Lesson No.1

I had the privilege to spend a week in Portland last week.  Radio silence on the blog, as I was not really privy to "free time".  It was a fun week of seeing family, but most importantly, watching five cousins for a week while their parents got their first trip together sans children in twelve years! 

The week was - awesome...an eye-opener...exhausting...mucho fun...enlightening...rainy...busy...
I did learn much.  It has been a long, long time since I have done an overnight with kids on my own, let alone five.  They were terrific and super helpful.  With an early-bird little boy and a night owl big sister, there aren't many hours when all five were asleep, so I am looking forward to catching up this weekend...maybe.

SO - LESSON NO.1 - there seems to be a children's gripe about Mom or Dad saying "maybe" when they really mean "no."  I get it now, from the other perspective.  When you're busy and in the flow of the day, a child asks, "If we ______, then we can get two pieces of candy."  I know that doesn't look like a question; it is really only part question, mostly assertion of how it is going to be.  When she comes asking for the two pieces of candy I never said they could have (not even a "maybe"), there is a huge pouty sigh.  Several times over there are questions of "can we ___?" for which I just don't have an answer.  I have no crystal ball to tell me if the weather will be right, or if the little brothers will be awake from their nap, or if all the chores will be done on time, or...  So many life circumstances that I can't predict; therefore, I cannot say "yes" for certain.  If I do, they will remind me over and over again, leaving me to wonder if I can turn ten minutes into thirty or infuse them with a full night's sleep if they stay up late.  When time has run out or the weather has turned to rain, I'm not a liar when the "but you said we could ____" comes out if I only said "we'll see". 

More lessons to come, maybe.