Monday after I picked the kids up from school I surprised them with a trip to the movies. We saw "Rise of the Guardians" and I really liked it. It was a lot of fun for all of us and had a good story and good actors and animation. The kids ate movie nachos and icees and everyone was happy. When we came home we had dinner and a FHE lesson. Our lesson was on the nature of God. We also talked about doing service. I know that it is only by serving others that we can find real joy so I want to teach this to the children. The family is a great place to serve and to learn this lesson, it's also a hard place to do it because children sure know how to bug each other, don't they? :) It is important to serve outside of the family but I think it's also easier for the kids. We brainstormed a few ideas and I think we've got at least four that we will fit in during the next couple of weeks. We are all excited about it.
Our little elf Xavier has been busy. He hides somewhere new each night. Both Ethan and Lu like to look for him. I hoped Lu would think it's fun, I didn't expect E to so it's been a happy surprise that they both like him. This year I am really shifting our focus off of gifts and on to some fun traditions, family time, service, and the true spirit of Christmas. I am still buying gifts, of course, they are just smaller, hopefully thoughtful things that the kids need or I think they will enjoy. We had 3 awesome vacations this year and we told the children that Disney was their main Christmas gift. They are fine with that.
Princess Puppy is regressing a bit in the potty department. It's my fault, as are all pet problems I believe. I have given her too much freedom too soon. This is a common problem with pets and kids. It's actually easier for the mom (owner) to have the pet/kid enjoy a lot of freedom but it is disastrous in both cases. In Ziva's case she is having more accidents. I am going back to crating her even if we are home and have read about a technique for outside business teaching that I am going to try. Of course that means constant vigilance and effort on my part. If I want a great, trustworthy, trained dog I have to put in the year of leash training, crate training, constant watching. Similarly with the kids when they have free reign they watch TV all day, eat junk food, leave their rooms a mess and take the path of least resistance. This is the easiest course for us all...and the worst one. I want the kids to be hard working, respectful, neat, God-fearing (read: serving, obeying, following, emulating), productive people so it's a metaphorical crate and leash (rules, chores, correction, limits) that is needed and so much work for mom and dad. There are no short cuts in either endeavor, interestingly the hardest part of the process is overcoming my own laziness. I'm still a work in progress.
Some of my lessons from puppy training class have been to carefully measure the food I feed the dog so that training treats are meaningful and work, and that dogs have schedules much like babies. To mess with the schedule is to invite disaster. Also, dogs require consistent training every day. It's exhausting.
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