In Spite of ~ OR ~ Because of

Baby Bunny (pictured on the left above) is doing much better and will be going to school on Wednesday. She's had a very mild case of Swine Flu (H1N1) and has spent the day resting.

I LOVE this picture of both of them when they were much younger. In the blink of an eye ~ they're 10 years older and now I have two teenagers. Neither one of them ever went through the terrible twos ~ they were saving it ALL up for the "terrible teens" stage.

My Mother has been telling me for Months these "pearls of wisdom" ~

"When your children are grown ~ you'll never know if they are happy and healthy, etc., in spite of ~ OR ~ because of something you said or did."

"Just do your best and make sure you do what's right each and every day ~ that's all you can do and pray ALOT."

So ~ last week we had tons of Drama with Beach Bunny. She was so far behind with her school work ~ since she had missed a week of school when she was sick. She was extremely discouraged and her solution was that she'd just drop out of school. *sigh* It was really difficult to remain calm when I was screaming inside. There is such a fine line between being encouraging and pushing your child too hard to the point they want to give up. I did make it clear to her that quitting was NOT an option ~ she just needed to do her best and work really hard. I really don't remember what I said ~ I was just trying really hard not to escalate the situation.

Fortunately for her, she's extremely smart and all of her Teachers are willing to help her get everything caught up. They also are giving her two weeks to make up the assignments and tests that she missed.

Thankfully ~ today was a great day for her at School and she's almost completely caught up with her makeup work. She turned in the English Paper that she worked on this weekend and got a really good grade on it. I'm hopeful that she'll eventually decide that she wants to attend College ~ after all.

I remembered that the Cosby Show had done an episode where Theo decides that he doesn't want to go to College. His Father then gives him a lesson in Economics. I found it on youtube and enjoyed watching it again after all of these years. I'll show it to Beach Bunny tomorrow ~ maybe she'll enjoy it and learn something.

This is Beach Bunny years ago with our pet Bunny ~ which ran away after about a week. She was the only one that the Bunny would go near and this is the only picture we have of our (mean) little Bunny. My girls both want to get another Bunny ~ but I prefer Bunnies/Pets that don't make a mess.

There are just countless reasons why they should give a more detailed "instruction manual" when you leave the Hospital with a newborn. I had more guidance and instructions with my new car. AND my new Washing Machine ~ I couldn't even operate it until I read the Manual and watched the lengthy Video.

I'll continue to pray and maybe I'll find some books at the Library that can offer some advice. For now, I'm just counting all of my many blessings ~ especially my two Sweet Teenage Bunnies.