Attitudes and Sugar

We started off a little stressed out.

I don’t know why - just one of those mornings.  Rushing to that good activity.  Hurrying to the other one.  Running to the next.  And bumping our way back home.  It is not good to fit too many good things into a short time.  

We all relaxed a little once we unloaded the million random things from the car.  Kainoa headed to his trains and Malana headed to the washroom.  She has lengthy stays in that room.  She goes in there, locks the door, and sits.  I get called in for wiping time, but it usually takes a while to get to that point.  I think that’s where she does most of her personal reflection.  It’s the only time her mouth is closed, really.

This time, however, she called me, through the closed door, after only a few minutes.  “Mom!”  I came to the door and listened.  “Mom.  I’m changing my attitude.”  

Well good, then.  I suppose we can all do with a bit of an attitude adjustment at times.  I silently thanked Malana for reminding me that we do, in fact, have a choice in our moment-by-moment attitudes and started my own shift.  I began to relax, wind down, and did much more of, well, not much for just a bit.  Seems to calm the whole family.  

The day is over.  My kids are in bed.  And I’m closing in for the night, smiling at how the day ended.  We cleaned up from supper.  Or I suppose I cleaned up from supper...just in time to hear that delicious off-pitch, clangy, clinky, get-stuck-in-your-head, oh so beautiful music.  What was that?  The kids had never really noticed this before!  

Not sure how it all happened, but I found myself in flipflops running like a crazy pregnant flailing should-be-in-bed mother all the way down the street.  

Yes, I flagged down the ice cream truck.

He followed me back to our house and I saw my precious littles smiling ear to ear and running towards me.  I think they were mostly smiling at me.  Probably not the ice cream truck.  Chris came after them and we read the list of sugary sweets and let them choose.  Kainoa, overcome with joy, bent his legs up and down, saying, “SO excited...me!”  

I weighed it out.  I didn’t really need to, because I knew the answer already.  But I did anyway.  A cone of ice cream similar to that we indulged in has 30 grams of sugar.  7 grams of saturated fat.  0 grams of fibre.  

So their blood sugar might have been a little out of whack.  Their bodies might not have calmed down for sleep quite as easily as they might have had their treat been brussels sprouts.  But, oh, their hearts were happy.  Our hearts were happy watching the memories being made.  The times together being written.  

Sometimes, a little ice cream is healthier than not a little ice cream.

We ended the day, well, NOT a little stressed out.  

We learn to share...