See you at the pool.

We went to the pool today. It was a bit chilly - the water seems to be that way in winter time. We had some friends join us and, despite a bit of bickering, we all had fun. When we first got there I had to go potty so I took the younger girls with me back up to the bathroom. When I came back down I was just in time to see the wind blow our plastic double wide stroller into the pool. I was so happy to see that it didn't sink. My friend grabbed it and took it back to the side so I could pull it out. That's when I realized the towels inside were soaking wet! Bummer. I rung them out as best I could and then laid them out to dry. During the summer you don't really need towels but it was a bit chilly - when the sun went behind the clouds, the breeze blew and you were wet - so the dry towels would have been nice. Oh well. After lunch and some more swimming we headed out to do a little shopping on our way home. We, me and all 5 kids, made it to 3 different stores. We got most of the things we needed so that was nice. I'll have to go out tomorrow to Tina's which is the opposite direction from the pool so I decided not to go there today because we would have passed the house and gone on the "curve of death". I noticed that my little kids faces were a bit red. Then when it was time to go to bed I noticed their backs were a little red as well. I guess we still need sunscreen - especially when we spend most days inside playing... I really need to be better about getting my kids outside to play.

I have just decided that the key to having peace in the home is having peace within ones own heart. I'm not sure but I bet my kids are just mirrors of my own behavior and so they tend to handle things in an child like manner of my own behavior. I keep reminding myself that if I don't like how they are handling a situation I have a couple things I can do:

1. Look at myself and see how I'm doing, what I'm doing and so forth. They pick up on my feelings, hence the peace within that helps the peace without.
2. Take time to teach them a different way. They are still young and don't know how to do it all so I need to make sure I help them learn and use tools that I think they should have or they won't ever have them to use.
3. Redirect.
4. Give more praise and lots of hugs and kisses and even more tickle bugs.

Now, how that last little bit goes with the first part about the day I'm not really sure but that's what came to me so I thought I'd better write it down. The kids just seemed to be at each other most of the morning and it really bothered me so I guess we need to work on that.