Consequences

Tonight during spelling homework, jaimee got very cross because she spelt the word "altar" as "alter". She tried telling me that she had written an a not an e there, but I assured her that even if she had meant to do that. her teacher wouldn't read this word as spelt right and neither did I. Fair enough right? Well, grouchy jaimee grumbled and stomped and whinged before writing very angrily and harshly the word "ALTAR" out correctly on paper 5 times. Ok right? No. Problem was, she wasn't leaning on anything on our soft wooden coffee table.  In her complete rage and anger she hadn't thought about that, and the rule about leaning on something when writing was forgotten. And I called her up on it warning her right in the middle of her angry writing "you better not be marking my table with that hard writing jaimee".

Pulling the paper up furiously, she burst into tears at what she saw.

Mummy was right. And cross. Yet, how could I scream at the crying daughter, sobbing as she realised what she had done was permanently embedded for all to see her wrongdoing. She was so sorry, I could tell. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" she wailed as I ranted to her about how anger makes you do silly things doesn't it jaimee?! She sobbed "what's my punishment?" Sigh. I don't know, she was doing a pretty Good job of punishing herself. I told her I would think about it. She ran off crying "I guess I will just sleep on the bathroom floor tonight I'm such. Bad child". (Yes, she is a tad dramatic)z 

Five minutes later I called her into the room, having decided she did need a consequence. I asked her to write me an apology letter, explaining why she had done this and why it was wrong. Off she went quietly, I think she was happy to have something to do to "fix it". 

A few minutes later I got this in an envelope:

She cried and cried. I hugged her close and told her yes I forgave her and I still loved her - nothing could ever stop me loving her even when I am cross with her. We talked about acting in anger leads to bad choices and this should be a lesson to her to think before she acts. 

She's happy now. It's over. But i now have a constant reminder of this story not just here on my blog, but embedded in my coffee table.... 

School mid year reports

No surprises here - above average for reading for both girls, lots of excellent attitudes and efforts and consistent work ethics. I'm so proud of our girls. Here's some of the personal touches from their reports:

Bye bye Bella

When We got our guinea pigs, we knew that the rabbit was getting old. But dear old bella was tough as boots and kept going strong for the last 6 months, so it's been a lot of cages at our home! But she had been slowing down and her eyes have been getting worse. And yesterday her hind legs gave out and she couldn't walk. So we Brought her inside for the night (good thing as it was -3 this morning!) and kept her warm and snug. She was eating and drinking fine, but quite unable to walk. The guinea pigs thought this was very interesting, going to the corner where her cage was and poking their heads out at her! 

This morning we took her into the vet, where we all agreed the kindest thing would be to let her go to sleep and be with misty, as she otherwise would get worse and worse. Poor Kate. She cried her wee eyes out. Jaimee kind of laughed, pleased she no longer had to clean out her cage or feed her. Luke didn't really get it, making faces for the camera. 

As my mums cousin said" Kate is the typical middle child... one with the kindest soft heart. Oldest is practical / pragmatic, youngest is carefree.: "

Wow they so lived up to that stereotype today! The vet was Lovely, we stayed while bella drifted off which was only a minute or so. Bella was put in a lovely white box with her name on it, and wth a fresh bunch of daffodils. 

We talked about grandad looking after our happy bunnies in heaven, hopping happily together again. 

Finally our pets equal the number of people in the house....No new ones this time !!!! 

Portrait Love

Sometimes a professional photo is all worth it.  Even in this age where we take photos without a thought, a quick snap of a phone can capture a lot..but a good clear portrait really is what we want to see in the history albums.  So here are our professional photos, taken June 2015 (There is still one more to come of the whole family, but I have to wait for that one to be printed).