Half-Full

Today had two highlights, one major and one minor. The minor good moment came from Jocelyn. I was REALLY hoping to get at least a cat nap in this afternoon. I'm always tired (hello, I'm a mom of three little girls), but today I was especially wiped and really needed a few minutes to recharge. Long story short, I did not get any rest at all, really. I was lying on my bed next to Jocelyn, who was watching tv, when I heard Molly start making noises. I must have whined or whimpered or something, because Jocie just looked at me and said, "I love you Mommy" and kissed my forehead. It certainly didn't cure my exhaustion, but it did manage to brighten my spirits and put a smile on my face.

Ava takes the cake today with a handy life lesson. We had a rough afternoon... and that's putting it mildly. Recently Ava has been having a hard time putting her hair clips away. She gets tired of wearing them, so she takes them off and then leaves them wherever she happens to be at that moment. This afternoon she did this yet again, and I told her she could do nothing else until she found the clip. (She knew she had taken it off in her room, so that made the task quite a bit easier to tackle.) An hour later, there had been lots of tears shed and tantrums thrown but no clips found. I finally went into her room and started sweeping all the crap on the floor into the middle of the room. Within 5 minutes the clip had been located. I was quite quick in pointing out that if Ava hadn't been messing around she could have found the clip hours before and saved herself a lot of heartache (and me a little sanity).

For me, the day felt as though it had been filled with nothing but negativity. And yet, at dinner when Ben asked Ava how her day had been, she answered, "Great! I woke up, had breakfast, played Barbies with my sister, had lunch with my friend Lillian, watched a movie, played a little more, and then you came home and now we're eating dinner." No mention at all of any of the fights or frustrations that had occurred throughout the day. Fast forward to prayers at bedtime. Ava says, "God, thank you for a good day. Well... thank you for a good end of the day. I'm sorry it wasn't very good in the middle. Please help me to be better tomorrow." I try very hard to let go of the negativity at the end of each day, but Ava had managed to completely erase it from her memory just moments after it happened. I feel blessed to learn from my daughter how to let go the not-so-fun moments of the day and embrace the good times. I hope she never loses that glass-half-full mentality, and continues to share this rare ability with those around her.