Thanks Kids!

It's really easy to complain about our kids when they are naughty just being kids, or when they are driving us around the twist.

As a teacher I work really hard to find and comment when students are working well.  If we'd gotten into a bad patch in terms of the mood of the classroom, it always turned things around when I looked for the good!

I work hard at doing this with my kids too, but I'm definitely far from perfect!

But I wanted to take a moment today to tell you how proud I am of them.

We had a long day yesterday.  We drove to the Southern Highlands where we visited my mum.  This can be really difficult for for the kids, depending on what is going on that day.

Yesterday, I needed to feed mum her lunch, which takes a while, as well as respond to my brother who is severely autistic, and help him in his visit and in processing his grief about mum.

iPads are the best!

Then we drove in pelting rain to a tea shop where we had a booking.  I'd had to cancel most of my friends coming because the rain & flooding meant it wasn't a good day for driving, but we'd decided to go anyway, along with another friend who's always up for an adventure.  Dirty Jane's is a Vintage High Tea shop that is sublime.  But not really a suitable place for children:  think small, think vintage china...

That said, they served my kids a beautiful children's high tea, so that was an unexpected surprise.

Are you done yet Mum?  I really want to eat my scones!

Then we drove in worse rain, in the worst flooding I've ever seen around Bowral, and it took ages to find a way out of Bowral.  It took us several attempts to get to Mittagong to discover that all access to Mittagong was flooded.  Then we needed to drive the 'wrong' way towards Moss Vale so that we could get back on to the Freeway via Berrima. Oh my.  There was flooding all along the route to Moss Vale, and then in Moss Vale itself.  It wasn't ideal.  We shouldn't have been there at all, but I really needed to see my mum for her birthday.

The drive home on the freeway was the worst rain I've seen in a long time.  It was heavy, the entire way back.  We were so thankful to get home safely that night.

Well, that's the story of our day, but not the story of the kids.

They were so well behaved all day, they played beautifully with each other at Mum's, and talked to my brother.  They were well-behaved at Dirty Janes, and enjoyed their high tea.  They were well-behaved in the car, and listened to our audio stories (we are rocking Roald Dahl at the moment) so that I could concentrate on navigating and husband could concentrate on safe driving.  They weren't perfect, and they needed a few reminders, but that's a win in my book.

It's good to stop and be thankful for their wins.  I told them how proud I was of them this morning.

Now I'm telling you ;)