I did it! I actually prepared a healthy meal for my girls. Granted, it was only meatballs and tatertots but there were organic sweet potatoes and whole wheat bread in the hormone free 90/10 beef. For the past week if Adam hasn't fixed them a decent meal the poor things have subsisted on what ever leftovers or combinations of pantrygoods I could contrive before fleeing the kitchen in desperation. I've tried to get at least a couple of representatives of food groups in each meal-popcorn with peanut butter chips for supper,etc.

Depression makes one feel like they're wearing cement blocks on all 4 limbs, in the chest and their brain has been blended and is now shrouded in fog. But life doesn't stand still when you start out the day with all that added weight and absolutely no energy or ambition. Laundry still accumulates at lightning speed, dishes mound all over the kitchen and clutter appears out of thin air. This isn't a good for me when anything out of place further drains my energy, but then it's a concerted effort to pick up even one thing and put it away much less every other household duty. And let's not even begin with being consistent in child training, which takes precedence over anything else. So when I've forced myself to fold and sort all the laundry all day , thinking through nutritious meals is nigh unto impossible. There I now have yesterday and today in words.

Oh, and did I mention that the foggy, blended brain rarely if ever doles out any sense of accomplishment or satisfaction over anything?

I saw this on a friend's blog and LOVED it. Since we first were married Adam and I have sought to downplay the material side of Christmas in order to keep the focus on celebrating the birth of our Savior-and all His birth means to us. We've been planning on going as a family (once the girls were no longer toddlers and would be more in the way instead of a help) to serve Christmas dinner at a homeless shelter,wherever we might be, this then becoming an integral part of our family's Christmas celebration-along with other ways of reaching out to the needy in our community . I love that this website gives more opportunities even when going to a shelter isn't possible. You've GOT to check it out.

http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

This is a post from a newsletter I receive. I'm always looking for different discipline approaches and this looks like a good one, of course combined with helping them realize that what they did was sin and that the problem originates in their heart, that only God can enable them to do it differently next time.

TEACH CHILDREN WHAT TO DO NEXT TIME
Copyright Dr. Scott Turansky & Joanne Miller, RN
Used with permission. All rights reserved.
http://effectiveparenting.org/

Don't you feel like some days you have to discipline kids for
the same things over and over again? The child who has a
problem hitting, interrupting, or just being annoying to others
may need a lot of correction.

It's these problems that are great candidates for a Positive
Conclusion. Each time the negative behavior takes place,
have the child take a short break and then come back to you
for a debriefing. During that conversation, one of the questions
should be, "What are you going to do differently next time?"

When you ask this question your child has to state the right
response back to you. If Bill is frustrated with his brother Jack
and responds by arguing or saying unkind things or grabbing,
the right response is to talk about the problem. If you continue
to discipline Bill for these wrong responses and he continues
to verbalize that the right response is to talk about it, eventually
he is able to catch himself sooner and talk to Jack about the
problem without using the negative behaviors. This takes time
and repeated discipline sessions, but children learn by repetition
and frequent, gentle reminders.

Sometimes children don't know what they should have done
differently. In fact, some parents are so used to telling their
children what not to do, they, themselves, don't even know
what the right response should be. Sometimes the solutions
are not easy. That's all the more reason to use this question
with children. Both parent and child can brainstorm about
alternatives to unwanted behavior.

By communicating the right response to you verbally, your
child will begin to see the difference and learn to change.

This tip comes from the book 'Home Improvement, The
Parenting Book You Can Read to Your Kids' by Dr. Scott
Turansky and Joanne Miller RN BSN.

