Strengths and Weaknesses

Things are always interesting, no week is like the one before.. We had a flu pass through the house this week... I - Kelly- got it for sure, Brendan was 'grazed', and the kids have so far been fine. I had a sick day from work, which means that I will definitely finish the week feeling like I've accomplished too little. I had my first haircut at the salon in Hepburn, and discovered that their great reputation is well deserved. Bren's been tired from his spontaneous trip to Caddy Lake last weekend, between that and the newness of his job, he's tried to have lots of rest this week. We also had parent teacher interviews.. nothing was a huge surprise there as we had spoken to the kids teachers a couple of weeks ago, just to check in and see how the year was going so far and how they thought the kids were adapting to their new surroundings. It's interesting how we can see similar patterns throughout our kids' school years; some things just don't change from year to year or even school to school.
At a seminar somewhere, I remember making note of the concept that people should 'play to their strengths' rather than try to build up their weaker areas.. On the surface, that seems kind of backwards, but if we embrace the concept of well rounded teams vs. well rounded people, it comes into clearer perspective. We need to work to consistently improve our strongest areas so we can accomplish what we're meant to (which is not everything); but if we get tied up working on areas that don't come easily, that's a challenge and we become drained. If we focus primarily on the areas where we're naturally adept, I think we come away stronger and energized; fuller and more capable. Obviously, we can't ignore our weak areas, but we can put our best efforts into our strongest ones. Some parts of school life are going to be hard for each child; but other parts will be much easier.. As a parent, I need to not make such a big deal over the areas where O and Syd aren't as strong, and I need to really celebrate whatever areas they're strong in.
Now that I've put it in print and hit 'post', maybe I'll get better at it.