Middle school is such an awkward time that breeds insecurity like 6 week old gym socks breed fungus!  In my estimation, middle school is one of the most difficult times in life.  You are at the mercy of your environment, and the environment in middle school can be extremely toxic and overwhelming.  Understanding this, makes recognizing and celebrating the accomplishments of our tweens extremely important. 

My husband has such a gifting for celebrating others.  One of the simple, yet profound traditions in our family is our favorite celebration table.  When any one in our family is honored, makes good grades or earns the position on the team they were shooting for we, as a family go to this restaurant and sit in our “celebration table”.  My husband then will tap his tea glass with his spoon and offer a heartfelt toast to the guest of honor.   We have been brought to laughter and tears on many occasions.  The tradition has now grown to many of us offering a toast of lemonade and unsweetened tea.

Those that are most precious to me consist of honoring our kids for facing their fear and daring greatly.  I love the nights we have sat around our celebration table because someone tried out for a solo, scared to death, gave it their best try and wasn’t selected.  Celebrating our tweens facing their fears and going for it is as important as celebrating victories.  It can be the bright side of those not-so-bright middle school days.