Wahoo!

First, I want to thank my kids completely inspired primary and nursery leaders. When we first moved here, Seth and Gabriel had a pretty rough time at church. Bringing both of the teachers to ask me what they should do. Tom and I talked to the boys, but were unsure of what else to do. Then Seths teacher had a break through. I wasn't sure exactly what she was doing, but I could tell he was so happy in primary, and really excited to share all he was learning with me after church. I talked to her at an Enrichment night, and told her how glad I was that she was his teacher and how much Seth loved her. I asked her what changed. She said after a lot of fasting and prayer and late nights, she was inspired with a method of teaching that worked great for Seth. Since then, she had no problems with him, and he was such a joy to have in her class. This is a single woman with no prior teaching experience-just fulfilling the calling the Lord gave her to do. In October the nursery leaders were changed. By the 3rd week in October the same thing had happened with Gabriel. He loved nursery, he was happy to go, and he was getting great reports from the teachers. Just a few weeks ago the boys all missed church because they had colds. The next day Gabriel and Hyrums nursery leader stopped by to see how they were. She brought a couple books for me as well. They were "how to" books on raising kids. At first, my ego took over, and I was slightly embarassed to admit that I didn't know it all. Then I sat down and read the books. She was completely inspired to bring them, and I am so grateful for her!
One of the books is called "Raising your high spirited child" the other is called "Love and Logic". I had been recieving emails from the "love and logic" website, but I had never fully understood the concepts until I read the book. So my plugs are for inspired primary/nursery teachers and "love and logic".
On that note, we took the kids to a restaraunt tonight, to "practice" their restuaraunt manners. One of the things that "love and logic" teaches is that we need to give our kids opportunities to mess up, where the consequences are still small. Better to have them wreck their tricycle than the parents car. So, after having good results with all the other things we have tried in the book, successful trips to the grocery store, good eating and manners at the table, positive experiences with "time out", etc. we decided to take it to the next level and go to IHOP. This is the first time we have ever taken our kids out to a sit down restaurant. They did soooo good! We stayed for 1 and 1/2 hours without any problems. Then Hyrum got bored and spit his milk out of his straw. I was prepared for this, and told him because he chose to spit his milk, he chose to wait in the car. I had Tom take care of paying the bill, wrapping up my dinner, etc. I took Hyrum to the car put him in the carseat. Then I got in and we waited in the car with the heater on until Tom and the boys joined us. The entire night was so pleasant, that Tom and I have decided to do it again. Seth and Gabriel were perfect! So Thank you "Love and Logic" and Thank you inspired nursery leader!!!