Family Time

I am extremely proud of my children and the way they handled the lose of their childhood.

There had to be a role reversal between me and them, in the fact that the household responsibilities were dropped, like a dead weight, in their hands. This was and still is very upsetting to me. I felt like a loser being taken care of by my children. I was also angry at God for my children's loss.

I felt like more of a supervisor than a mother. I know moms do supervise, but they also carry much of the responsibility of caring for there children, household chores, schedules and security.

I did the best I could possibly do, which was not much at all. Our house was pretty clean and organized mostly because my kids did what had to be done. I'm not saying they didn't complain, they're human.

I always tried to make games out of these things, hoping it didn't feel as much like cleaning;

• When the floor needed to be mopped, I'd get some towels, pour Pine-sol and water on the floor, throw the towels down, have the kids stand on them, turn music on and we'd do the twist to the music until the floor was cleaned from corner-to-corner.
• Doing the laundry, we'd count how many clothes of each color went in and came out. This was also educational
• Folding laundry, we'd do our own, but if you got someone else's, the rule was you could throw it at that person and see if you could hit them (I never hit anyone. I had no aim.) There was a special sock basket, so if we found one, we'd wad it up and try to make a basket (needless to say again, I never made a basket.)
• Cooking dinner-my kids would decide what they wanted from a list of things I'd name off. Then we'd gather ingredients for the meal. I let them read the instructions with my help and figure out measurements. The meals were not always fancy, but they were tasty.

During all of this we'd laugh and joke with each other. We didn't realize it then, but it was a awesome, special, family time! My children and I learned self-sufficiency and compassion from these lessons. Thank you Lord for my wonderfully fantastic children!

Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
John 8:35

I am blessed

Merrym Dawn Mathis Bruce