We have had a busy week and this morning I came downstairs to find a couple of my kids just sitting around instead of eating breakfast. All my kids have jobs to do before school. Making beds, practicing instruments, reading, emptying the dishwasher, and etc. They all know their individual responsibilities, but sometimes we’re a little slow to get started–me too!! When I asked my 9 year-old son why he wasn’t eating, he said, “The bowls are all dirty.” We had apparently forgotten to start the dishwasher last night. Now, please know that this is not the first time this has happened. My older 4 definitely know how to wash a bowl. So, I just stared blankly at him and said, “So, you don’t know how to make them not dirty?” He stood up without a word, went to the sink and proceeded to wash a bowl. When he finished, I washed a couple of bowls as well for my youngest boys.
My youngest daughter came downstairs shortly after and was not feeling well, so I attended to her. I then checked up on my 2 year-old boy who is potty-training. My attention was in lots of different places this morning! When I came back to start the dishwasher I noticed this lovely little tree sitting on my counter.
Now, we LOVE gratitude trees around here, but we’ve never made individual ones before at my house. My oldest daughter made one at a church activity last night. When I noticed the leaf that says, “Bowls,” on it, I laughed!
When I asked her about it she said, “Well, without them the table would be a lot messier!” To which I replied, “Right. It’s also nice to have clean ones already in the cupboard to use too.” She agreed.
My next thought was that the dirty bowls in the dishwasher mean that we ate dinner last night as well and we all need to make our own individual gratitude trees this year.
And just like that, the morning that could have turned sour, tasted sweet–even though it started with dirty bowls for breakfast.
Kayleen
