Attitude

Anne started out having a very rough day today. Who knows why. I never seem to know what triggers a rough day with my children. I'm guessing it was due to a very busy past 3 days. She does need time to play by herself and time spent with Mom that is unhurried.

I sort of knew she was "off", but was positive of this when I told her it was time to start her math. She was, ummm, unhappy. That's a nice way of putting it. A huge pout came over her face. And, man, this one can POUT! Lips out, cheeks puffed out. A sour face! I decided the wisest thing to do was just sit with her and have her do her math orally. This worked for the most part. She did the math, but still with a sour face. Then we got to the 2nd to the last problem. She decided she could not figure out how many 10's were in 40. I knew she knew the answer. She's very very smart. And equally as stubborn. I told her to skip count by 10's. She said, "10, 20, 30, 40 ... (long pause) ... 50?" Whatever child. I actually used the "s" word with her. Now, all you mom's are laughing and everyone else is confused. I said (shhh) "stupid". "You are NOT stupid. You are smart. Do not act stupid with me. I know you KNOW this. Stop pretending to be stupid. You are NOT stupid." Can you see I had lost my patience by this point?

Little side note - how many times, if you are a homeschool mom or you have more kids than someone else, have you been told "I just couldn't do what you do, I don't have enough patience." Let me tell you something. Neither do I!!!!! Patience is something that has been slow in coming to this woman here. I struggle with it daily. I lose my temper. Bite my tongue. Grit my teeth. Groan. Lose it. Yell (not so often as I used to). Trust me. No one has the patience to do these things. If God didn't work in my life every second of the day, oh my, I hate to think where we would be today!

Back to the story. I finally remembered to pray. "God, give me wisdom, patience, mercy, grace because I have NONE of these right now. Forgive me. Help!" We finally finished math. Spent a lot of time cuddling. I asked her to forgive me for losing my patience. Sigh. Things seemed better for a while.

Then I told her she had to write something. If she chose not to, she couldn't do the sewing class with Grandma. So she wrote. Horrible penmanship and many misspelled words (she can spell very well). Sigh again. I sat down and talked to her about it. Yep, she did it on purpose. WHY? Again, who knows! This time I just asked her if she wanted to pray about her bad attitude with me because Grandma would not want her doing the sewing class if she was that grumpy. We prayed.

Sewing class. Who is THIS child? Laughing, smiling, hugging me over and over again. Bright shining eyes, happy happy happy! Next time we just start praying TOGETHER before we do anything else. :-)

***During the math struggle, I told her she had to change her attitude or she would get a doll taken away. I took one doll. She hit a brother. I took another doll for that. She hit the other brother. I took a third doll! I need to remember that being stubborn also means she has perseverance. Right?