Monday

School day!  Of course Grace is excited about this.  Off she went.  I have noticed that she's been a bit more cautious about going to school, so I'm wondering why this is.  But it's not horrible.  Just a bit cautious.  But off she went and I headed home and got some homework done.  I am usually one of the first people to the school to pick her up but this time I got carried away with homework and she was one of the last picked up in her class!  Oops!  Silly mommy.  

After school we made oatmeal cookies!  Oatmeal raisin, actually.  We made a double batch because I've got a lot of friends that I want to pass them out to.  Grace got to help pour in the ingredients into the mixer, and she got to eat raisins while I added the wet stuff.  She was doing so great and was listening really well about not touching the mixer...but....right after she helped me pour the oats in (remember, it's a double batch so it's really full), she yanks the mixer to speed 3 and AH!  Oatmeal went EVERYWHERE!!!  Of course I was super sharp because of the knee-jerk reaction, and I took her off her stool and told her to get out of the kitchen, but after seeing her startled face, I quickly took a deep breath and tried again.  I called her back and calmly talked to her about what happened, and why I had been asking her not to touch.  And then I made it a learning "game" of sweeping up the oatmeal with our "cup" hands.  She did really well!!  I was glad that I was able to fix what I had done, but I'm hoping that soon enough, I won't lash out like I did.  I'll just be calm throughout the whole thing.  I apologized to her because I shouldn't have reacted so quickly.  It startled me, and then angered me because of the mess, but then quickly, I realized that I could use this as a teaching lesson.  When she had walked off after I lashed out, her face said fear, sadness, confusion.  But after I called her back, calmed down, and was happy and working with her, she totally changed.  After we were all said and done, she walked off happy, laughing, and then she even turned around and said, "Thank you, Mommy!"  It was so darling to see!

The rest of the day went quickly.  Lunch time, naptime, wake up time, errands, dinner time, bedtime.  Shew!  Daddy did great giving her a bath and getting her into bed, so that was great.  I doorbell ditched two neighbors with "you've been booed" cards :)  I love doorbell ditching sweets!

All in all, a great night.  After Grace went to bed we had a family home evening about testimonies, and that was great.

Amanda