Sometimes life is normal

Hello old friend.  It has been way too long!  Nearly a year (maybe a full year) since I have sat down and sewed.  You were missed.

I only sewed some patches onto six pairs of jeans, but doing something small is better than not doing anything at all.  I haven't sewn anything since before we brought Samuel and Ruth home.  And since they have been home, I haven't been able to sit down and get a project (even mending a pair of jeans) done.  So how was this finally accomplished!?!

These two decided to be friends for a bit and played a fantastic game together.  There wasn't any fighting for more than an hour.  Huge blessing today!

Ruth was in and out of the craft room.  I only had to tell her to put the sewing pins down and remind her that they are pokey about fifteen times.  Having to tell her not to touch something that could be potentially harmful is typical.  But the big step today was that she didn't have a huge fit when she was told.  Instead, she eventually left the room and when I went to check on her, she was concentrating on getting her sock back on.  Also a big step for her because she hasn't shown much independence in the getting dressed department.

When we sat down for lunch, eating turned into play!!  I'll admit, I had to step back and hold my tongue.  My natural instinct is to tell the children to just eat and stop messing around.  Today was different.  Sam and Ruth haven't typically "played" with their food.  Most often, they sit down, eat everything on their plate and then ask to get down.  And if that doesn't happen, then I ask them to just eat their food so that they can get down.  But today, I did a better job at letting them be little kids.  They used their imaginations.  They enjoyed their lunch.  They were happy.  They were having fun.  They were RELAXED and COMFORTABLE.  They felt secure.  And they still ate their whole lunch!!!

Samuel made boats, cars, and horses and then ate the legs off of the horses.

Ruth made trees, Santa, and cars.

And of course, this guy was taking it all in.  He's played with his food for a long time:) He watched Samuel and Ruth, agreed with the shapes that they said they saw, and made some of his own. 

And to entertain the 4 year old during nap time, we played with legos.  He made some cool crocodiles!  We are starting to have more days than not that feel kind of normal.  And by normal, I mean, not spending my time breaking up fights, putting children in time outs, or cleaning up huge messes.  I had time to sit down at the sewing machine and do some mending.  That's normal.