Let the Peace from the outside come inside...

Well we woke up to another beautiful snowy day in Delaware. I love how God coats the ground with snow and everything seems quiet and peaceful outside. As I sit on my couch and look out the window I can't help but pray that the peace that the snow brings to the outside would enter my home. We are adjusting well to Baby Raegan Joy. The boys still adore her and won't keep their hands off of her, and I admit with this being my last baby I can't keep my hands off of her either. Like any multi-child household we struggle daily with arguing, bullying, and temper tantrums. I began to re enforce the long forgotten "naughty spot" after one warning and my patience has been tested to say the least. We bought Raegan a new swing and it has a lot of buttons that tempt Nolan. he has spent may minutes in the naughty spot. However he has no problems going to the naughty spot, it is the staying there that is the problem.Nolan knows that when Raegan is eating it is possible to get away with more then normal, well that is what he thought. I have begun to nurse and walk and put him back on the spot over and over again until he sits and stays. Yesterday we did this for 30 mins. It wore me out. But it is working because he walked toward the swing this morning and I gave him a warning and he went running. Now I just have to be consistent.

As for the older boys, just teaching them not to leave Nolan out all of the time and to play with kindness is a daily challenge. We have our good days and our not so good days. With the peace the snow brings it also brings cabin fever because I can't take my 3 week old outside to supervise playing in the snow and I am not going to leave her inside either. School has been a great for passing time epically when we do a detailed craft or science experiment. Yesterday being Groundhog Day we traced the boys shadow of their head and cut it out, reminded me of what we did when I was in school. I am always looking for something fun and creative to do with the boys. I want to get better about playing board games and imaginative play as oppose to tv time. For the most part we don't watch tv in the morning (I do put on a movie during school to entertain Nolan, which rarely works)and after naps I do allow a few cartoon while I get diapers and snacks done.

So as we begin another snowy day my prayer is that the outside pf my home would reflect what is going on inside. And it starts now, Raegan is peacefully sleeping by my side and the three boys are playing together in Nolan's room (for now).