Happy Birthday, Grandpa Chaney!

Yesterday was Grandpa Chaney's birthday!

One of THOSE days

Most days, I simply don't get Maggie.

Oh, don't get me wrong: I absolutely love her and I am so enamored with her that I know I am sometimes one of those completely annoying moms who wants to talk way too much about every minute detail of my daughter's latest developmental marvel.

But when it comes to her motivations and actions, I am completely dumbfounded. Coming from this people-pleasing, can't-we-all-just-get-along, life-is-just-so-much-nicer-when-we-all-follow-the-rules-and-don't-rock-the-boat type of person, Maggie is a total mystery to me. Fortunately, this means that she won't have to deal with all the sin and vices that come along with being a people-pleaser.

Unfortunately, it means she can be really, really difficult to parent.

Yesterday was a doozy of a day. It started out with my discovery that, sometime during the night, she had procured a pair of scissors and chopped up a down blanket, leaving a total disaster zone of feathers in her wake. She had also done a significant amount of slicing to her new curtains as well.

In addition to the normal strong-willed-child discipline issues we're dealing with every day, yesterday had several other pieces of straw that just about broke this camel's back. When Lucas got home and saw what a hard day it had been, he asked what he could do to make it better (he's so great, huh?). I said I think the only good option was to ask my daughter for forgiveness for all the anger and impatience, and then go to sleep and start again tomorrow.

And you know what? Today has been better. While I was spray painting a bookshelf in the back yard, Maggie slid open the door and stuck her head out, along with a bottle of glue:

"Hey, Mom- I'm going to glue my pony to my wall. Is that a good idea?"

At least she's learning to identify when it might just be a good idea to ask first. This could be a breakthrough, folks.

Stay tuned for great things from this little Maggie Mae. I know God has something important in store for all that passion and spunk. Can't wait to see what it is!

Conversations with Maximus

While looking at pictures of our friends Jonathan and Grace on their blog:

Maximus: Why do they like each other?

Me: Because they are brother and sister, just like you and Maggie. Do you and Maggie like each other?

Maximus: (hesitating) Well..... sometimes she smells kinda bad.

Perhaps he was searching for an excuse. At any rate, we had a good but brief conversation about how we need to love people even if they smell funny. :-)

We've come a long way, Baby

I'm thankful for days like this, when God gives me a glimpse of progress in my children:

For whatever reason, haircuts used to be a MAJOR ordeal with Maximus. He would go into a total panic every time. He would start yelling and thrashing and then would get himself so worked up that he would gag and throw up. We went through about two years of this, and every time, I would walk away with my head hung, utterly embarrassed and frustrated.

Over the last year, he's done a little better each time. Then yesterday, it happened: an entire haircut without so much as a whimper. He told me in the car on the way to see Ariane: "Mom, I just realized that haircuts don't hurt. I still don't like them, but they don't hurt."

Once we were at the salon, he got up in the chair and looked straight into the mirror. He set his jaw and stared at the same spot on the mirror the whole time. He looked determined.

And maybe it's silly to be proud of him for overcoming something that never should have been an issue in the first place, but I am proud of him. And I'm thankful for a much-needed reminder that today's battle might just be tomorrow's non-issues. A message my soul really, really needed to hear.

Plague of Flies

Okay, Siloam Springs friends. WHAT is up with the flies this summer? The fly situation is rapidly approaching plague status in our house. Anybody have good tips for dealing with flies?

I know exactly what you mean, Buddy

Maximus: Mommy, why is it just so hard to always obey?

Keep Moving Forward

Sorry for the absence, folks. We've been without internet service until this afternoon when my brilliant husband got us rolling again.

Here's what we've been up to in the last week:

•VBS. Max and Maggie had their first VBS experience last week. Maximus absolutely loved every minute. Makes me think that he's going to love school- there's just SO MUCH INFORMATION to take in in the world! On Friday night after VBS he said, "Next summer, when I'm five, I'll get to go back to Bible school. I wonder what we will learn about. I wonder what the snacks will be!!"

• 7th anniversary. Lucas and I celebrated seven years of marriage on Monday the 28th. My sweet husband planned a really fun date for us, including going back to Magnolia Gardens Inn where we met and got married. It was our first time back there since the wedding. That was pretty cool. Nice work, Sweetie. :-)

• 7th move. This week we made our 7th move since we've been married. We like to celebrate our anniversary every summer by moving to a new house. It's so fun. You really ought to try it. Okay, I'll drop the sarcasm. We are really, really ready to be finished moving. Forever. We are super thankful to have a great house to move into (pics to come when I get a chance) and we love the new place.

• Mom and chemo. My mom started chemo back this week and has been really sick. If you haven't been following along with her blog recently but want to get caught up, you can check it out here. I hate that I haven't been able to help her much this week while we've been moving, but I am really glad for the way that God provided a new home for us and a chance to move this week instead of in four more weeks like we thought was going to be the case. We're within a couple days of finishing up the whole moving process, so I'm glad I'll have it behind me and be able to focus more on helping my mom.

There's probably more to tell that I'm not thinking of, but that's all I've got right now. Happy Independence Day weekend, everyone!!