What are you struggling with?

Patience. Definitely. My husband is gone since yesterday and won't be back before Friday night, when he returns with his 17 year old nephew (crash course in parenting a teenager?). Meanwhile, I am home alone with a teething baby and a potty training toddler. Neither seems to be leaving my side (I guess parents of teenager would love to spend more time with their kids, and here I complain...). And if they don't want something (and it's hard to figure out what they want, they are not very verbal), they hit each other over the head with their toys (oh, yeah, the baby too).

So, I guess, I feel like living in a madhouse and this is very trying. And I did raise my voice today (twice)

And Hans knows I have a problem with forgiveness too.

BUT I am aware, so hopefully it'll get better?!!

There are quite a few people who have a problem with forgiveness! Marela, the very fact that you talked about your personal \"madhouse\" shows that you are well on the way to forgiveness. Just as one parent to another, it certainly is not easy to have children who are stuck to you like glue all day. Being a Jedi doesn`t limit itself to public acts of heroism but you can find opportunity in the most ordinary moments of family life. You will get there!

Actually i guess this is a very good place to put what i experienced last night and what i am having trouble with. My biggest problem is procrastination and being lazy. I want to excercise and get up and do all sorts of stuff but when i get to the time to do it, i just sit there like a bump on the log and say \"oh well, i can do that later, this is funner and i won't have time to do this fun thing later.\" That is my biggest issue.

But last night my fiancee and i were messing around in the bedroom (we weren't doing anything yet, lol) but i was standing next to the bed and he started to pull me down, i knew ahead of time something bad would happen as i usually do but i never seem to trust my instincts. So he pulled me down and as i turned to let myself fall i felt my bones twist on top of eachother. I was in incredible pain and just as i started to blame my fiancee, a thought came screaming into my mind, it wasn't his fault or mine. I didn't blame him, some time ago i would have gotten angry and would have wanted to get away from him but this time i was forgiving. Also, instead of laying there forever like i would have a few years ago, i stopped feeling sorry for myself, or never started, got up and proceded to start trying to walk it off. I went to school for message therapy so i know that wasn't the best idea but my mind wasn't totally calm and clear.

When i went to the rest room after all of that was said and done i realized how much calmer i was then the last time this had happened, i blamed the dog for it (i was trying to get a chicken bone out of her mouth, her head between my knees, she twisted and i got hurt) i got p'ed off and took it out on her but i know and knew then it wasn't her fault. Anyway, i know that if i can get past pointing fingers, and self pity, that anyone can if they want to.

Oh and does anyone know the best way to treat a twisted knee? I am in pain and i expect it but does anyone know how i can recover as fast as i can?

Oh and sorry, i forgot to post this in the last one or the one before, but PM me so this thread doesn't become about health issues, or post again about health issues, thanks.

that's why you're getting a teenage boy. The force is trying to teach you patience. You will learn in time when you're juggling a teen and two youngsters. it will be hard at first. but don't give up! never give up hope. Teenagers are a hand full ( i would know seeing as how i am one..lol) but they are helpful handfuls as well. I believe you can perservere and you will come out of the tunnel with more patience then anyone. We are always here to help you so just ask. Friends are good to rely on.

I`ve found it quite helpful that there are many here with families. There have been a few aha experiences that I`ve learn`t about being a father. I have to tell you Perris that my daughter is only three, not a teenager, and she has proved already to have been one of my greatest Masters :lol:

Ah yes, family, especially children, wonderful teachers in their own right. I have four little ones that I have claimed for my own, regardless of actual birth parentage, they are girls, and range in age from 13, all the way down to 11 months. They teach many things, patience, humility, laughter, anger the list is a long one to be sure. As for you coming into having a teenager around the house, I only say to you good luck, and hope that you can muster every ounce of patience that you can find, and even with that, you may still have to borrow some from someone else from time to time, though I hear that teenage boys are easier to handle than teenage girls, wouldn't know, don't have the experience with that.

As for the knee injury, ice, heat, and stretch that leg as much as you can. Try and walk on it as much as comfortably possible, but mainly, stretching, ice and heat. Epsom salts also work wonders at the end of the day.

Today I looked at my daughter, before taking her to Kindergarten, and a great sense of sorrow seized me. It became apparent to me that I will never see her as a baby again. This is a moment which has once and for all faded into the past. For some maybe nothing new, but what an awesome feeling!

Too true Jon, one minute they're crawling and we're teaching to walk, and play, and talk. After one blink of the eye, they're running around the house full-bore and yelling their heads off, and we spend the rest of our lives telling them to be quiet! LOL. Just make sure that you don't discourage her from doing anything by telling her that she \"CAN'T\" do something, unless of course, that something is detrimental to their health in a serious way.