This blog is our journal/scrapbook from our time here in Italy so some of the posts are done for that purpose. And may be just a slight uninteresting to you. With that said, I shall continue with a journal entry for my children. Since we've moved here, I've been able to refine some of my "duties" as a mom and wife, a benefit of living a slowed down wife. We used to be terrible at having Family Home Evening, the main culprit, basketball, but since moving here, we have it regularly without other conflicts. I am very grateful for this. One learning tool I often use for our lesson is my kids religious story books. You know, the bible ones from the dollar store like Noah's ark, the good Samaritan and the creation, etc. One of the books my kids really liked to talk about was "The Good Samaritan", and when they did something nice for each other, they would say "Mom, was i being a good Samaritan?" I think one of the best ways to learn is through your own personal experience so I try to not only be an example but also give my kids opportunities to do the things we teach them.
Yesterday on my way to pick Cloe and Brody up from school, I saw an African that I know form the grocery store. Just a background, almost all Africans here are straight from Africa, illegal and they sale things on the street out of their duffel bag. This one in particular kind of gets on my nerves and I've started to try to avoid him. He always try to rip me off and is constantly asking for change. example: He tried to sale me a belt for 10 euros and I bought it at the market for 3. So I small talked with him (since that's all I can do) and then continued on. I then saw 2 more siting in the park. As much as he can bother me, I had a feeling that I should buy them all lunch and let the kids do it.
I picked them up and we went to the bakery. I told them what we were doing, helping someone, and let them pick out the sandwich (of course w/o pork because they're Muslim). I told them on our walk how they were going to be good Samaritans and do what Jesus would do, etc, etc. Cloe was holding the bag and Brody wanted to hold it with her, they were quite excited. We got to the park and they weren't there but when we were almost home, we saw them. Cloe gave them the sandwiches and told them it was tuna and Brody insisted on giving them flowers/weeds. They enjoyed the whole thing and I was thankful to have given them the experience.