A post about nothing that's really something

Hi! So, we're almost back from vacation, haven't had Internet access and I just realized that due to technological difficulties (er, I scheduled my guest posts for the wrong days), they didn't go up. Better late than never! Here today is Tiff from Three Ring Circus. She's an Aussie mom with an amazing spirit, a great sense of humor, a knack for taking photos and absolutely adorable kids.

I'm supposed to be writing a post to help the beautiful Ellen out while she takes a much needed break.

I wrote something when I was in a bad mood but it wasn't right.

I thought about warning you all that there was a much worse influenza out there, than swine flu, called male flu but in light of recent news headlines, it would probably have been in poor taste.

I just need you to know that Maddy (my very blonde daughter) thought that the reason everyone was wearing the surgical masks in all of the related news articles was to hide the snouts that had grown. You know, because they had swine flu.

Yeah, she's twelve

and either very vague or a great comedian.

I thought I could tell you about how the flu puts the fear of God into anyone with an immune deficient kid and how every fibre in my being wants to isolate all of our family for all of the Winter (we live in Australia) and not let them out of the house until every last virus infested person is better but then you might think I was totally weird and I want you all to like me (I'm needy like that).

I thought of showing you a photo of a couple of my kids' bikes...um, in a compromising position and discussing my husband's thoughts on our ever growing supply of toys but you don't know me that well and this is not my blog, so perhaps I should keep it very G rated.

This time, anyway.

It's 5am here and I promised I would have my article ready...oh, sometime last week.

I'm awake because my three year old twins have been up since 4am and I've just finished having a conversation about being proud.

I asked them to whisper, so as not to wake the whole house and Noah said;

"Don't be cross, be proud"

and Ivy started to cry...

"I thought you were proud".

"I am proud of you," I said, "I just want you to be quiet".

They were quiet for about two seconds and I'm still proud of them.

Actually, I'm proud of all of my kids. Each has overcome some terrible things and every single one of them have handled themselves with amazing grace.

Children are astonishing, don't you think?

Highly adaptable, forgiving, open and innocent, in a way that adults can't quite pull off, or lose along the way in the process of growing up.

I like to think that I am teaching them about life but the more I experience motherhood, the more I am of the mind that it is the other way around.

I am learning more from them than I have ever learned in school;

patience,

kindness,

the ability to not just listen but really hear what a person is saying.

How to keep a sense of humour

and how to make lemonade when the world throws you lemons.

Pretty important life lessons, wouldn't you say?

So, my post is about my kids, which it mostly always is, because I'm in awe of them.

Plain and simple.

—Tiff