Do you ever wonder about your parenting decisions, second-guess your choices, feel like throwing in the towel when you aren’t sure of your actions?
I have, many MANY times. Perhaps you remember the time I fretted over Amelia going to Seven Gen, and then fretted about it all over again when Zoe started. Or stressed and found myself crying in the night when I couldn’t figure out how on earth I was going to do the restricted dieting, with each step: removing caseins, then glutens, then phenols, MSG, GMOs, etc., etc.
But this week has been an amazing affirmation of everything Chris and I have done as parents. I think it’s helped, too, that I’ve been able to add a spiritual dimension, reading Bible stories to the kids a few times a week.
Yesterday was their parent-teacher conferences. I’m happy – NO PSYCHED! DANCING WITH JOY! JUMPING UP AND DOWN IN MY SEAT – to report that the girls are doing really, really well!
Zoe has a friend (a boy, why is it ALWAYS a boy??), she is reading, she is excelling in speech, she is doing art (!!), she is almost lasting the entirety of long hikes. I’m not saying there aren’t more difficult days, but she is doing leaps and bounds above last year (she has the same aide, so he’d know first-hand). I’m so excited, I just love that the class teacher is impressed with her. “Zoe has a classroom job – all the kids are assigned one, of course, she doesn’t know it, but her job is to organize the letters at the end of the day. It’s a big help to me!”
And Amelia, who’s shown almost no aggression this year, and acknowledged it when she has, is also really making progress with her academics. This year, I learn she has amazing “real life” memory. She has 22 classmates, each assigned a number, which they put on a board when they step out to the bathroom. Amelia can look at the number and know who’s out. In fact, she takes mental attendance first thing, and asks after anyone who’s missing. WOW! Memorizing 22 assigned numbers would NOT be something I could do.
And if all this weren’t enough, Amelia just called me downstairs (I’m upstairs keeping an eye on Zoe), and surprised me by making me a cup of coffee with our Keurig.
Now, is it the biomedical stuff? I have done some changes, minor ones since start of school year, like eliminating phenols and limiting restaurant visits to VERY few. (MSG??) Is it the school? Things seem very settled and calm, Zoe has no toys in her class (big distraction) and Amelia has a beautiful huge double room, designed very chic in teal and pale green. Is it my & my friends’ prayers and guiding them in faith? I have to believe that contributes. Is it maturity? Maybe. Maybe it’s just a perfect storm of all the right elements that we had the courage to try coming together. There are no accidents, after all.
Sweet. My kids rock, and so does my husband – but that is a story for another day 🙂 Peace out folks…
