good things

The kids decided it was time to wash dad's car.  Much to our surprise, it is actually shiny now.  Good job!

When G was a baby we decided not to let him have the sacrament.  Most people feed the sacrament to their babies before they can even reach for the cup.  I even heard the reasoning that the child needed to practice.  It has been slightly hard for the kids to watch over the years as other kids took the sacrament and they had to wait until they were baptized.  I was in college before I understood the connection between baptism and the sacrament.  The sacrament is a renewal of your baptism covenants.  How often had I made mistakes and struggled with guilt, wishing I could be baptized again.   Ignorantly taking the sacrament, not getting it that I could be forgiven if I would take advantage of something I didn't event get enough to take for granted?

I don't know how I missed this simple doctrine.  Perhaps it was the emphasis on how baptism makes you clean and you have a clean slate.  I don't know if I took the sacrament from infancy...  

G got baptized and then it was stake conference.  He was sad to miss his first week to take the sacrament.  So yesterday as I sat by him and saw his face when he got to take it for the first time, it was beautiful.  He knew how special it was. 

I like to read the Washington Post Advice column.  It satisfies the voyer in me without having to deal with facebook.  Today someone wrote in asking how to help their budding perfectionist child avoid the same anxiety and stress they had gone through.  It gave me pause.  I get on my kids case a lot. 

M often changes her mind after I've produced the original request.  Am I teaching her that she's not allowed to change her mind?  I try to emphasize that she needs to think things through before asking someone to put forth the effort of making things.  

lP has a habit of saying "I can't do it" and I'm trying to say "Keep trying" before I jump in.  She also likes to say "Perfect"...

One thing our kids hear over and over again "Different families have different rules".  This saves my sanity daily.  I hope it will train them, as bigger choices come along, to accept that their parents aren't going to change their decision based on what other families are doing.  It doesn't matter that XXX is dating when she's 14, just like it didn't matter that she was in gymnastics.  Different families have different rules.