She Runs Screaming

...when she sees me get out my camera.

Well, maybe not screaming...but moaning and muttering for sure.  And I know I post pictures of her a lot, but she's been on my mind lately.  I think I've been too hard on her recently.  She is a very helpful little gal and always doing loads for me (I know first hand the burden of being the oldest), but then she gets so caught up in her little daydreams, and projects and personal agenda, that she sometimes forgets the things I ask her to do.  And then I get upset.  And it seems to be happening a lot.  And I've been stumped on how to fix this silly cycle we're in.  So I got to thinking and remembered a story my mom told me of how she used to come home from work and get upset at us kids for one thing or another...because it was inevitable that instead of finishing our chores, we would decide to give the phone an intense and thorough detailing.  And she would rant and rave about this and that not being done...until I told her that she was always getting mad about what we didn't do but she never saw what we did do.  She said it hit her like a ton of bricks and she vowed right then and there to not care as much about the didn'ts.  It wasn't worth all the frazzling stress and worry and contention.  And you know what, she stayed true to her word and changed that day.  She would come home, praise us on whatever hair-brained chore we had done or started and then remind us to finish the other stuff.  Even if we never quite finished, she decided a sparkling clean house that was organized to the gills, wasn't the most important thing after all, especially if everyone ended up unhappy in the process.  Building great relationships and spending time together was much, much more important.  Obviously we still had chores and had to be responsible, but she was much happier about it all...which in turn rubbed off on us.

So.  Now we've come full circle.  And I need to take my own advice from so many years ago.  It's weird to grow up.  Anyway....I vow to change.  I vow to not care as much over the things that don't get done, but to notice the things that do.  And I hope that I can be as strong as my mom and actually stick to it, because I do love my Miss B.  A lot.  And she needs to hear about all the great things she does everyday.  Thanks to my mom and a much younger me for the reminder.