Happy New Year. It is already late January and the year is off to a crazy start. Christmas wasn't quite normal in our house this year, and I feel I should probably document some of the end of year craziness in our house along with the life craziness that has started the year. The Friday before Christmas Hannah may have went into my bedroom and taken some nerf darts that she was given two of and told that was all she was getting. She was busted for this, made to return all the darts and given the consequence of not opening gifts on Christmas, Evie, hearing the consequences assumed it applied to all and immediately went and told her brothers there would be no gifts on Christmas. Evie tends to rely things to her siblings in a not accurate way so I used this opportunity to hopefully help her learn not to do it again by giving her the same consequence as Hannah. Christmas wasn't as fun as it could have been if all had been allowed to participate fully. The girls were allowed to open gifts the next day, but had to wait until Nathan was home and after we had eaten dinner. I'm still not sure if this made any impact on the girls or not, because the Sunday following Christmas they were telling people about Christmas and how wonderful it was.....I'm not sure if that's good or bad or if they learned anything from it.....time will tell if the lesson has sunk in.
Hard part number two, Hannah had the opportunity to go on a retreat with church next weekend, we had been having issues with certain behaviors so we told her she could go as long as she followed the contract we gave her. The contract involved following house rules, like no use of lights of any kind for reading after bed, no sneaking food items (candy has been a big problem) and asking for wants she wants (she feels we always tell her no, so she doesn't think to ask, even though it's not true at all, so we're really trying to teach her to ask for what she wants instead of just taking it). As long as she kept the contract she could go and we'd pay half the cost and give her a way to earn the other half. She had almost finished earning her half, but unfortunately she decided to "go to the bathroom" for 45 minutes starting at 10 pm one night and brought a book with her. After receiving birthday money in the mail she got the rest of what she had in her room, brought it all to me and gave it to me and said "here's the rest of the money for the retreat" it was so painful to take that money, if felt so wrong. But hopefully she learned. She gave it to me without prompting or complaint. I am very proud of how she handled it. And since Christmas things have been going more smoothly, so maybe, just maybe she is learning and maturing.
That's the hard parenting of the past month. Here is some of the maturing. Three people in our church died the week of January 7th - 12th. And one died in December. The girls (and boys a little as well) have taken up the ministry of watching younger children while the funerals are going on. This has allowed people to serve (one on piano, another on slides and video stuff) who otherwise won't have been able to or would have been hard pressed to find someone to watch their kids. At the last family another person showed up with a one and a half year old and I told them we had child care and they were excited because they figured one of them wouldn't be able to sit through the funeral, but this allowed them to together. Hannah has become quite the babysitter, changing diapers and everything. The kids have also been serving as greeters most Sunday mornings, the people coming in love it and it's helped keep them out of trouble. In general the kids enjoy. Hannah does nursery once a month as well, which the adult in there with her raves about how well she does with the kids.
That is a peek into our last month or so. We got to enjoy some time with my parents over New Years as they braved the snow and cold and visited us, getting in just before a major snowstorm. That's it for now.
