Feeling accomplished :)

I will continue on with my reflection on the last part of 2011 and the direction I want to move in for 2012, but felt like sharing a bit of today.

I had prepared a list of things I could do with my nieces, 4 and 6, but when they got here, all the kids (except sleeping 14yo) ended up spending until lunch time playing with Lego. I sure wasn't going to "fix what ain't broke"! (At one point, I said something to my son in German--something I'm working at doing more of--and my 4yo niece looked at him, then back at me and just had this wonderful look of, "Did you say something that made sense?" on her face :D.) We had lunch, then went to the library. When we got back, I was at the computer a bit with the little girls: I had promised my 6yo niece I would get her a pet horse in The Sims 3. We did that for a bit. Then the 6yo, before even leaving the den, was asking, "What can we do now?" Her sister was asking repeatedly to watch a movie. Or rather, repeatedly saying that she would like to watch a movie. I avoided answering the question and suggested a few things. We ended up settling on some stamping (I am a fairly new Stampin' Up demonstrator and have a nice little collection), then it was sort of meandering around.

The 6yo ended up on the whiteboard doing things and the 4yo doing her usual standing around watching, although you can tell she'd like to be doing something. I pulled out some things from the horrendously disorganized shelves. (We usually have my friend's 2yo in the house and I haven't yet figured out how to provide access to the 4 and 6yos while preventing the 2yo from getting to everything and making a huge mess of it--or the 4 and 6yos, or even *me*, managing to make a mess by trying to get around the babygate arrangement with the less fuss possible and not bothering to put things away properly.) I then proceeded to try to organize at least one section a bit and go through stuff that was there. Too many materials out, for one, but found a set of 3-part cards that I showed to the 4yo right away. She loved it! I did not make a whole lot of 3-part cards, but if she consistently goes after them, I will have to make some other sets.

The girls ended up doing silly reading after that--it's after 3pm and adrenaline has kicked in, I think. ;) In any case, it felt like a good day. :)