3rd Family Meeting

Sylvia's still getting used to the idea, but her groans are more of that of a moody teenager; not to be taken too seriously. The more we do it, the more she'll accept it.

She liked some of the additions to the calendar, like knowing what's for dinner all week long. And it saves me from answering the question every day! I'm using E-mealz to help me with this. I love the idea of planning meals based on what's on sale at my local grocery market. And the price is low enough to make it an easy budget item to add. And my grocery bills have gone down!

Going through the calendar also gave us a chance to see where we were double-booked; well, Sylvia was double-booked. She made her choice and our schedule freed up (a tiny bit, anyway).

I didn't have any issues on the agenda this week. It had been a tough week at work, and I was still processing a lot of it. I was also really, really angry at someone and having a hard time getting past it.

The girls started to re-hash an event from earlier in the week that was still upsetting both of them. But as I talked it through with them, how each re-action just compounded the problem, I realized that it no longer mattered if I was still mad at this person or not; I was not going to let myself re-act, and make it worse.

My head knew that, of course, but I still couldn't quite accept it. There are times when I'm just tired of being the grown-up. Where it just feels like the world of justice needs to be a trifle more balanced than it actually is. I didn't wanna. I just didn't wanna.

But as I watched my own girls hold onto their resentment (hmmm, wonder where they get that from?), hold onto what they believed to be righteous anger...it just didn't matter anymore. As I told them, "it's okay to be angry; you just can't react with it."

It's like the Power of Negative Thinking; allowing myself to be angry actually freed me from it. I can still be just as angry as I want; I just can't show it.

The girls got through it in a more sibling manner; they bonded by rolling their collective eyes at my words of wisdom. Eventually, we were all laughing together and the meeting adjourned.