Mad, Sad, and Glad
The other day I read an article on the internet about communication with kids and one of the commenters suggested a game they play at dinner called "Mad, Sad, Glad" with their kids. Each person at the table has to share something that made them mad, something that made them sad, and something that made them glad for that day. I tried it tonight with the kids and I really liked it; we will definitely be trying it again in the future. At first Little Dude responding grumpily with "everything made me mad and nothing made me glad." That's pretty much his first response to anything. But then he talked about some good things he did at school. Even P. Bibby shared with us that she was sad when she hurt her toes (that happened while I was making dinner and I'm still not sure what happened--I think she was closing a door and it grazed her toes) and that she was glad when she ate lunch at a restaurant with her auntie today.
I was mad and sad this morning when Little Dude was grouchy enough to disrupt scripture study by kicking his sisters off the couch and stealing a bookmark away from P. Bibby. Then he tried to shut the closet door on S-Boogie when she was getting out her shoes and backpack for school. We've been having some rough mornings lately. The first week of school wasn't so bad, but since then things have deteriorated. Everyone gets out the door, but not without a lot of yelling and tears from the kids and threats from me. Little Dude has been having a very hard time waking up in the morning and then he ends up in a bad mood. I'm trying to get him to understand that he is welcome to be in a bad mood all he wants, but he cannot hurt other people and he has to go to school. Up until now he has been going to bed by 8 and then reading until 8:30. This has been a bit of problem because he has been slow about putting away his book and going to the bathroom, so many nights his lights-out time has actually been closer to 9:00. Since his behavior was so atrocious this morning, I told him that tonight he needed to have lights out at 8:00. Unfortunately this news precipitated a massive melt-down with hyperventilating sobbing, and now for some reason he's still awake at 9:30. I have a feeling tomorrow morning is not going to go well.
I have had several small things make me glad lately. It's still a bit warm in the afternoons, but the evenings have turned cool. The leaves on the mountains are orange and the nights are cold. I love cold nights. I sleep much better when I'm snuggled in a warm bed with cold air around. Last Saturday evening I attended a 'salon' that was a fundraiser for the Mormon Women Project. A panel of three women spoke about the topic of women in the scriptures. I wish I had taken notes so I could better remember what I learned. I learned a lot of specific things, but mostly I felt the impression that I need to spend more time studying the scriptures and communicating with the Lord. We had a regional conference the next morning that was also uplifting and brought the same prompting to my heart. I've been choosing many good things with my time, but maybe not always the best ones. I'll keep setting goals and trying and maybe some day some of my attempts at self-improvement will stick.
I was mad and sad this morning when Little Dude was grouchy enough to disrupt scripture study by kicking his sisters off the couch and stealing a bookmark away from P. Bibby. Then he tried to shut the closet door on S-Boogie when she was getting out her shoes and backpack for school. We've been having some rough mornings lately. The first week of school wasn't so bad, but since then things have deteriorated. Everyone gets out the door, but not without a lot of yelling and tears from the kids and threats from me. Little Dude has been having a very hard time waking up in the morning and then he ends up in a bad mood. I'm trying to get him to understand that he is welcome to be in a bad mood all he wants, but he cannot hurt other people and he has to go to school. Up until now he has been going to bed by 8 and then reading until 8:30. This has been a bit of problem because he has been slow about putting away his book and going to the bathroom, so many nights his lights-out time has actually been closer to 9:00. Since his behavior was so atrocious this morning, I told him that tonight he needed to have lights out at 8:00. Unfortunately this news precipitated a massive melt-down with hyperventilating sobbing, and now for some reason he's still awake at 9:30. I have a feeling tomorrow morning is not going to go well.
I have had several small things make me glad lately. It's still a bit warm in the afternoons, but the evenings have turned cool. The leaves on the mountains are orange and the nights are cold. I love cold nights. I sleep much better when I'm snuggled in a warm bed with cold air around. Last Saturday evening I attended a 'salon' that was a fundraiser for the Mormon Women Project. A panel of three women spoke about the topic of women in the scriptures. I wish I had taken notes so I could better remember what I learned. I learned a lot of specific things, but mostly I felt the impression that I need to spend more time studying the scriptures and communicating with the Lord. We had a regional conference the next morning that was also uplifting and brought the same prompting to my heart. I've been choosing many good things with my time, but maybe not always the best ones. I'll keep setting goals and trying and maybe some day some of my attempts at self-improvement will stick.
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