When We're Helping We’re Happy

Really? It didn’t last long with my boys.

Actually it started out so great. I asked them if they would please help me with a special chore today and I was delighted that I didn’t get a single complaint!  Not a single one!!  I thought to myself, this is going great!! I explained how dad had worked hard at cutting back the ivy yesterday and I needed their help bagging up all of it. They seemed to act like, piece of cake. They all pitched in and it was going swimmingly.  Then Josh asked me if this could be his chore for the day and when they were done could they go play with friends? I proceeded to explain that this was a Special Saturday chore and he still needed to do chores inside.

And the complaining and whining began :( boo.

At that point I left and helped Jeffrey out front with the flower bed weeding. Amazingly I only heard one other outburst out back and the next thing I knew they came out joyfully explaining that they were done. I asked them to get a rake and finish by raking up the rest of the leaves on the ground. They explained that they already had done that!!

Wahoo!! I was so impressed and they were SO HAPPY again!!

Happy Helping

Something I’ve noticed about Josh more and more lately is that he’s becoming a great helper around the house. I still have to ask him, but he does it quickly. He even seems like he’s happy helping.

Before he could go and play with friends today, he was asked to do the dishes. This is not one of his favorite jobs. Today, however, he did it gladly. Without a complaint. I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, I love it!! It’s almost funny how much happiness it brought me :) 

March 14 - When We're Helping We're Happy

Cleaning the church tonight actually made me feel happy. Can you believe that? Ü Well it did Ü It was actually fun. I think it's because we were helping with five other families. And let me just tell you . . . it went so fast and I wanted them all to come and help clean my house as soon as we were done. We'd do their houses after Ü When we helped out tonight, we were happy.

It also became our family home evening for the night. Two birds with one stone Ü which brought even more happiness Ü

February 5 - Pizza Night

Tonight at about 7:00p we all got hungry real fast.  I was planning on making hamburgers tonight, but didn't really feel like it. So, decided it was Pizza Night. Can I just tell you that I love when the kids jump up and want to help. That's something I really enjoy. It's happening less and less now.

When I was visiting with Mandy her kids were begging to help with breakfast one morning. They wanted to help with everything!! I remember feeling a little overwhelmed, when my kids were little and wanted to help. . . with EVERYTHING! It was tricky to figure out how to let them help. It seemed easier to say I gotta do this one myself but you can help with "this." I saw Mandy going through the same thing.  She was good to let them help and I think she was a little overwhelmed too.  I got all teary-eyed and told her how I actually missed that. I missed this stage of life.  Now I almost have to bribe my kids to help out. I realized, at that moment, that I need to make more opportunities for my kids to want to help and LOVE it.

Anywho. . . tonight when I proclaimed that it was Pizza Night, Josh and Hayden both said, I wanna help, I'm going to go wash my hands. Putting together their "own pizza"is always fun. Zac, on the other hand was just fine with me making his. Oh boy he's already a teenager!

Love these SMILES! :)