Small Victories

My sweet Eliza Jane was a little "stinker" on Saturday. It was the Primary Program practice at church and she was just not going to do it. I even let one of the leaders pick her up and take her out of the chapel away from me to try and talk to her. I had no choice, but to slip out and just leave. I felt bad doing so, but knew it was the ONLY chance I had of her participating. It's better if Mom is out of sight. I went to pick her up at the end of the practice and just knew that she came back in and participated, but to my surprise, she didn't. She sat on the pews watching. She said she was scared. As soon as we got in the car, she recited her part perfectly. I said to her, "Great job! You'll do that tomorrow, right?"

I tried not to make a big deal of it and just talked non-chalantly about it how she of course will be doing it the next day. Well, she started telling me before bed that she didn't feel good and that she would probably not feel good tomorrow. I assured her that she would be fine. And she was. But, when it was time to get dressed, she started complaining about how her skirt felt uncomfortable and started to get very upset. I downplayed it and tried to stay calm. I told her she just needed to get used to it and brought her downstairs, put her on the sofa, turned on Noggin, (thanks Alison for telling me about that kids channel) and proceded to offer her snacks until it was time to go. I prayed that she would do the program.

When we got to church, I was thinking to myself, "This is it--don't blow it. We will just walk right in and straight up onto the stand." I was almost literally holding my breath as her hand unclutched mine and walked right straight up there and sat next to her teacher. VICTORY!!! She even stayed, sang all the songs very enthusiastically and said her part perfectly into the microphone. She sounded so big. I was so happy. These are the small victories that parents feel that can be huge and mean so much. The program was beautiful and the spirit was strong. These are my primary girls getting ready to go.

We have tryed some new things around our house. I needed more help, (as usual) and am always trying new approaches to getting things accomplished. Our latest is having 1 dinner helper, 2 dish doers, and 1 family room tidier. We rotate jobs everyday, so that everyone has a chance to help in different ways. Christiana was my dinner helper today and she LOVED it. The only problem was, I didn't plan enough time before the meat was done for her to mix up the cornbread muffins and scoop the batter into the muffin cups. She was quite meticulous and did an EXCELLENT job, but time was not taken into account. She got the job done, but next time, I will have her start earlier. Dinner helper is a hit with the younger two. I hope they are learning some skills so they can do more for themselves. Great job Christiana!

My good friend, Ali gave me these adorable Thanksgiving blocks last week when I was watching her little boys. She makes them and many other wonderful things. I put them on the piano and love how they add a little Thanksgiving decor.