Living in Family Housing with a courtyard full of kids creates quite the communal living experience for us. There are always people around to play with, talk with, fight with, eat with, share all the ups and downs of life with. No one is perfect. We are all faced with our differences and similarities daily and learn to give each other and ourselves a lot of grace.
I love that our girls are growing up in this environment. They have friends from Chile, Vietnam, Belarus, Korea, China, Canada, Libya, Mexico, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and of course, the US. They learn to share, they learn to problem solve, they are color blind and oblivious to many of the differences in the people around them. They just love their friends and love all the fun they get to have with them. They are inclusive and accepting, kind, generous and full of laughter. What an example to all of us adults who often have such a hard time with the differences between us.
Yesterday we had a spontaneous painting party on our front porch:
So much joyful creativity, sharing of paints and brushes and personal space, complimenting each others pictures, enjoying each others company. I think there was as much paint on most of their bodies by the end as there was on their papers. Especially as they were reaching around each other to dip their brushes in the paint and then carrying a dripping paintbrush back to their spot, or trying to walk and stepping on each other's pictures. We dipped most of them in the laundry room sink before heading them home!
Today the impromptu fun was a pool party:
When pool space got a little tight they got creative with their real estate.
So much joyful creativity, sharing of paints and brushes and personal space, complimenting each others pictures, enjoying each others company. I think there was as much paint on most of their bodies by the end as there was on their papers. Especially as they were reaching around each other to dip their brushes in the paint and then carrying a dripping paintbrush back to their spot, or trying to walk and stepping on each other's pictures. We dipped most of them in the laundry room sink before heading them home!Today the impromptu fun was a pool party:
When pool space got a little tight they got creative with their real estate.
Fun times on hot days. Community living at its best.
2 comments:
Katie, how do you handle the inevitable fights/problems between kids? We have a lot of children living in our part of the condo complex, (ages 1 to 13), and I'm finding it frustrating and exhausting. It seems that as soon as they start playing, someone hit, or took their toy, or said something mean, and then one of the littles is crying and the bigs are tattling and no one will take responsibility. And I can't watch them every second, so I don't always know who is to blame, and I'm not sure how much I should be solving things for them anyway. I don't want to be the village policeman, but I'm not sure what else to do!
Yeah, as you can probably tell, I'm very frustrated with this! I really wish that we could have such a fun group as you seem to, but it just isn't working out that way and I'm not sure what to do. I'd appreciate any insight!
What fun for the kids! You have such an amazing ministry to the kids in your complex! What a wonderful opportunity to show Jesus' love to them! I wish my kids lived by you too, they would love all of the art projects you come up with. I need to get Justin some paints so he can go for it!
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