Keeping Track of Myself

So...I've been riding Collin pretty hard the past couple of days regarding the whole gloves, hat, keeping track of himself issue. After all, isn't it my job to teach these kids to keep track of their stuff when I'm not there to do it for them?...(and even when I am?).

I knew it was cold when the radio announcer woke us this morning with a report of a weather casualty. Apparently a homeless woman died this morning in Minneapolis from injuries suffered in -20 temperatures. While the boys were getting dressed to go outside, Collin was asking me every question imaginable about this woman...

"Did she really die because it is so cold outside?"
"Did she freeze?"
"Why didn't she have a home?"
on, and on, and on...over and over and over again...

Instead of our usual walking routine, we drove to school this morning. I removed Collin from his booster in the truck and instructed him to run to the doors so he would have minimal exposure to the extreme cold. I waited as the buses passed in front of the doors, confident that Collin would already be inside when I was again able to view them. But he wasn't. Instead he was engaged with two boys who had climbed off one of the last buses. Resisting the urge to roll down the window and remind Collin to hurry, I suddenly realized what he was doing. Standing in the freezing cold, he was offering his gloves to one of the boys in his class, Jorge, who wasn't wearing a pair of his own. After he finished helping Jorge with the gloves, the three boys walked into school together, without ever realizing they were being watched.

This could be part of the reason Collin's having such difficulty with his things, he's busy sharing them with people. Collin reminded me today that I also need to keep better track of myself, since I needed to be reminded by a 5-year old that it is way less important to keep track of our things than to find ways to share our abundance with others.

Thanks, Collin...for the not so subtle reminder.