training your children...it's a wonderful thing!!

I have been working with both Aly and Lili on so many different areas lately. They have both been memorizing scripture, the girls both help me with laundry, Aly has been making her bed, Lili has been working towards that by "making her crib" each morning. It is precious...she puts her blanket over the rail and sets her boo blanket and her bear, Ed, up in the corner and then throws her hands up and says, "All made Momma." Anyway, several times each day we do a quick 5 minute clean up of the living room area. Of course, being 2 and 4, they can trash a room in no time flat!!! So, we set the timer for 5 minutes and I help them to "see" the things that need to be done. We pick up and dispose of any trash, put away the coloring books, put the crayon tub under the coffee table, return any shoes or clothes to their proper place , take any cups to the kitchen, fix the pillows and throws on the couch and the big chair , and finally run the little sweeper vac over the main traffic area. We have been doing this routine for several months and I was really beginning to wonder if I would ever reap any reward! Lili is only two, but I was hoping that Aly would at least be able to see what needed to be done and I wouldn't have to walk her through it quite so much.

Fast forward to this morning...I was getting Lili up and dressed this morning and Aly was...well, I didn't have a clue where Aly was. She flitted through a couple of times, but I honestly had no idea what she was up to. When we finished and came into the living room, she was busy as a bee cleaning up the water she had spilled in the kitchen and I was so focused on that til I didn't even notice the living room. Finally the poor child had to say something like, "Um Mom? Did you look at the living room when you came through? Did you even notice???" ( she was quite over the fact that I hadn't noticed!) Anyway, I paused and looked into the living room and about fell over!!! There were no crayons on the floor OR on the coffee table...as a matter of fact there was NOTHING on the coffee table except a few very very neat stacks of magazines. There were no cups anywhere, the couch was all straightened...pillows fluffed in their correct place. Okay...so there were a few cups left on the small table by our recliner and she hadn't run the sweeper vac, but I was definately doing the HAPPY DANCE as I realized that all the days of walking her through it are really paying off!!!!

I turned to her and gushed and hugged her and told her what a wonderful job she did. She said that she came in the living room while I was getting Lili dressed and she noticed that the living room needed to be picked up so she thought she would help me out by handleing it herself. WHOOO HOOOOO!!!!! YOU GO GIRL!!!!!! Thats my little pumpkin head!!!!!

Now...if we can just get this freak who is buying David's mom's house to stop making more psycho demands and set a date for closing, then it will be a happy day!!!! :-)

In HIS Mighty Grip

Shelley