Bathroom Notes

I think all successful people have motivational notes to themselves they can see on a daily basis. Mine are on sticky notes in the bathroom. They are: Be aware of other's needs, Be willing to give, Be willing to admit faults, Be flexible with my plan, Postive Attitude! (tone of voice/words), Enthusiastic Example, EEECH time/person (Enlighten, Entertain, Encourage, Console, Help), Humble Leader-Try, Humble Listener- Good Luck/Did you think about..., Humble Follower-Listen to council, try other ideas.
If you're like me you'd want to know how I came up with these. They are individualized based on the seven deadly sins. I took the ones I struggle with and rephrased them in a positive way: wrath-positive attitude, greed-willing to give, sloth-follow God's plan, pride-admit faults, lust, envy-humble, and gluttony-be aware of other's needs. There was one more thing I struggled with and had to flip to a positive which was: don't brag or complain about my activities. That flipped to EEECH so I can interact in a selfless way with others. What ways to you talk positively to yourself?

Received a gift

I recently received some books on loan that I didn't want. All week I stressed about finding time to read them. After praying about it, I realized I could say, "no thank you." But how? 1)Calm down- relax my jaw, shoulders, fingers, and take three deep breaths. 2) Say, "that was sweet of you to think of me. Thank you." 3) Say, "no thanks." 4) Ask, "If I have more time, can I borrow them later?" My husband gave me great advice that I make it a don't call us, we'll call you statement at the end.

Love and Logic Summary

Here are the basic principals (by Jim and Charles Fay) as I understand them

Teacher Chart

So far these are the steps I see for effective teaching. As a school teacher, I had a lot of teaching moments. I just started doing the first step and it helps with my stubborn family members.

Humble Spouse

My husband decided to teach me to pour honey on my toast. Of course I feel confident that I don't need help but my pride turned into anger and I told him he just pointed out my stupidity. I want to try being more humble by saying "That is a good way, but I don't have the energy to learn something new right now. Sorry." Now I've come up with a chart for how I could choose to take his advice and a seperate chart for how to nicely tell him the way he is suggesting will not work for me.

Conflict Resolution

When my kids are upset I have them express their feelings and get it all out before trying to solve the problem. Next they have to calm down. They can't use reason until they are calm. By the time they're calm, the solution is easy: just trade or take turns at this toddler age.

As an adult I have trouble dealing with disagreements, so I try to validate their feelings first before looking for a solution. Draw the line is a new concept on my chart, but it's the same as an enforcable statement in Love and Logic. You state what you will do and when.

Combat Selfishness

Here are 4 ways to combat selfishness in our kids. 1) Give them service opportunities. 2) Don't give them everything without them working for some of it. 3) Show gratitude to God for our blessings. 4) If they don't respect what we give them, they don't get to use it.