Tender Friendships!

How do we moms cope when our children fight with their best friends?

How do we moms cope when the best friend's mom is our friend too?

I am the kind of mom who asks my child "So what did you do?" And "Why on earth would you fight with your best friend?" And "How are we going to fix this?"  Well this week we have had the drama in our household and even though I do not believe that my son is an angel - which 10 year old boy is? I do know that this has been hard for him too as he is not really sure how to handle the situation with his best buddy who he has known since he was tiny!

So I dug deep into my parenting base and told him that while there is always 3 sides to every story - yours, mine and the truth - there is one universal thing I believe! If someone we care about is hurting, and we have in any way contributed to this, we have to be sorry for causing the pain! So we talked about feelings and emotions and hurt and pain and while I am not sure how much of it he really grasped he understood that friendships are tender and important and that we do what we can to make those around us comfortable to be with us! But not in a way that compromises who we are as people!

So when he bounded up to me the next day after school telling me "Mom we need to talk" the smile on his face speaking volumes, I was sure we had done something right. "Mom, I told him I was sorry I had hurt his feelings" and then "and mom he said sorry too, but I am not sure why. But we are all good! Can we have a play date tomorrow?"

And the universe was back on track for that moment!

Cleaning is Cathartic!

I am trying hard to be organised! It is not easy as I am a classic hoarder! You NEVER know when you may need something you know! So I keep bits and bobs and thingamajigs and whatchcoms (my granny's word) for the future when you just may need them again.

So I got boxes and a labelling machine as I thought that if I am going to hoard it may as well be in an orderly fashion.

It is working but it is a slow process and I am still not happy to chuck out "stuff". I am also diabolically sentimental so anything that was from my late mom, or my kids, or anyone who loved me enough to give me something is hard to get rid off.

Today I cleaned out the medicine box and thew out 16 bottles of expired meds as well as about 22 blister packs of outdated pills and potions and I have streamlined one part of my life. Wow it feels good and all the waste glass, paper and cardboard went into the recycling which feels good too! What also feels good is that clearly our family is not sick too often.

Look at my medicine box now:

I have a friend who knows me too well. She told me that "Shoving stuff into a cupboard is not actually cleaning!" Nice one Jax!

Absent

I have been a bad bad blogger!

I could explain it by saying:

• The dog ate my hard drive
• I am SO busy
• I don't know where the days go
• The kids are taking up all my time
• I have been such an attentive mom and actually cooked for the kids recently
• Oh the people in my life are so demanding
• I have lost my mojo

Or I could just say

I will return so please be patient!