A Lonely Road

I've come to the realization that parenting is often a lonely road. Advice can be given on how to help overcome a problem (i.e. potty training) but each child and each parent is unique and has their own personality and in the end we need to figure out on our own what works and what doesn't. Friends can cheer us on, advice books can be read, Mom can be consulted but ultimately it's between us and our children. What do you do with a 5 year old boy who just can't shut his brain off at night so he can fall asleep? How do you get a 14 month old baby to keep their little hands away from something that could hurt them when you can see that they understand "No" but they are just too curious? How do you discipline a 5 year old girl who has developed an attitude since beginning kindergarten and quite frankly doesn't care what you think? All the advice in the world can be given but we're the one that it falls on to find the answers on how to best raise our three gifts from God. May He grant us sufficient patience, love, and wisdom to get us past our own inadequacy and failings and through the trials of raising children!

On a much happier note I have discovered the joys of doing my grocery shopping online and having it delivered to our front door! I have never minded doing the actual shopping through the store but I've never much enjoyed loading and unloading the car and hauling all the groceries into the house. On Saturday I went online with my list in hand and clicked on what I needed. It was delivered to my home this evening so all I had to do was unpack the bags!!! I was stocking up for CNY so there was no way I could get that many groceries home by myself without a car...hey, any excuse works for me:) I plan on doing a lot of my shopping this way as it was way more stress-free! AND for the best part - I can stick to my cash only budget as you pay when it's delivered. I can honestly say that will be one thing that I will miss when we move from here:(

PS: Still working on what to say about China Town - my camera died about two pictures in (my fault for not checking how much battery life we had left) so I'm thinking about waiting to tell about China Town until after our next visit there. Hopefully than I'll have lots of pictures and videos to try and paint a picture of the experience!