Little Joys

The little joys for me today were the joys of home - things like standing at the kitchen counter cutting veggies for tomorrow with the late afternoon sun streaming in the window, making custard and banana for dessert as a special family treat to celebrate our last night together before going back to work, reading "The Kissing Hand" to prepare the kids for school tomorrow, making us a lovely fresh steak dinner and all the meal came from our farm share - pasture-fed humanely farmed beef, fresh mushrooms from the mushroom farm, baked potatoes and parsnips - I LOVE eating food that came directly from the farmer, all little things that made the day a bit more special and helped me to feel blessed.

 Dh did a terrific job grilling the steak tonight, despite the cold wind blowing outside

 Our delicious meal from the farm

 Our favourite family game - trying to make some sweet memories for the kids to take to school with them tomorrow

The most bittersweet part of the day involved Pk.  I noticed this afternoon that she was getting chippy with her brother and spacy with her piano work (and Dh was starting to get very frustrated with her).  I started to wonder whether it had anything to do with going back to school.  When I first asked, she said that all was well but at dinner, when I asked about what a great day at school would be like, it came to light that she is feeling very alone at recess.  Poor kiddo, she really is my daughter - I had small groups of very close friends (much like life now) but I always found the mad social whirl of a flock of girls very exhausting and stressful.  She has always had a best friend and they were in the same class and this year, they are not.  She misses this friend terribly and the best part about this friend was the lack of drama.  This year, the class seems driven by drama and she is really struggling.  It was so hard to see her pain but at the same time, it felt so good to be her "soft place to fall" (the one time you will hear me quote Dr. Phil - I love this idea).  We played games as a family, we joked, we did our cozy bedtime stories and we called Gran and had a chat, all of which seemed to help to soothe her nerves.  I want to make my aim from now until school finishes in June that home will be a place of comfort and rest for the kidlets, a respite from the frenzy of school for all of us.  It feels so good to be able to give the kids that safe place to go and the feeling of being loved.