Like a Sponge

Jael is such a little sponge.  She soaks up everything we say and do and copies it!  For example, while waiting in the drive through at Starbucks (I needed a chai tea to get through the day) she says "Mom, what on earth is taking so long?"  Of course she heard that from me at some point!

Or when she is watching the neighborhood kids out of our back door and she scolds them for misbehaving.  "Kids you need to stop that!"

Now typically she copies all of the things about myself that I completely hate.  She will copy something I say or do.  She'll scold me as I scold her.  "Mom if you don't stop doing that I'm going to send you to your room for time out".  Or when she is doing something that frustrates her and she pounds the ground and says "dang it!"  (Oops!)

This is a funny one, even though she wasn't copying me because I don't say it.  She's sitting and playing and she says "shut up".  I said "Jael Renee you do not use those words.  They are not nice.  Where did you hear those?"  She says,  "In the Bible story at Church".  Haha Obviously the words Shut Up are not Biblical.

But that leads me to the one thing she copies that I am so glad for.  She sits down with her little pink Bible and pretends to have Bible Studies.  She will copy Luke or I and say  "Please be quiet I'm trying to read my Bible."  If only she would copy all of the things we do right instead of what we do wrong!

(In this picture she actually has her Bible upside down! Haha)

FLY lady

I don't know about you but I am slightly OCD when it comes to housecleaning.  Everything needs to be clean and organized for me to be able to relax.  Unfortunately having 2 kids makes it hard to keep up with everything I would like to keep up with.  I was expressing this frustration with a friend of mine and she suggested www.flylady.net.  It is fabulous!  Luke thinks it's hilarious but I find it extremely helpful and freeing!  It can be used by anyone (whether you love or hate cleaning) and it's FREE.    

One of many parts of the website is establishing a "Control Journal"  (Insert Luke's laugh here).  But it's very helpful!  You establish a Morning, Afternoon and Evening routine.  Also, your home is separated into zones so each zone in your house gets deep cleaned once a month but throughout the week you are picking up and doing light cleaning.  

Maybe you too will look at the website and think I'm a huge dork but maybe you will love it like me!

(A side note, she encourages you to establish a day that you sit down with your husband and synchronize calenders and establish what meals you need for the week.  A great website I found is  RecipeMatcher.com.  You can put in what ingredients you already have and it finds recipes for you!)

Accidents Happen

On Thursday Jael was running into the house from being outside and tripped on the door frame.  She caught herself with her left hand and cried pretty hard.  I called Luke to come home and check it out to see if she needs to get an x-ray.  He came home and she passed all the tests so we decided to wrap it in an ace bandage.  Friday she was running around and fell against her wrist.  It was pretty painful for her.  Then Saturday morning she fell again, not even on her wrist but it was still painful for her.  We decided to take her to urgent care for an x-ray.  The doctor did an exam and didn't feel as though it was broken but decided to do an x-ray to be safe.  Sure enough she has a buckle fracture in her wrist.  Apparently this is a common fracture in kids.  It tends to happen when they fall on it with their arm extended (exactly what she did on Thursday).  She's got a hard cast that can be removed and adjusted that she has to wear for 3 weeks.  We have to take her to see an orthopedic doctor as well.  She is a trooper!