Sweet and spirited

The other day a friend of mine said, "You know what I really like about Azure? She is so kind and sweet yet, she's not a push-over. She doesn't allow herself to be taken advantage of."

I just laughed. Knowing that she gets this from me (the not allowing herself to be taken advantage of, not so much the sweetness perhaps ;) and that it is most often displayed as a weakness (in myself) and NOT a strength made me realize how closely related our strengths and weaknesses are.

Last Friday night Charles and I had a "stay-at-home date". He made cookies and we rented a movie. Charles has some mad baking skills by the way. We watched Sarah's Key. It's about the Holocaust and not a light movie. For some reason I was in the mood for a deep, heart-wrenching movie? I liked it but, it was hard to watch. Bawled through parts of it. I know my husband loves me because he gets up to get me tissue whenever I sob uncontrollably :)

I am deeply affected by movies (which is why I am very selective about what I watch including violence and horror) and I couldn't sleep that night. I kept crying thinking about this poor little boy in the movie that looked and acted much like Vince (which made it all the more real for me). I also thought about Sarah, the main character. She was so spirited and determined and escaped a Nazi camp. I thought of Azure and that she probably would have done the same.

Last night we read the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Old Testament. Afterwards we acted it out and Azure said, "Mom, I really loved this story! I think it's my favorite."

I asked her what she would do if someone told her she had to either worship an idol or by burned in a furnace. She said, "I would try to burn them!" Again, I just laughed thinking about the comment from my friend about not being a push-over.

We are about to start homeschool for Kindergarten on Monday! We're really excited about it. I have done a complete 180- going from being opposed to wanting nothing else than homeschooling her (for this year). Originally, we thought homeschool was the only option since she was not able to get into a good school here. Monday I found out that she could in fact, get into the school we wanted her to. But, in that moment I knew homeschool was the best thing for all of us this year. A lot for her, but mostly for me I think.

We love our sweet and feisty 5 year old!

 

 And this little 2.5 yr old, of course!