What to Do When You Have Your 10-Yr-Old All To Yourself

Oldest and youngest will be off to a play rehearsal all afternoon and middler will be with me. 

I would like to fill her love tank and have been thinking on it in my early morning rise.  We could sit and watch a few of her hundred tadpoles morph into peepers out in the baby pool in our driveway, but that would take the patience of Job, not Jill, so I think we will pull out the wool sweaters I have been collecting at garage sales and find a recycled sweater project. 

There are hundreds of free on-line projects and I will put her to work this morning researching. 

You see, my firstborn and I share an easy, teasing humor, and my lastborn is perky and affectionate and soaks up simple hugs and cuddles.  But Middle Girl is more obscure.  There is a maze I must travel to get to her heart, and I can get there, but it takes time and energy that I'm not always willing to expend. 

I like to tease and she does not often take well to teasing.  I value a quick wit and rapid understanding and she is not always quick like that.  I don't have an abundance of tolerance for her sensitivity and she knows this and will retreat from me, while I kick myself and ask God for extended grace toward her. 

But today will be for her.  And I will meditate on every good gift she has to offer.  We will create new things from old, because this is the most beautiful of ancient metaphors.  It is the business of God.