Lately, when Emma has an accident or does something she shouldn’t, like spilling her drink, pouring water out of the tub, or wetting her pants by not pulling them down far enough when going potty, she says, “It’s okay mommy”. I then have a very hard time scolding her! I’ve always tried to make sure our kids know that “it’s okay” when they have an accident. After all, accidents happen to all of use. We learn to clean it up and move on. I usually ask the kids to help clean up when they make a mess. I’ve learned that having them help clean up discourages purposeful mess making! 🙂 Emma has learned that saying, “It’s okay mommy”, will prevent her from being in trouble. 🙂 There has been a couple times lately when I’ve lost my cool, and said, “No Emma, it’s NOT okay!…”. Only after she has committed the same offence more than once in consecutive days though. I felt bad after saying it, however, she has stopped having “accidents”.

It has suddenly turned summer! I bought a slip n’ slide, and put it where the kids could slide off onto it from their playhouse slide. It is totally fun, wild, and dangerous! I didn’t think about the dangerous aspect until Emma hurt herself within about five minutes of playing. She recovered, and has learned to use caution when going down. 🙂 David throws caution to the wind and slides everywhere! They love playing on it and it helps beat the heat!

Real or Not real? Gotcha! I bought this snake for David at the dollar store, and I regret it! We were playing outside earlier this week, and David left this little guy laying in the grass underneath the slide. Well guess what? I was walking and I looked down and my heart jumped right out of my chest! I thought I almost stepped on a snake! Almost as quickly I realized it was David’s rubber snake. He thought it was funny! Imagine that! 🙂

 I smoked a chicken last night! We have a smoker that I bought Andrew for his birthday a couple years ago, and believe it or not, this was my first time to use it! Usually I leave the smoking to Andrew! 🙂 The chicken was really good though! It’s super easy to make, and I recommend giving it a try if you have a smoker. I seasoned the chicken with some cajun seasoning (you can season however you like), and then smoked it with apple wood chips. It takes about one hour per pound, set at 225 degrees. This was a five pound chicken, and it took about five hours. The good thing about using the smoker is you can go about your day, occasionally adding more wood chips to the smoker. I then make cheesy potato casserole, and roasted asparagus as sides! Super yummy!

Happy Summer!

PK