Doing the BEST We Can

My motto as of late, has been "Everyone is doing the best that they can."  This is one of the main tenants of Tiara Coaching, the coaching established by our fantastically terrific friend, Betsy C. (Whose recent visit was just so fantastically fabulous I cannot even put it into words.)   In the coaching, the idea was to give ourselves some forgiveness and allowance, but I have found that this philosophy just naturally emanates to all those around me.  It has totally transformed my relationships and the way I feel on a daily basis about myself and those around me. 

Yesterday when Thom woke up, he found Ellie on the floor beside her bed, surrounded by books.  Just like the old days.  Astounding.  A Merry Christmas present to us. 

My sister, Susan, and her husband, the incomparable, Ghany, and their lovely children, Bella, Sophia and Dariush drove 12 hours to visit with us.  Dariush is 3 years old and called Ben his "husband" when they played family together.  At one point Ben started hollering about something occurring in the bathroom.  Dariush ran out with his hands completely covered in soap bubbles.  Ben began shouting how this was so wrong.  Dariush proclaimed that he did not see any bubbles on his hand.  When he was asked to look down to locate the bubbles, he ran off to the bathroom to remove said bubbles.  When he returned, his hands were still covered in bubbles, that is how much soap he'd used. 

Susan and I were reminiscing about the first time she met Ellie.  We were living in a condo in Chicago and Susan was so super excited to meet Ellie, she sprinted up the 3 flights of stairs.  During her visit, we went to a Chinese restaurant where we were suddenly shocked at how loud and smelly and bright the whole place was.  I mean couldn't they make the restaurant more infant friendly for crying out loud?!?!  Also during the visit we had Taco Bell, which at the time we thought of as a healthy food source.  For some reason, Susan felt nauseated and could not eat the scrumptious Taco Bell food.  We knew something was amiss and soon discovered that Susan was pregnant with her eldest daughter, Bella.  Throughout the memories we were sharing, we laughed and wept.  That is one of the things I adore most about my sister how we can go from sobbing to laughing in the same sentence. 

Now my mom is here to help out indefinitely.  We love having my mom around because she just naturally rolls into our family life easily and effortlessly. 

Great big shout out to Ms.Zwart for once again reading to Ellie for hours.  I was contemplating how Ms. Zwart teaching Ellie how to read and how to count has so enhanced Ellie's life.  At times Ellie has spent hours just counting books or pages.  It has opened a whole other world to her that was not available to her before these skills.     

And once again a great big shout out to Chris and Kathy for the awesome presents, for putting our trash to the curb as a secret mission, and for shoveling our walk.  Seriously, I cannot say enough good things about them.  If only everyone had neighbors like them, I don't think anyone would ever move.