Thirty days of Thanksgiving- day 21

As this is late by a day... today I am grateful for patience. Not just yours.... my children's patience also. I have fallen victim to the ill vapors that have permeated our house for the last week. So that means that we have nearly recovering kids.... and sick mommy.... and that is a bad combo. Still we are surviving... because my children are remarkably patient, even though that is one thing I often lack.
It isn't just today.... my children are patient with me every day. See I am not perfect, I screw up... and they are far more patient with me that I tend to be with them. There is a moment of chagrin when I realize that I have snapped on a kid who is just looking for help... or something equally as child like. My prayers every night include the ability to have more patience with my children. They are so amazing and every day I spend most of my waking moments with them.... and I am so awed by what they do and who the are becoming. I am totally knocked over by their creativity and their imagination. It is hard though to remember that creativity and imagination are messy sometimes... and that they need space to make a few mistakes to learn the best method. It is difficult to take the breath I need to take when washing their own hair turns into an entire bottle of shampoo gone in an instant.... into the bath and never retrievable. Independence is so important... but telling her that she just needs a drop of toothpaste and then watching the geyser that flows into the sink sort of erases the great importance of it. I hear my self repeating things I heard as a child.... " well if you didn't squeeze the middle of the tube as hard as you can... then you could CONTROL how much comes out." And sheesh once you tell a kid she should get it right .... right? Only that isn't exactly how life works. And I know I have sighed, tsked, snapped and snatched way too many times in the life of these kids. "But Mommy I was just trying to help." Oh man have any words hit the heart of a parent worse than those words right after you snapped at her.
You know what though... these kids curl up next to me every night and say " you're the best mommy in the world." and they seem to mean it. They truly love me that much. They think I am the best mommy in the world even with all my mistakes and character flaws. They are so patient with me as I bumble my way through this job of being a mommy. This job which is the most important that I have ever taken on.... and the one that I have so little experience to prepare for. Thank goodness, Thank Spirit for their patience with me. And as I watch them, I am learning how to be more patient with both them and myself.