Desperation Breeds Creativity

This morning Brandon was getting the girls started on breakfast and they all wanted toast.  They each have their favorites, Lauren likes toast with Jelly, Samantha likes peanut butter and jelly and Erica likes one peanutbutter on bread and one regular butter (margarine) on toast.  Well last week I had run out of margarine when I made grilled cheese so I softened some stick butter in the margarine tub in the microwave.  When Brandon found it in the fridge this morning, of course it was too hard to spread and so I told him to microwave it.  Well, then of course it melted and it was time for him to get in the shower so it was my turn to try to figure out how to spread it on the bread.  At first I hoped that it wasn’t too melted but it definitely was, so I used a basting brush to spread it on her toast.  Erica was thrilled that I had “painted” her toast, she thought it was cool.

Today Samantha was invited to go play at Becca’s house in the afternoon.  Erica was less than impressed with Samantha being allowed to go without her.  We explained that sometimes Sam gets to do things she doesn’t and eventually she will have her turn to do things that the other girls don’t.  She was still very upset and angry.  So we practiced her verse…A while back she had been having anger issues and I forget if something got broken or what but I was at my whits end and had tried every discipline technique I could think of ….I was trying to “train up a child in the way he/she should go” but couldn’t seem to get through to her.  Finally I prayed about it (probably should have done that first) and it occurred to me to have her learn Bible verses about anger.  I looked up the verses from the back where it lists all the ones with the word anger and decided to have her start with Proverbs 29:11  ” A fool gives full vent to his anger but a wise man keeps himself under control”  and we discussed what it means to be a fool, when anger is appropriate and what is okay and not okay to do when we are angry.  Now when she is having anger issues I have her practice her verse till she can say it in a normal calm voice.  It is amazing to me how the truth of God’s word can effectively calm and soothe her.