In peace and hardship . . .

It's finally Friday!!

And not just any Friday. . .

The Friday that begins Spring Break!!

Hip!! Hip!! Hooray!!

I love Friday afternoons. Everyone gets home and just does whatever! There's no pressure to get anything done. No lunches to make. No laundry that has to be done. It's just a good feeling.

Anyway, when we got home today, Alex wanted everyone to join him in a basketball tournament. While this is a fun idea, it is not necessarily a fun idea because a couple of boys that live here don't really enjoy losing. Well, actually none of them like to lose, but one of them always manages to win so he doesn't really have to deal with losing (unless he plays his mom, of course!!).

We had just done this little tournament idea last weekend and about three games in, it got kind of ugly.

So, you can understand my hesitancy to go there again.

I mentioned to Alex who is always in charge of setting up the bracket that it was just kind of hard because no matter how you did it, someone had to lose and it was just too big of a deal. I tried to convince him to lose HIS game, but that didn't go over well either.

Finally, he said, "I've got an idea" and he ran off.

A few minutes later, he came back and said, "I'm going to make everyone sign this contract that says they won't cry if they lose."

I kind of chuckled and asked to see it. This is what I read:

I will not throw a fit or cry if I lose.
I will have good sportsmanship in peace and hardship.
If not, you owe me 50 cents each time.

So, not only is Alex understanding that, at the ripe old age of 12, life has its peace and its hardships, he's also learning to try to capitalize on them if at all possible!!