I have to say that I am finally getting used to this boy in glasses.

It was so hard to get used to at first, but now that he wears them all day long, it is easier to get used to them. He is such a handsome little fella and I am so thankful that he is ours.

 

Today has been a bit challenging in. Ok, lets tell it how it really is, it has been a day filled with entitlement and spoiled rotten attitude by Quynsie.

She has fully admitted tonight the reason that she acts entitled is because she used to get whatever she wanted when she wanted it and if it was something that someone else had, she didn't want it and it wasn't good enough, she needs something bigger and better and she would get her way and get something different.

Well, here we don't roll like that. You are not going to just get what you want just because you want it. You have to work hard for the extra things in life. Yes, we as parents will buy the needed things like shoes, clothes, food, basic school supplies and such. but if you want a specific backpack that we cannot afford, then you are going to have to work and do extra things around here to earn the money to get it.

Sometimes I think we made the mistake by letting her have a phone at 11 because that has made things worse as far as entitlement goes. If she is grounded from it, she will have a serious attitude until she gets it back, so we have made changes in that area. We no longer take the phone away completely, we have put parental controls on her phone and I can control it from my own phone. Up until today, she got 3 hours a day to play games, surf the net, watch movies, youtube, texting and whatever else. Once that 3 hours was over, all of the apps except calling would automatically lock. Well, I took her amount of time down to

 1 1/2 hours during the week and 2 on weekends and all of her apps are locked except texting and calling. If her 1 1/2 hours are up, she will no longer be able to text either. We have also told her that if she wants to continue on the entitled behavior, we would take the phone away completely and she would not get one until she is 16 and able to work and pay for it herself.

We even have told her that she is pretty lucky for the things that we do buy because we have friends whose kids are her same age and they make them buy their own shoes, clothes, video games among other things.

Quynsie has worked this summer and has earned close to $80 and she has nothing left. She has spent it on a pair of pants (awesome) and junk food (against my advice), but she has to learn from her mistakes.

While talking to her tonight her dad told her that for every hour she spends cutting up branches from the trees we tore out over the weekend she gets $5. She has to work a solid hour, not 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there. If I find that she is not working consistently in that hour, the hour does not count. We shall see how that goes.

 

In other news, Raven was finally able to give her cat braxis (a cat from her birth family) a funeral. She accomplished this at therapy today. She has been stuck on this cat the entire time she has been with us and we are finally getting to the bottom of it. She feels like the cat has been the only thing that really cared about her and now she is starting to feel those same feelings for us, but she just did not know how to let go of the cat and let us into her heart and world.

PROGRESS PEOPLE PROGRESS!!!!

 

Nadia spent the day at her best friends house. They have been friends for almost 3 years now. This is a true friendship that I hope lasts for years to come.

 

Joe and I were offered a new calling in our Church and I had to decline. I have never declined a calling before in my life. They wanted us to teach nursery. UMMMM NO!!!! I have my own nursery at home with children that have their own issues and the last thing I want to do is go to church on Sunday and deal with other peoples snot nose, poopy diaper, tantrum throwing kids. I am past the little kid stage at this point. It does not even appeal to me anymore. I need something where I can interact with other adults.

It took me 14 years to come to grips with the fact that I was never going to have a newborn and that I was going to miss out on all of the important firsts. I am happy to say that I am past that and have come to terms with it and am at peace with it to the point, I don't want to deal with it every Sunday. Yes, I love holding babies and love to babysit occasionally, but not on a regular basis.