Look me in the Eyes

I recently read a book called, "A House United" by Nicholeen Peck.
The biggest lesson I learned from it was how to train my children in listening/responding respectfully.
Whenever I give them an instruction or consequence or a "no answer" I have them
1- Look me in the eyes with a calm face
2- Say "O-K"
3- Go and Do the thing I asked
4- Report Back to Me (so I can check and praise them)
She also a teaches that they should have a respectful way to dissagree.
The way that we do it is after they say "O-K" they may ask if they can make an appeal.
An appeal is an option they think is more fair (not a disrespectful complaint).
I then consider their option and re-decide.

If they can't look me in the eyes with a calm face, I send them to their room for time-out until they can come and look and listen and respond respectfully.  (Time out isn't the consequence, it is the calming down location)

This has really helped me to not get angry, but to communicate clearly and calmly.
It has helped the kids be more respectful and more responsible.
(The return and report has really helped them do things top-quality since they are so accountable)

Sunday Marbles

We have 1:00pm church this year and boy has the morning been full of chaos. Everyone used it as a time to go after their obsessions rather than doing anything worshipful. Sadie had an idea to have a marble cup that we fill up by doing things that are the "Lord's Work" to earn a Sunday church movie. Once it is full, they get to watch a church movie until lunch.  The sooner they get it full, the longer the movie. They have gone crazy indexing, reading the friend, practicing church music, working on personal progress/faith in God goals, coloring church pictures, watching "music and the spoken word," etc.

Grading Behavior

Family Scripture Study was getting to be a real strain on the spirit as I tried to fight against all these little "natural mans" who wanted to sleep, mumble, bother their siblings, etc. I realized Satan was winning the battle- he tempted each child in their own way so that the spirit was strained and we learned practicallly nothing and mom felt drained and mad. I needed to find a way to encourage reverence so that we could really learn each day.   "Reverence invites Revelation"

A couple of weeks ago I had a bright idea to "grade" them on their behavior at family scripture study and family prayer. The reward is homemade cookies made by Sadie on Sunday night. Their behavior is DRASTICALLY different now that it is measured and we are learning tons each morning.  "When performance is measured, performance improves!"

Windows of Heaven

We have felt the Windows of Heaven pour out a blessing upon our family this month.
Donny saw an unusual way of earning money that he had never considered before.
He was buying Myriam a set of bagpipes off the internet and realized he could buy and sell more of them through e-bay. He is having way fun doing it and that extra "cushion" of money will help us be able to feed our family with a little more "flex" room while still keeping our goals of paying off the house extra fast, saving/investing, and buying all depreciating things with cash.

(Elder Bednar recently taught in conference that the Lord blesses us for living the law of tithing in ways we may not recognize- such as finding job opportunities where we had not yet considered)