Great New Game: "What Doesn't Belong?"

This morning I had a stroke on genius--actually I'm quite sure it was an extra dose of grace because I had prayed for help in parenting during my morning quite time. Our house never seems to be in order and having Noelle help tidy up is a necessary, but exhausting, process. This morning I decided to come at our dilemna in a new way.

I started at breakfast by telling Noelle we were going to play a new game after breakfast. She wanted to know all about it. I told her it was call "What Doesn't Belong?" and you play it by looking at a section of the room and figure out what doesn't belong and put it where it does belong. Looking at the dining room table I was able to give ample examples. There was a calculator, my bible and some extra pencils and all of these things have a better place to be.

I went on to explain that every time one of us put something that "didn't belong" where it does belong, we would get a point. I made up a score sheet that we could tally our points on. Noelle was thrilled...she raced around the house screaming "I found something that doesn't belong." At one point we were both at her little table which is cluttered with 'artwork' and church worksheets. I told her she'd get 2 points for every paper she threw away....another victory!
She managed to win 30 to 16 (I may have missed a few tallies), however I didn't feel like too big of a loser:)

Snow Days

We're a little behind in getting these pictures posted, but here are a few highlights from our March blizzard.

Noelle in her castle/igloo

Brad and Noelle with our deck snowman. It was a little creepy having him "watch" us through the sliding glass door.

Parenting Highlights

Last week, while I was painting Noelle's room she would take a nap in my bed so I could be painting in her room. One afternoon I went to wake her up from her nap and noticed a stain on my comforter that looked suspiciously like a highlighter. I looked over at my nightstand where I usually keep 2-3 books that I'm currently reading and sure enough, there was a highlighter.

I asked Noelle if she had used the highlighter, to which she so-vaguely said "Maybe." I picked up the book on top of my stack to see if there was any highlighting...oh yes. About 25 pages of the book are very neatly highlighted. She did a pretty good job following the lines, but since she can't read, the highlighting starts in the middle of one sentence and stops halfway into another.

What makes this story funny is the book she chose to highlight...a parenting book, The Heart of Anger by Lou Priolo. Although she did not highlight out of anger I have to chuckle that one of my parenting books now has a reminder of how much training a child needs from a parent-- a LOT.

Are 'Boring' and 'Dull' Synonymous?

Often times the words 'boring' and 'dull' can be used interchangeable, however Brad and I were quite puzzled when Noelle came to us with her colored pencils and said "These pencils need to be sharpened. They're boring."
Obviously there are times 'dull' does not equal 'boring'. She went on to tell us the yellow one is the "boringest".

New Nephew!

Nolan Wade Sauder is the newest addition to the Sauder side of the family. Nolan arrived on leap day - Feb 29. Congratulations to Dustin, Jenelle, Payton and Kalysta!