of those people that asks, "what do you mean 'do I love you?' I scrubbed the toilet didn't I?"  LOL  But for me that so easily slips into a martyr's attitude.  I have to remind myself that it is not a blessing to my family to cook, clean and do laundry with a scowl on my face, and blow up because no one sees how hard I've been working.  It also reminds me of the scripture Proverbs 14:1 "The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down."  

So I don't really know how to wrap this up.  I just like to laugh at myself I guess, and seem to have ample opportunity!

Yesterday was Lydia's 6th birthday.  I read the above quote this week in one of my devotionals.  It was talking about the hard things that come our way and how we usually feel like life is always going to be hard, but that whatever trial you are going through will eventually pass.  I have definitely held onto that hope in the past.  But this time when I read it I thought, yes, this wonderful time of my kids being little, me & Aaron being "right" in their eyes, and the innocent, joyous way they approach life will eventually pass.  I felt a pang of sadness that they aren't as wee as they used to be.  They aren't babies anymore.  But joy in what they are doing today.  Lydia absolutely LOVES school.  She is really thriving in that environment.  Her teacher says she is very helpful, and always aware of helping the other kids with concepts she has already grasped.  She is still full of imagination too.  Elijah can spell more words than I can count, and I think Emily has come out of a lot of her crankiness (fingers crossed).  Emily is so full of potential, and she's growing  into her ability to use it.  She's also really developing a sweet side.  She'll tell me, "Mom, look at me."  I'll look and she'll be giving this little smile and shrugging her shoulders and then she'll say, "I'm so cute, right?"  LOL  It's almost like a peace offering for when she blows up.  Elijah loves books, letters and numbers.  He has a new favorite show on PBS - Super Why!  It's a show about spelling words, imagine that.  Having a little boy is very special.  He is already stronger than his sisters and I feel it when he locks his little arms around my neck at night and won't let me go.  We are very blessed parents!