Lisa Welchel and the Superbowl

Up first, Lisa Welchel! But if you're like me, I had to google Lisa because I didn't know who she was!  If you don't know, though, you won't have to google her.  You can just watch a video of her here.  Or I can just tell you that she played Blair in the 80's sitcom Facts of Life.   Jon said he had a crush on her!

Two weekends ago, Lisa came to Laramie to speak at a church in town and I was lucky enough to be able to go with three good friends and hear her.  She made us laugh, she brought tears to my eyes, I connected with her stories of motherhood, and she shared her heart that made obvious her love for the Lord.

One of her stories included of one of her children in particular.   Her son, like my Braeden, was strong willed and stubborn. And also like mine, the regular "types" of discipline (time-outs, spanks, etc.) just weren't cutting it.  She began thinking creatively and explained that with our little ones (particularly ages 1-12), we, as parents, need to save our words and lectures and find a way to put our lessons into a picture or story.  Sounds pretty simple, but for me. it was an "Aha!" moment.

For instance, her son had a way with his tongue and was consistently saying hurtful things to his little sister.  After time-outs and spanks, it wasn't lessening!  So Lisa thought of something new to do with this son of hers.  She bought some nails and gave him a hammer and took him out into the back yard.  every time he said something to hurt his sister, he hammered a nail into a fence post.  To this little boy, what could be better?! Not only did he get to say mean things, he got to use a hammer and nails! And it was cool for the first nail and the second, but soon after that it became old and was losing it's appeal!  After two weeks, she explained to him that the fence post was like his sister's heart.  It was full of hurtful nails.  So, for every time he said something hurtful, he NOW had to give her two praises and then could come out into the back yard and remove a nail.  A  week later, she showed him that while the nails were gone, there were still holes, similar to his sister's heart. 
It was something for him to physically see.  He could connect the visual of a fence post full of holes with his sister's heart!  Lisa explained that while after that her son still said hurtful things to his sister, it was less!  And it was a visual he could carry with him as he grew older.

All that to say, I learned a lot from her!  So much so, that I decided that Jon and I should read her book, Creative Correction!  We bought it and as soon as I'm done, I'll let you know what I think!

Lisa Welchel and me!

And then, the superbowl!!  I admit up front that I didn't really pay attention to the game, however, I did fill out a pre-game quiz (tried to guess scores and different statistics) and I completely guessed.  I mean, I had NO IDEA what I was talking about!  But I must have done ok because I got a good load (a butt-load if it were my husband talking) of candy - the prize for getting a question right! (I did the same thing last year in our college basketball bracket - completely guessed - and I won the whole thing!  Woo!).
Anyways!!  It was a great time of hanging with our friends and eating from a fantastic nacho bar potluck and even more fantastic deserts (thanks to Jen and Heather!).  I was a TERRIBLE person, though, and took absolutely NO pictures while hanging out with these guys!  Why wasn't I thinking?!  I did however, get a picture of the boys' room after a night of said hanging out and watching the superbowl and not paying enough attention to the absolute destruction occurring in the back of the house!  It's amazing what four little 3 and 4 year olds can do in the course of an evening!

As I walked back at the end of the game....

I walk back to find Eli... "Aww, look at Eli!  Eli are you a construction worker tonight?  You look so cuuu...."

"....Holy Smokes!  What have you boys been doing back here?!"

Apparently they dumped out every toy in every box in that room!  Oh well, it gave the parents the chance to sit and watch a game together without a ton of kids' distractions.  Can't complain about that!

Oh, and Go Packers!!