Equalizing

Here's Hannah at her friend Lily's Royal Tea Party last weekend.


Nathan discovered the gourds made a pattern for his pattern homework last weekend.


Because they should have more than just their "stuff" pictured. (SEE POST BELOW). Here are some pictures of the owners. (Gotta make sure everything stays equal, right?)
Lately I have noticed an increase in awareness of the equal distribution (or lack thereof) amongst siblings of time, things, plate/cup/spoon/fork color, etc. especially by our eldest. This is new. I don't like it. So I am working very hard on pointing out that life is not a competition. We should celebrate what others have and be thankful for what we have. (I know, it is an uphill battle for sure and one that has been battled for generations before me). It seems we parents struggle with making all things equal between siblings for fear of appearing to favor one child over another. But reality is, all things are not equal at all times, if ever. An attempt to keep all things "fair" can make a person and/or family a little nuts. Why can't we be each other's cheerleaders and learn to be happy for others no matter how much we want what they have? This is a lesson most adults are still struggling to learn (myself included). We'll keep working on that.
On a very related struggle, as our eldest is becoming a more confident reader and asks to read to us more often, Hannah rebels just a bit by refusing to listen and acting out during whatever he might be reading at the time. Often he reads the prayer at the end of the devotional book we try to read each night. This is upsetting to us as we don't really like our daughter to act ugly during devotional/prayer time, but we don't want to make it a huge battle as we realize it isn't about what is being read, but rather, who is reading and the accompanying attention he is getting. We also don't want to discourage our new reader from reading and we enjoy our night team reading and don't want to exclude anyone. Dividing up isn't always possible and we really want to encourage our family to work together as a family to work things like this out. A challenge, but not impossible.
Last night, after Nathan read the prayer, Hannah recited it in a repeat after Daddy fashion. We were sure to give her a lot of praise for being such a big girl and she was all smiles. A nice change. Last night the devotional was on telling the truth. When Daddy read the question, "Have you ever said something that was untrue?" Our honest little Hannah answered, "Not today". What more can we ask for, really?