Progress, perhaps?

I sat down tonight and worked on school plans...yuck! However, I realized it is a 7 1/2 week quarter, so that was a good thing. It motivated me to get plans at least outlined for two of my courses. Now, I feel less hopeless than I did before.





I have also been struggling with my boys in a big way. Sam is extremely stubborn and just a different kind of kid. He wants to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. Jackson is just loud and very, very physical. He has to touch everything. He doesn't like to slow down or to listen. These are personality traits that are very much NOT like me, so I just have a hard time relating to why they behave the way they do sometimes.





Another part of my struggle is even more frustrating and embarrassing. They will not poop in the potty. They are four years old. It is making me crazy. I have read every article on potty training, searched for help, asked my pediatrician...and nothing is helping. I know, I know...they will go, eventually. But in the meantime, I am soooo frustrated and TIRED of poopy underwear. Ugh!



Their overall behavior is really starting to bother me. Wednesday night at church, Jack would not listen to me. AT ALL. He was defiant and thought it was funny. John wasn't there yet, and if I weren't the study leader for our class, I would have dragged him down the sidewalk and headed home. Sam pooped his pants at Children's Choir after we had taken him twice and the teacher had taken him once. It was really hard for me to hang on and not loose my cool.


I stumbled across a blog, Homestead Wannabees, which is in my blog list, and Jackie, the mom who writes it, had a great idea about a pyramid of consequences. She explains it really well, so pop over and check her story out. Anyway, I made one and I made a jar of prizes they can draw from if they don't move past the first level all day. The prizes are quarters, pick a movie, Wii time, etc...cheap and easy stuff they love. Tonight, Sam had to go to the second level, and didn't get a prize, so hopefully seeing Audrey and Jack get one will motivate him.

I am also being more intentional about praying for my children and their specific needs. I prayed out loud for them at dinner tonight and asked God to help them have listening ears. I told them they needed to remember to pray for that, too. I am going to dig out my copy of Stormie O'Martian's Power of a Praying Parent and see if she has any specific advice for this. I honestly don't know where else to turn but to God on this one. It is something that is beyond my control.

Anyway, I feel like I've turned a corner, at least a little, in that I am not as discouraged tonight as I have been earlier this week. I am praying for all of the other moms out there who are struggling with the same things, or even worse! As frustrated as I have been, I know it could be so much worse. I am thankful for the health of my beautiful children. Everything else will work itself out in God's time.