Letting the offended choose the consequence

I've realized that most of these "moments" that I'm trying to remember happen after some bad choices made by someone in our house. I guess it's just Heavenly Father's way of showing me that things are really ok.

Last night Will and Annmarie were cleaning the boys room, Annmarie had finished cleaning her room, and She said to him your a bad cleaner upper. Will came out upset. I told him if he wasn't cleaning then at that moment he might be a bad cleaner. We he proceeded to return to his room and tell her she was a bad cleaner and  I'm sure there was s hug of some sort that used fists or straight arms. Needless to say now Annmarie was crying and she had her feelings hurt. I told her she did not need to help the boys anymore, but to remember how she felt when someone called her a not nice thing and to remind herself of this when she wanted to call someone something not nice.

Will had some other issues so I told him to get his pajamas on and get to bed. Once again crying in sued. I called Annmarie into me and said It is your choice if Will gets off his bed, because he was unkind to you, you get to choose his consequence. I told her to think about what Jesus would do. A little bit later they came in holding hands. Will told her she was sorry. I said give her a hug and a kiss. When he kissed her on the cheek, she wiped it off. Then because in our house when you wipe off a kiss you get a ton more, Will kept kissing her cheek, and her laughter erupted, as well as screams of delight and Will's laughter as well

I Love that my kids so easily forgive each other and hope this trait continues throughout their lives. I also love to see how good of friends my kids are to each other.

Wonderful sounds

As my kids were running about the house today playing. I was asking them not to jump on the couch and scream. As I sat doing the kids puzzles, they had dumped all 8 puzzles together and I was trying to separate them, I listened to them instead of stressing. I heard the best sounds. Annmarie laughing. It was a laugh that you don't hear very often, one of her truly having fun. She was being chased around the house by her brothers. I've decided that every house needs a circle to run around in. Without it I think its incomplete.

Chris was in AZ the last week and we missed him! I think this is the longest he has ever been away from us since we've had kids. I was so excited to see him yesterday. But thanks to Chicago weather he was 2 hours late. All in all I'm so thankful that he got to come home. I understand even more now who We are counseled to be married. I also understand why there need to be a mom and a dad in each family. So thankful that I'm married to my best friend and that he loves us and misses us when he's not with us.


side note. I haven't figured out how to get photos on this computer yet so that's why there are no photos. Plus I think I'm turning this more into an everyday small things that my kids do to make me smile. . . I need to focus on that a lot more than I do.

A moment I don't want to forget

After I had a blow up with Jeffrey and sent him to his bed (it was something stupid and he didn't deserve it). He went to his room then came out a few min's later with his little Book of Mormon in hand, and said he was sorry. the he came and sat next to me and said what does this say. We read about 2 verses, but I love how it totally brought the spirit back into our home. Thanks Jeffrey for making a better choice than your mom.