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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

Here is my weekly post about sweet boys at Forever Parenting]

Ugh. I had such an awful headache today.

I noticed it when I woke up, then it got worse as the day went on. During the history lesson the older boys and I wound up in a massive discussion about attitudes and how they affect us. I was exhausted when we finished, it was pretty late in the afternoon, and my head was just killing me.

Thankfully I have sweet boys. I asked the older guys if they’d handle lunch while I took a hot shower in an attempt to kill the headache. They were more than happy to help. TechnoBoy whipped out the blender to make fruit smoothies, and The Mercenary started making sandwiches for everyone.

While I was in the shower, the usual stream of questions came through the door. My favorite was this exchange with Captain Earthquake:

CE: Mama, can I eat some feta cheese?
Me: Sure, honey.

CE: Mama the box is almost empty. Can I eat all the cheese? There won’t be any left.

Me: Awwww, sweetie. Thank you for asking! Mama bought a new box, so you can finish the old one.

CE: Yay!!! (little feet patter off)

When I got out of the shower I was still hurting pretty badly so I lay down with a heating pad on my head while the boys played. They’d dug out their Halloween costumes (I figured…why not?) and were having a fine time. Every now and then, a boy would reheat my neck warmer or check in on me.

They knew we needed to return some library books, so they hustled around and collected them for me. The older guys even insisted on running the books into the building, even though the weather today was dangerously cold. So cold that if you hadn’t inhaled before exiting the car, the wind would take your breath away.

It wasn’t until after dinner that the headache finally receded and I started cleaning up some of the ‘evidence’ of today’s activities. I found the lid to the jelly jar on the carpet (the jelly itself made it to the fridge). An open container of pineapple was on the counter, and plates with sandwich crusts were left on the table. The remains of some warmed-up macaroni and cheese sat on the table as well. Toys were everywhere. Scattered around the house were piles of clothing, obvious costume-changing sites. School books were littered on the floor, along with papers and pencils from finished assignments. In general, the house was a mess. I smiled at all of it.

My boys are so sweet.