For All My LDS Friends

The picture above is the LDS Temple on Broadway in NYC which was a part of our view from our room. I meant to post this last week and totally forgot.

I also forgot to tell you about the little disruption in service Sunday afternoon and yesterday. As we were coming in the door at the lake, J slammed the door. I had her go back to practice shutting the door and Puddin came bounding through the house headed for the porch. I was standing right beside J when she looked at me (it was just a glimpse that you just know) at the same time she shut the door on Puddin. It was fleeting and then she caught herself and pulled the door back. I went after Puddin first to make sure she was ok and sent J to her room. Checked Puddin then went back in the house to talk to J. She was bawling and G was in her room. He said, "she didn't do it on purpose, she's sorry, ease up on her." I knew this was not going to be good. Told J to start packing and G followed me out of her room telling me how mean I was to her. Hmmmmm.....bad decision. I knew J could hear him. He repeated it 4 or 5 times which of course made me madder by the minute. I replied calmly several times and the last one I yelled that I knew what I was doing. He stormed out and J & I packed the car.

I didn't discuss it all the way home because I needed to get my thoughts together. I was going back over it again and again and trying to analyze the situation. Second guessing myself all the way but my gut knew. I just knew. When we got home I pulled J in my lap and asked her what happened. She was sobbing saying she didn't know. I told her I thought I knew what happened and explained that I thought that she was very, very mad and the old her wanted to hurt Puddin but the new J caught herself before it got bad. She agreed sobbing and made the sweetest apology to Puddin to which Puddin licked her face up one side and down the other. Then I told her that she was trying again to make G mad at me and she agreed with that too and said it was because she was still mad. G appeared a few minutes later and J told him exactly what happened and apologized for her behavior. I apologized for mine. Somehow he never apologized to me. I knew he was sorry but it sure would be nice if he would model an appropriate apology for J. Oh well....

Yesterday, at lunch, she got mad and put the dishes in the sink very hard. All while looking at me. I can't believe they didn't break. I let it go at the time. When dinner time came I cooked her dinner and put it on a paper plate. I didn't eat. After she finished and the kitchen was cleaned up I sent her to go get dressed and jump in the car. After we were both in the car I told her that she was going to buy me dinner at the Thai restaurant to make up for being mean to the dishes. She was not happy about that. I made a huge point of telling her that it was so sweet of her to take me out to dinner. Hardest meal I've ever had to eat. When it was time to pay and J was handing over her money, I made a really big deal telling Valentine that I had the most awesome daughter in the world because she took me out to dinner. Valentine thought that was so sweet. I got to brag on my kid even though it was a consequence. You should have seen her chest puff out and the grin on her face. The sweetest thing! The bonus: today she was so gentle with the dishes. Maybe the meal that I choked down was worth it. Yay!

Thank to the brilliance of Foster Abba I've now set up an email group to email all of you when there's a post on the other blog. It'll be coming from the gratefulhouse @ gmail dot com so be looking for it.