Adjustments

Alright, I admit. I stayed on until 7:38 pm last night, instead of turning it off, because I can't come upstairs without the kids wanting my attention, so I again didn't get to prepare the meeting enough, and frankly it won't be 7:30 pm by the time I turn it off tonight either, and here's my big justification: my kids are now going to bed later, and then all I have is 10 minutes on the computer. That's not enough to make phone calls. In the evening is the only time I can call the states because of the time difference, and I'm not about to pay long distance when I can use handy dandy google call and call all US numbers for free. So you see darlings, I might extend my computer from 7:15-8:00 pm.
Or is this perhaps a similar phenomenon to dieting, where you say: well I was going to stick with my diet, but then my aunt's sister's cousin celebrated a birthday and I really didn't want to offend her by not eating a piece of cake? Oh, the second piece, you say, why did I eat that? Well, otherwise she might think I didn't like it, right? Or the general addict's reply: well I would have abstained from -fill in the blank- but the kids were just too crazy/ work was just to overwhelming etc.
I don't know. It's possible. I know that I go to bed earlier now, and that being aware of what I'm doing has led to at least four blog posts so far. Not bad.

The other dilemma I have, is now that I'm not mindlessly surfing the internet, I'm dying to use the computer to write, and I also want to do the Rosetta Stone Dutch course. I'm tired of feeling so isolated here. Yes, almost everyone speaks English, and yes I understand Dutch, but that doesn't mean that people speak to me. When I drop off Micah in playgroup all the moms stand around in little clusters chatting, laughing, having some nice social interaction. They all speak English, but no one speaks to me. Most of them grew up right here, so they know each other too. It's very isolating. Most of all I want to be able to speak to the children though.
Anyway, I have so many things, I want to write about and create. Not stories, just thoughts, experiences, like how Ezra amazes me every day with his progress, and that my children acted like absolute angels today. If my kids were always like today, happily playing with each other, sharing, talking, laughing, than I would say that being a mother and parent is just about the greatest thing you'll ever do. Then of course, perhaps I wouldn't see that, if I didn't have to work so hard for it. And can I  just put on my firm grip boots and climb onto my soapbox here? (Of course I can. It's my blog after all and isn't that the point of blogs?)
If you want your children to share and play nicely, there's no way around it: get down on the floor and play with them. Teach them. Tell them what to do, and how to do it, instead of what not to do. For example: if child #1 takes toy away from child #2 and both start screaming and hitting, you just take them aside and say: no, that's not peaceful (if they're older you can explain more). This is how you could do it: Child #1 May I have a turn with that toy? have him/her repeat, and then Child #2 you say: Sure. Celebrate them like crazy, praising them for how nicely and peacefully they were doing it. Reinforce rules kindly but firmly. Explain why and how we do things, and show it to them by playing with them. The parent is the most important educator to the child. Our success in life to a large extent is defined by our social skills and our self-confidence, and no one has greater influence on a child's self-confidence than the parent. He/she will learn more from you than from anyone else. A child invites you to become who you want to be. Be in the world what you want to see in the world.

Anyway, way overtime here and Aaron and I want to go watch a movie. Goodnight friends.