Jadon enjoyed his first snow day of his school years. It wasn't called until 5:30 that morning. When I told Jadon after letting him sleep in, he did the fist pump with an enthusiastic "Yes!"
For some reason Haven's favorite thing to do is eat the snow. She's aware of the number 1 rule when eating snow, no yellow snow.
I had an older boy who used to pick on me almost everyday on the school bus. I was in kindergarten and he was in high school. Going to a small school meant k through 12 rode the bus together.
I hated it and tried sitting behind the bus driver so he couldn't pick on me. My mom and dad complained to the school several times. I would come home with marks where he hit me or crying because of the mean things he said to me. I don't exactly know how or why, but it eventually stopped.
I have known for a couple of months that Jadon has an older girl on his bus that calls him names. He shared this with Nana, but hadn't share any of this with me until this week. We talked a little about what she says and I asked him if it hurt his feelings. "Not really," he said.
He told me that he still treats her with kindness even though she doesn't deserve it. I asked him if he knew what that was called and after thinking for a second he said, "Grace."
I am so proud of the way he has handled this situation. Before bed he and daddy talked about ways to show kindness to her. Jadon decided he wanted to take her a cookie. I had made no bake cookies that night.
Jadon came into my room and asked if he could have an extra cookie the next day to take to this girl. That day after school we asked how it went. He gave her the cookie, she didn't say anything until he was getting off the bus and then she asked why he gave her a cookie. He wanted to show kindness.
It hasn't stopped and she continued today to call him names. She will do what she will do and my prayer is that Jadon continues to show her grace.
How many times have you come to a decision on a disciplinary action for your children only to have it completely not have the effect you were hoping. This happened to me the other day with Haven.
Haven has this thing with waking in the middle of the night or real early in the morning to eat. She will get into the pantry and eat anything she can reach. Then knowing she has done something wrong she hides all evidence. One morning I found she had eaten 3 cereal bars and hid the wrappers under her chest in her bedroom. I have learned the chest is her favorite place to hide evidence and so I check it often. I'm always amazed at how much she gets past us.
My friend Jen is an incredible baker. I enjoy all things made by her. She had made her chocolate chip cookies and brought them to work. Yummy. That day I was not eating sweets so I took 2, put them in a baggy and took them home to enjoy the next day. I was pretty excited to reward myself with her cookies.
I made sure to hide them in my room so Haven wouldn't find them and eat them. The next day while getting ready for work I noticed the bag was a cookie short. I found out Todd did not eat it, my next person to question was Haven. It was her. I was a little sad and upset, one of us, Todd or me was not going to get to enjoy a cookie.
Punishment for Haven was a talk about stealing. When she takes something from someone else that is stealing and so she must pay for it. She has no concept of how much money actually is, but she does know that she wants to save her money to buy things. The cost of one cookie was a quarter, since she doesn't know how much it's worth, she does realize it is the biggest coin. My job done on this one.
A few hours later I am in my room folding laundry and Haven walks in carrying her ladybug money bank. Very quietly, almost like testing the waters to see if she might get in trouble before asking the real question. She says, "Since I already payed a dollar for the cookie, how much can I pay for the rest of them?" Handing over her bank.
It was worth giving up her money to have those cookies. Lesson not learned.
In her own words, "I can't believe I got an animal, a real animal and she's mine all mine!" Those were the words spoken by Haven after receiving Molly for Christmas.
Haven more than anything wanted a bunny, or a dog, or a horse, or a bunny. Mostly a bunny, but anything real that she could hold and cuddle and that was soft.
With the help of Robin, a lady who works with mom, we found a rabbit breeder in Bolivar. We went to visit the rabbits and fell in love with this little fur ball. She was only 4 weeks. They held her for us until Christmas so we could keep it a surprise for Haven.
This is Molly, a Holland Lopped Ear rabbit.
We had a great Christmas celebrating with family. We woke up early so the kids could open their presents and stockings from us.
Christmas at Silver Dollar City is beautiful. We always try to make it down there each year. This year the entire family went minus Nana and Papa and Uncle John. The kids missed them being there.
One of the best parts is the Parade. All the grandkids lined up waiting for it to start.
