Tator turns 8 and our thankful tree

Yesterday my parents took Tator and some of the other kids horse back riding for the first time. It worked out good because this gave me time to get ready for Tator's birthday party.

She did so good. I didn't tell her we were having the party when they got back. I just let her be surprised. She was a little wound up, but she did fine. With having a very over stimulating day I was prepared for the worst.

I was really proud of her. She's doing really well right now. As I type this she is playing upstairs with Bunny, which hasn't happened in a very long time. I hope this is the beginning of her healing.

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We started a thankful tree tonight. Over the weekend Buc cut a tree out of construction paper and hung it in our dinning room. Today Buster and I cut out a bunch of
leaves. We're planning to write something we're thankful for on a leaf every night and hang it on the tree.

Today we are thankful for...........
Mom: Gods forgiveness
Dad: Shooting a Buck this morning and getting it on video
Duckie: The cross
Buc: That we live in the country
Bunny: Jesus
Tator: God
Bubbas: For my crossbow
Buster: God

Can you see where some of our priorities are right now?

What we do on warm November days........

We practice shooting our bow,

we do a lot of talking about hunting,

we get mad when mom interrupts us to take a picture

 on the way to our tree stand,

we practice shooing our BB gun,

we try to move daddy's targets around because

we think he'd like them somewhere else,

we jump,

we skate,

we swing,

we smile because we feel happy,

and some of us are so cute it doesn't

matter what we do.





Brownie sundaes and hatching triops

Sorry I haven't been back to fill you in on Tator's birthday evening. Tuesday night was rough. She came home in a mood and I knew it was going to be a hard evening. She got mad about little things here and there all evening. There was a lot of yelling, running through the house and slamming things. I tried to be patient and for the most part I was. But after her continually calling me a horrible mother and telling me how I have ruined her birthday and ruined her life I could only take so much. I very calmly told her she needed to go to bed. When she finished shoving her bed against the wall over and over, she did. She put her pajamas on and got into bed. I told her if she didn't stop yelling at me I was leaving her room before she was even in bed and I would see her in the morning. As she continued to yell I leaned over, kissed her head, told her I loved her, then left the room. I sat outside her door until she calmed down, then came down stairs and ate half the dessert I had made for her.

I had a hard time sleeping that night, wondering if I had handled things right. We got up the next morning and she was fine, she was back to the same mostly pleasant attitude she's been in the last 6 to 8 weeks.

Wednesday night we had AWANA so we weren't home to do anything. So today I made brownies, and although we had a rough evening, we made it. We had brownie sundaes to celebrate her 8th birthday.

I don't know how we'll handle her birthday party this weekend. Last year we had a surprise party at grandma's house. I know I won't be telling her about it before hand.

I have also decided that next year I'll be having a party for her at the beginning of October. She will never be expecting it then.

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Update on the hatching triops. We went from having 3 babies swimming around in the bowl to 5 then down to 1. I don't think we're doing something right.

We'll see how it goes

Tomorrow is Tator's birthday. I'm not at all excited about this and let me tell you why.

About three weeks ago her attiude changed. When I really thought about it I could almost pinpoint it right back to a certain conversation we had around that time. She was going on and on about her birthday and how she wanted her party and what she wanted for her birthday. I reminded her that her attitude would determine how her birthday went. After 6 months of pretty bad raging I did not have a problem telling her that. My apologies to anyone who doesn't agree.

My fear is that her attitude changed because of her birthday and will change right back as soon as her party is over. Her change for the better has made things so nice around here and she is pleasant to be around. I pray she is really changing and starting to heal, but only time will tell.
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Grandma and grandpa brought Bubbas a kit for some hatchingTriassic Triops home from vacation. Bubbas and Bunny had fun setting them up today. We are on day one and they are still eggs. We have never done anything like this before. I'll keep you posted.