I love to listen to my children's stories. Fiona was telling one to Bryn in the car tonight- she was expanding on "the Princess and the Pea" - all about what happened to a princess in the woods, arriving at a castle when there was a contest about who was going to marry the prince ("they were very picky about who would marry the prince") and the tests to which all the princesses were subjected - simultaneously, yet without our princess' awareness. You see, the preincess had a lot of allergies and somehow this is what the kingdom was looking for in a desirable bride. At 2 seperate meals a bouquet of flowers were placed in front of each princess' place at the table with a single weed carefully hidden and only our princess detected it's presence with an " A…A.. Achoo, Achoo…")(oh, I forgot that Fiona also had sound effects of first rain splatters, then and full blown thunder storm, all with tapping against the window at varying degrees of intensity. This was while our princess was in peril in the forest). It continued on until almost home - with Bryn enthralled - and I was deprived of hearing Bryn's story by pulling into the driveway. I LOVE how imaginative they are!

I love the time in our worship service of joint confession of sin. I don't know who writes these but they really cause one to see sin as God sees it and not in the generalized way we prefer to view our daily conduct and use of time and talents. This time of personal and congregational confession is always followed by Scripture and song reminding us of our truly amazing, great God and His undeserved mercy, love and the forgiveness given to the repentant sinner and saved sinner alike. This confession also serves to train us to be on guard for the multitude of unconfessed sin in our lives, to confess and forsake them immediately, act on what Elizabeth Elliot advises "do the next right thing", and see the growth-as incredibly slow as it is-in holiness.

I love the one from this morning:

Eternal God, You do not change. You have revealed yourself to us in Your Word. You call us to worship You in spirit and in truth.
~But we confess that we often worship not Your true self but who we wish You to be.

~We too often ask You to bless what we do rather than seeking to do what You bless.

~Forgive us for seeking concessions when we should be seeking guidance.

~Forgive us when our worship shapes You into what we want instead of shaping us into what You want.

Help us to meet You here, that we might bow before Your unspeakable majesty and so live for You now and ever, in Christ.

Isn't that just amazing?!! Here we are sinning even as we pray each day, making and praying to idols formed by our wants and imaginations rather than the One True God. Wow. This is definitely going in my prayer journal under the "forgive us our debts…" tab.

Just a few points from this mornings sermon that I want to remember and integrate into child training this week.
Eph. 5:19 - Make sure that the words that we speak to one another are Gospel-centered and point others to God's Word.
Spend more time talking about Christ than any other topic.
"OUR WORDS, SPOKEN OR SUNG, SHOULD BUILD UP, NOT TEAR DOWN".

vv.19-20 - Being a Christian should be synonomous with being thankful. How many "little" daily parts of life do we take for granted and not thank our Lord, Provider, Protector, Guide, Wisdom, Comforter… Seriously, think about it. For goodness sake even our TOOTHPASTE tastes good! (We'll be making a Thanksgiving tree this week (Lord willing) with a stack of blank paper "leaves" on which we'll write as many things for which we're grateful that day and hang them on the tree. Hopefully it'll get us in the habit of looking for things for which to be thankful (which do not include things that God hates, as was made clear this morning).
~ The Christian life is one of RADICAL gratitude.

v. 20 - "Name"- all a person is, has done, etc.

We'll also be focusing on not being anxious about tomorrow for God cares even for the birds of the air. Instead we'll, only by God's grace and only if this is His will for this weeks focus, "…rejoice in the Lord always…" Hmmm, now I'm geting a bit trepidatious knowing how God likes to give us LOTS of practice opportunities for a particular lesson He's trying to teach us.

Scene: Sitting at the table eating lunch.
Bryn, very excited and impressed, "Mommy, did you know that green poop is real?!!!"
"Um, yeeees"
Bryn, decisively "I think I'll have some today". I about busted trying not to laugh in front of her. Quickly left the room to call Adam, who roared.

I now have pictures of all my girls falling asleep with a book - to which both of their parents plead guilty on multiple occasions - and now one of Lily's favorite bedtime "necessities" is a book. And, yes, she hugs it as if it were one of her precious stuffed animals (the other necessity), after lying on her pillow with it propped open on her tummy "reading" it out loud as if it were her bedtime story, complete with the rise and fall of voice cadence and intonation. I LOVE IT!!! I'll post pictures as soon as I figure out how