Saturday, August 20, 2011

Unrelenting

Sums up the week as far as how non-stop it has been here with work, house stuff, kids, etc... and sums up a few things that have happened in the last two days.  Life has been hectic and insane to say the least.  Last night was the sleepover.  At 11pm I received a call that we needed to pick up Madi because Shelby had a stomach bug and she didn't want the girls to get sick.  So I picked her up.  They were able to see the movie and walked around the mall.  And Madi had a great time.

Shelby's mom gave each of the girls $7 at the mall to spend on what they wanted.  Madi came home with a really cute journal from Justice that had the letter M on the front and had a pen.  The mom told me that she had a 40% off coupon and used it to purchase it.  Her total was $8.40.  Not totally sure of how that came about since it was over the limit that she was given and the other girls were all under the limit that was given.  We have our assumptions about it - based on history of being asked for things and how another thing went at a playdate yesterday that I'll tell you about in a minute.  Jeremy talked with Madi tonight about it while I was putting down Julia and Riley.

Today was pretty low key.  Madi said her stomach was hurting and that she had a little diarrhea, but it only happened one time.  Julia is fighting a cold and Jeremy is fighting some congestion thing and coughing like crazy.  So Madi and Jeremy are both taking mucinex, Julia is doing vaporub and warm baths and I'm suctioning out her snot all the time.  My parents picked up Riley and took her for several hours today - partly to keep her away from all the sick people and partly to let me have a nap when Jules went down as I haven't had more than 5-6 hours in a row in almost two weeks at night so I'm just pushing through and wiped out.

Madi started a cowl on a yarn loom.  I showed her how to hook it and use it to make one.  Looks good so far!  She and Jeremy played some pocket legends and she even got to talk to her friend Julia today!!  She was very excited about that!  She also made some duct tape flip flops - they look really neat!!  She says that they're very comfortable too.

While we were all home this morning, Jeremy received a phone call from Karen (Elizabeth's mom).  She said she wasn't calling because she was mad or because she wanted Madi to get in trouble, but she was calling because she knew we would want to know and that it would present a good teaching moment.  She went on to say that Elizabeth told her she would need more duct tape and so she asked Elizabeth why she needed more because she knew she had a lot.  Elizabeth told her that she gave all of her duct tape - her two favorite rolls in fact (they have patterns and things on them - not just normal duct tape).  She also gave Madi an entire bag of books and the loom and some other things.  Karen asked why she gave it away.  Elizabeth told her that Madi wouldn't stop asking for things.  She told her "no" when Madi asked her the first time if she could have her tape, but that Madi asked so many times that Elizabeth said it wasn't worth it and decided just to give it to her so she'd stop asking.

Jeremy got off the phone with Karen and told me that we had a teaching moment to do tonight and that we'd talk later about how we wanted to handle it.  This is not the first time that we've heard a parent tell us that she was unrelenting in asking for things.  Only this time it was also the kid saying it and giving in just to get her to stop asking.  We decided that since she had already used the tape to make a new pair of flip flops and it was Elizabeth's favorite tape, that Madi needed to replace the tape and purchase two new rolls for Elizabeth.  Since her allowance was due to her today, we decided that we'd wait to give her the money until we went to the store to find out how much the tape costs.  Online it runs $3.47 per roll at Walmart.  So that will basically take her entire allowance from the two weeks - though she'll still be able to have a dollar left for savings and a dollar left for tithe.  Those are non-negotiables.

Jeremy talked with her and he said she didn't argue.  He said she was very quiet as he explained what her allowance money would be used for and why it is not ok to ask to have things from other friends.  And that it is especially not ok to ask for something, hear the answer "no" and continue over and over to ask for it after being given the answer that it was not for her to have.

They read together - Matthew 10 and then a book called "Homeland."  Book 1 of Legend of Drizzt.  They read it on the iPad which is pretty neat.

Tomorrow is church and just hanging out at home as Monday will be busy with the first day of school!!!

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