From the mouth of babes...

My vacuum cleaner was giving me stress tonight, and as I unscrewed the case for the third time to fix the belt, my frustrations started to express themselves verbally. Lily could tell I was getting frustrated and inquired, "wuts hwong, mom?," to which I replied that the vacuum was broken. She so innocently and simply looked at me and said, "you can do it, mom." Oh, the simplicity and faith of a child.

I appreciated her faithful encouragement (atleast it kept me from swearing), but alas, after ensuring the belt was on correctly and replacing the case, I ony got about two lines of carpet vacuumed before the belt decided to just break entirely. Who needs a clean house anyway? What's one more bit of something for Zoe to pick up and eat? Makes your immune system stronger, right? :o)

But yes, I can do it....things might not always work how I envision, but I can do it.
Isn't it all about trying and not necessarily succeeding anyway? Yes, it's nice to succeed, but life's not always fair and simple that way. It's the process that's our teacher--not the finished product. We CAN do it, or atleast try, because it's in not trying that we ultimately fail.

I read a great article about raising kids to value challenges and do well in life. It can be found at http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids . As it points out, 'challenges are energizing rather than intimidating; they offer opportunities to learn.'

So bring on the challenges!! (even if they are annoying ones like fixing the belt on the vacuum)