It’s early in the morning, and I’m looking ahead to a day that is going to be filled with people – lots of people. From the Sears repair man who will arrive sometime between eight and noon, to the friends coming over for dinner. In between will be our special friend, Gretchen, Sunshine’s Bible study group, and later, her best friend, Happy, who is coming over after school. Not to mention my own kids and Russ.
I’m an extrovert, for the most part, so being with lots of friends is pretty good for me. However, it gives me so many more occasions to sin – to speak sharply to my children, get frazzled and grumpy as I make dinner, and not be as generous and kind toward Russ as I should be. It’s amazing how easy it is to be kind, patient, and self-controlled when nobody is around.
This is the kind of day when I get to practice breathing deeply, staying calm, giving my children gentle and loving eyes, stopping to truly listen to them, and being fully present with my family and friends. When I made my list of tasks for today, I tried to be realistic, that there really won’t be time for much more than some basic homeschooling, a bit of cleaning, and lots of food preparation.
I’ve almost finished reading Building the Bonds of Attachment: Awakening Love in Deeply Troubled Children by Daniel Hughes, and just ordered his book, Attachment-Focused Parenting. My goal each day is to read my Bible, a chapter or so of a book that is for my education, and if a tiny slice of time remains, I squeeze in a bit of my bookgroup book, which is currently, Unbroken.
What are you reading these days?
Happy Friday, friends.
Lisa
Our Friday is filled with sorrow as it is our last day with our 22 month old foster. She has been with us 11 months and we have struggled through ambivalent attachment issues to happy (mostly) toddler. It's a hard day. She leaves us tomorrow morning to live with relatives in NC. Thank you for mentioning those books, I will be looking into them.
Oh Debbie, I'm so sorry for your sorrow. What a gift you've given that little girl – an investment not only in her future, but generations that will follow. God be with you today.
I just finished an EXCELLENT book late last night (my quiet reading time is usually from about 11:00 – 1:00. :)
"Miracle for Jen" is about a teenage girl who was in a serious car accident. It nearly took her life, but left her with significant brain damage. However, it also left her with the most AMAZING relationship with the Lord. (While in the hospital, and coming out of a coma, she rarely spoke to anyone . . . but in the middle of the night she would wake up and speak clearly as she sang or prayed to the Lord for an hour or more.)
This book was a huge encouragement to me as we are walking through the trials that our family faces.
Laurel
I just received Building the Bonds of attachment in the mail! I'm currently reading Beyond Consequences.
I would love to hear what you think of it, Chrissy.
"I *get to* practice"… I love your choice of positivity :-)
Mostly for fun I like reading kids books! I used to run the school library and read every book that went into it.
At the moment I am also reading The Politically Incorrect Guide to Teenagers. Quite funny and a bit scary too. My boys had better not try all that stuff! (No sign of it so far though and they are 12 1/2 & 14 1/2).
Reading Jean Ayers’ classic, Sensory Integration and the Child, 25th Anniversary edition, which is painting a portrait of our precious middle child page by page. Just haven’t yet reached the page on which Ayers tells me how to fix all these struggles. :-)
I hope your practice session went well today!
As an introvert, the day you just described would make me want to go to bed and lock the door to my room. :) Hope you had a great day.
I am so enjoying your blog! Positive, realistic, encouraging… with ideas for educating myself. Great stuff!! "Unbroken" is an incredible book — my husband and I read it together when it first came out… and then one of my daughters ended up reading it for school, too. A great story with a positive message. I will have to look into the other books you've listed. This is the first I've even heard of that author! Thank you, Lisa, for sharing your journey with the rest of us. It's invaluable.
Lisa, thanks for the inspiration to see these kinds of challenges as practice. I am so grateful for this blog.
I just finished Unbroken. It is so good! I've been driving 4 hours every other week to take my son to psychologist appointments, so I rented the mp3 and listened to it. Finished it up cleaning and doing dishes. You should try it if you can't squeeze in the reading! :-)