Oh Duh! Moments

You all know what an Aha! Moment is, right?  I believe it was Oprah that coined that term, or at least made it famous.  I'm not saying that I used to watch Oprah (but I'm, also not saying I didn't sometimes sneak a peek) and although 82.4% of the things she said made me cringe, I always liked it when she had an Aha! Moment. 

It would happen when her guest was saying something in a way Oprah had never thought about, and light would dawn on marble head, the Heavens would open, the choirs of angels would sing and Oprah would exclaim AHA!!  And the crowd would go wild.

Now, I have definitely had my Aha! moments, but more often than those come my Oh Duh! Moments.  These occur at times when something I already knew or should have known suddenly becomes clear, and the Heavens open so God can smack me on the head while the angels snicker in disbelief over my stupidity. 

This morning my Oh Duh! Moment came about when I put together an outfit that I wasn't too sold on (khaki pencil skirt, colorful ruffled tank top and white shrug) and asked Phil how I looked.  The kids were all sitting around the kitchen eating breakfast and it was like time stood still. 

They all looked over at my outfit, then at their dad while they awaited his response.  "Good", he said, "You look good".   (Not "great", but better than "fine".  I kept it on.)

The kids went back to their eating, time sped up, and I realized just how much my boys learn from their father how to treat the women in their life, and how my daughter will expect to be treated by her future man. 

The way Phil and I interact with each other is more than just passing conversation.  We have little ears and eyes on us all the time (even when we think they are oblivious) and need to model our behavior so that our children grow up to be good people.  To do that, we need to be good people, nice people, spiritual people, kind people, loving people, strong people, faithful people, intelligent people, athletic people, fill in the adjective to whatever kind of people you want your kids to grow up to be! 

It's what I knew would happen when we became parents, and yet I didn't realize it was actually happening.  Oh duh!