Sleeping with Bread Monday with Rest & Relaxation

In the last week, for what am I most grateful?

Kentucky! I'm actually looking ahead on this one. My visit in Kentucky has just started but it feels so good to get away. She is an excellent hostess and I am most comfortable here. (If you have been here, you know what I mean.) I had a great night's sleep, some exercise and Starbucks twice in one day! (Thanks to Logan for Round Two.) Right now, Michelle is cooking fajitas in the kitchen for dinner. Tonight, we head out to the movies. Who knows what else the week will bring? The great thing is, it doesn't matter. I am content to hang out in Michelle's life this week.

In the last week, for what am I least grateful?

I feel so far away from home that I cannot even think about what might have been bad about last week. Oops! I just remembered something. Ultimately, it wasn't necessarily bad, but it was difficult. I am experiencing some growing pains as a parent. Colin is experiencing growing pains as a teenager. There was a clash of Titans last week. (Titans being mine and Paul's idea of what should happen and Colin's idea of what should happen.) Like I said, it worked out okay but it is painful to see that the ways I could comfort my son when he was six don't work now that he is 14. Paul and I have as much adjustment to this age as our son does. Part of that growing experience for Paul and me is how Colin sees us function. I tend to be the mouthpiece (no laughing at my use of the word 'tend'.) I need to step back and give Paul more room to be the voice of some things at home. It isn't that Paul and I aren't in agreement, it is just that I am the town crier.

This actually brings me to another consolation. On the flight to Michelle's, she asked me about some of the things I have been saying here at Life, the Universe and Everything about my parenting. She was a great encouragement to me about what she sees as my strengths and she challenged me to consider that some of my perspective isn't accurate. I realized as she and I were talking how heavy this has all been on my heart but that realization came with the hope that maybe, just maybe, my kids won't grow up to hate me.

Also Sleeping with Bread today:

Sheila of musings of a mommy
atypical of nonsensical text
Zoey of life girl
TerriB of Tip of the Iceberg (This isn't formatted like a typical SWB post but it is intended to be a similar look at something in her life that causes both consolation and desolation.)

I've been trying to post both the blog site and the permalink; however, Michelle is running blogger on a MAC and there is virtually no tools in the create post toolbar. Seriously, a spell check and an a picture upload icon. That is it! C'mon blogger, help us out here.