breaking her will

Anyone who knows my family, knows that I am among a pack of strong willed people. And as previously discussed, I have come to the conclusion that strong willed people are born, not necessarily made. This fact, however, does not mean that strong willed people cannot be un-made.

Take the Mouth for example. Almost from the day she was born, it had to be HER way or the highway....or rather, HER way or you would have to clean up the vomit she is so good at spewing at will. She has ceased this disgusting habit, thank the good Lord, but now instead of hurling stomach contents, she hurls whatever is running around in that pretty little head of hers.

She has the pout down pat. She crosses her arms, stomps her foot and man, can she ever hold a grudge.

Until yesterday, that is. I have been dealing with sickness for an entire week - first the Mouth, then the Joker, then Hubby, then back to Joker, then Mouth again. I am TIRED from all the doting and caretaking, and have pretty much reached my patience ceiling.

Hubby, unbeknown st to me gave her a full cup of milk with breakfast, which she left sitting on the table. I promptly call her back into the kitchen to finish it, and thus began the showdown.

Mouth: I DON'T WANT MILK

Me: You asked Poppa for it, now you are going to drink it. We do not waste food in this house (man do I ever sound like a mom)

Mouth: NO! I! WON'T!

Me: Yes you will, you will sit up to this table and drink your milk.

Mouth sits at the table, glaring at me for 25 MINUTES.

I completely ignore her glaring, although it did start to burn a hole in the side of my head

Me: I am taking your brother out in 15 minutes, and if you are not done that milk you are not coming with us

Mouth: I wanna come!! Don't leave me here!

Me: Well, I am going to go get ready, when I come back I am leaving with or without you.

Mouth: I! SAID! I! DON'T! WANT! MILK!

at this point, I leave the room.....

10 seconds later, a beaming Mouth walks into the bathroom - with an empty cup.

I thank her for obeying and off she goes. Score: Mom 1, Mouth 0

The rest of the day, she was practically falling over herself doing the things I asked her to do. I think(hope) we may have turned a corner here....by not letting her win the first battle of the day, all the following battles were already won.

The scariest thing about all of this is that they say (whoever THEY are) that whatever your child is like as a toddler is pretty much what they will be like as a teen. I think I am in for quite a ride.

Now to re-arm myself for tomorrow.....ugh, this parenting thing is tiring.

you kiss your momma with that mouth

I have often heard the above statement and not really understood it. It kind of jumped off the page at me today as I was doing my devotionals.

In James 3:10 it says "Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be".

That is when it hit me. How many times a day do I pray, or sing praises to God (answer: a lot). How many times do I encourage people, try to speak positively into someone's life. (again, a lot).

But with that same mouth I will gossip, or tell a white lie, or slander someone a bit, or complain, or grumble, or whatever. This has got to stop. How can I ever be authentic or effective if I am spewing beauty and filth all out of the same mouth???

mom doesn't have time to get sick

I don't know if this is true of all moms, but it is certainly true of me - I REFUSE to get sick (hmmmm, maybe I DO have a little bit of strong will in me). My life runs like a well-oiled machine, and if I were to even ATTEMPT to take a day out or not do things as planned, I am afraid it would all fall apart.

Have you ever seen those commercials where the kids make breakfast and there are pots and pans and stuff all over the kitchen? Yeah, if I stayed in bed for more than a couple of hours, my ENTIRE HOUSE would be one giant state of carnage. When I think about it, I clean up about once an hour. Seriously - I go from room to room putting things back where they belong (can you say OCD), folding and straightening things, sorting, picking up little bits of whatnot.

If I didn't do this, who would? NO ONE.

Therefore, I have NO TIME for you, SICKNESS.

(too bad sickness can't read)

Driven to Quit

Well, Hubby and I are taking the plunge. We are quitting smoking. I feel free to say that here because none of my family read this (and probably never will).

I personally have smoked off and on since Grade 6. GRADE 6 PEOPLE. As in, 12 YEARS OLD. I thought i was SO mature, so able to handle it - now the Fidget is 12 and if I ever caught him smoking, I think I would blow a blood vessel in my head. Yes, very hypocritical of my, I know.

Anyways, we have reached the point where enough is enough. Combined, we have over 40 years of smoking between us. YUCK. So a while back (January 01, to be exact) we determined that this was our year.

However, we were not going to quit at the same time (for fear of mutual homicide) and we would not quit the same way (I don't see the point of replacing nicotine with nicotine in a different form, you are going to have to quit THAT one day too). Hubby set his date for FEB 15, and me, MAR 01.

And now, we have an added incentive - the DRIVEN TO QUIT CHALLENGE. Not that we EVER win anything, but the challenge goes like this - quit March 1st, and stay quit the entire month of March, and you have a chance to win a grand prize of a Chevy Malibu Hybrid....or a $5000 vacation, or 1 of 2 $2000 Canadian Tire Gift Cards. I thought, well, why not at least try - you never know, right?

SO if you sense that my writing becomes more neurotic and nasty for a while, at least you have been forewarned.

That's it for now - the MOUTH is demanding attention. Must go and recommence will-breaking. Again. *sigh*