Picking battles...

Parenting is hard. No matter what personality your child may have, no matter what age your child may be, this is a hard road.
Now I am not saying parenthood is without it benefits. I mean after all why would we continue to do it otherwise. LOL I love my children. The good moments far outweigh the bad ones.
However for today I am wanting to talk about the bad ones.

This week my lovely 15 yr old daughter instead of putting her clothes away dumped them out of her laundry basket onto the floor and left them. That is what I walked into the next morning. I must fully admit I was angry right away. No pause button here, I wanted to rant and rave. Thank goodness the good Lord helped me through this one.
When she came out into the living room I told her to bring me all her clean clothes that she threw on the floor as I was going to throw them away. Of course you can imagine the scene after that. She then went and had breakfast and I thought some more. I decided that instead of throwing away her clothes, (because admittedly that was a bit drastic and can be expensive, lol), I told her to bring me her clothes and she had to earn them back. I wrote down a chore list and for each chore she could earn some of her clothing back.

Now I asked for prayer for this incident from my bible study ladies and one of them, (whom I love deeply and honestly know she was giving me great advice), said something along the lines about picking my battles, (at least that is how I read it and took it). I will fully admit I took some offence to this. Why? Probably because I was feeling guilty as only my mommy heart can do.
However I did spend a fair amount of time thinking about it.
Was I picking the wrong battle?
Should I have let this one go?
I know there are much better battles to pick.
I know really in the grand scheme of things this isn't that big of a deal.
So why then I was I doing this?
Why didn't I give in and just give the clothes back to her?

For us I believe it was a life lesson.
This to me wasn't just about her not putting her clothes away and throwing them on the floor, it was teaching her the value of items.
I believe is she can learn that value then she can appreciate what she has, what she has been fortunate enough to receive.


So now I will throw this out to you. What battles do you pick? Do you think I was over reacting? What would you have done differently? I honestly am looking for your thoughts here.

In the meantime what are you all up to this weekend? We are at another dance festival.
 

A moment

I am taking a brief moment today to sit down and write again.
We have been so busy around here with dance season that I haven't had a spare moment to myself and when I have had one...well I've sat on the couch and read a book or played Candy Crush. LOL
However I have about a 100 blogs post running around in this little head of mine so I want to sit down and make some sense of them.
I also wanted you all to know that things are really good here.
Just busy.
But then again what Mom isn't??
So my goal is to write a few posts and then get some of them actually up on the blog during the next few weeks.
A big order I know. hahahahaha

Ok some of them will include a dance Mom's life, cleaning house, organizing...
I have a lot rolling around in this space between my ears. hahahaha

Until then have a great day!!!

First day of spring???

Happy first day of spring!!
This is where I'm excited as the grass is peeking through the snow and turning green.
The weather is amazing, warm and sunny.
Well not so much!!
We welcomed spring in here with a beautiful winter storm.

This is what I was privileged enough to drive in today.

You can see it drifting across the highway. Made for an interesting drive back home in the dark.

This may not have been the first day of spring that I was hoping for, but I'm happy spring is here non the less. I'm looking forward to seeing that green grass again.

Happy Spring everyone!!!!

Reflection

As I sit in my truck tonight, waiting for Sarah to be done dancing I'm reflecting on the day, on the past year and a half of days. Looking back, looking forward.

Today something awesome happened. (Besides me having enough energy to clean lol).
Today my daughter scored 100% on a math assignment.
It doesn't matter that she is working at a level in math far below her grade level. It doesn't matter that we disagree a lot of the days, what matters most is that in a subject where she struggles so much. Where every mark is a reason for celebration, today she managed to grasp a part of the subject matter and excel at it.
I know I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this. It doesn't matter that tomorrow could possibly bring more frustration and heartache.
What matters is that for brief moment today she shined brightly!!!

Reason 1 000 056 why I am soooo happy we homeschool!!!

Did you miss me?

Wow hard to believe my last post was a month ago today. So much has happened.
First my handsome hubby changed jobs. Well I guess I should say he will be changing jobs in about another month. Right now the company that he will be moving to is contracting him out through is current company but that is only temporary.
We had a really hard time coming to this decision. He currently works for a great company, but honestly they just weren't quite filling our needs. I really feel God's hand in this. I am a total peace with the change. No move, no location change!!!
Things are also uber crazy with dance right now. In this a couple of weeks she will start competitions so its been a tad hectic getting everything organized.
School has been decent, again making sure we get a good chunk done before April. We will then take most of that month off and only do light work.
I also said goodbye 10 days ago to another wonderful lady, my aunt. She lived a long wonderful Christian life. She passed away almost exactly one year after her husband.

As for some good news, my baby turned 15 yesterday!!! Wow still can hardly believe it. She is such an amazing young lady, whom we have been fortunate enough to look after.

I promise I will post some pics soon. We've been without Internet all day today so I'm hot spotting this to my phone so keeping it short and sweet.

I hope everyone has been doing great.

Talk to you all soon!!!

Quick update

Hey you all, I just wanted to pop in and say HI!!
Things are actually going pretty good right now.
For the most part we are in a calm.
I attribute this all to God.
He is the one keeping us stable.
Otherwise I might be a little crazy.
The division that Rob is at is pretty much done as of Friday. He will go in one day next week for paperwork but that is it. We still don't know what we are doing. He is taking a few days holidays next week so we can try and figure it out.
He has been getting job offers left, right and center. It makes me so proud of him. He has worked so hard and done such a great job that people are jumping over themselves to find a place with them.
This also makes me so happy that God is laying such amazing groundwork for us. He truly is providing.
I am happy to know that no matter where HE leads us next it will be an amazing journey.

Well that's about all tonight. I just wanted to give you all that quick update. I decided for Lent that I am giving up sleep. In the morning for the next 20 days I will be getting up .5 hr earlier and the 20 days after that 1 hr earlier. I am hoping to use this time to dig deeper into the bible studies and spend time with HIM.

Soooo in saying that it is bedtime for me.
I am oneeeee tired Momma.

Night!!!!

Progress?? Not really.

Well I must admit I haven't done a lot towards my goals this week. Why? Well no reason really. Feeling a little bit lazy honestly.

1. Learn to let go and trust God!

Well I think this one is a bit hard to measure. But I do know this. I am feeling more peaceful. I have moments of pure fear still, but I am praying lots. It's so hard to let HIM have the control.

2. Drink more water every day.

Some days are really good and then other days I am still forgetting and then wonder why I am having headaches. LOL
Must work harder on this one.

3. Organizing daily and office.

Nope not a chance, well other than I filed a few bills. LOL However I decided to take a before pic so that I could pressure myself into doing it. LOL

That's right folks, not even close to being pretty. LOL
Hopefully this gives me the incentive I need.

Then the three from last month.
1. Spend every single day with time in the Word.

2. My blog.
Keep regular posting.

3. Our bills.
Keep working on that budget. 

I am still spending at least 6 out of 7 days with HIM and more often than not that 7th day as well. 
My blog, well I wasn't overly inspired this week, like I said I was lazy so not much posting. Hoping to get back into Monday. Our bills, well I found some useful programs I am going to try. If any of you has any great programs you use for your budget, PLEASE sent them to me. I am at a loss here.

Well I am off to spend the weekend with a couple of my sisters. It should be a good time. Lots of laughs and lots of tears. My kind of healing weekend. LOL

I am linking up today with Aurie.