No...

Be sure your children understand that

"No"

is a complete sentence.

Isn't that great? I think it should go beyond your children; everyone should know that. That was the quote on my calendar today. "Life's Little Instruction Calendar", by H. Jackson Brown. I have been getting that calendar for years-love it.

I had to remember this today when a friend asked if my daughter and I were going to watch the hockey game (we had talked about it). I said 'no'. I know she was waiting for more & I was ready to ramble on like usual. But I kept it short. I felt bad (of course). I have such a hard time saying no as I am sure other people do. And I always feel like I have to explain myself as if anyone really cares.

We have had a good beginning of the summer vacation. My daughter is doing well, having fun and behaving. Most of the sassy behavior from school is fading - that didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. Today we went to the library and she got her own library card. She was so excited. I had to laugh though when the librarian asked me to sign her new card since I was the 'responsible adult' and when I gave her my card she said I owed 80 cents in overdue fees. OOPS! Good role model. I do try though. It's the videos and DVD's that get me - they are 7 day loans and the books are 3 weeks. We got the summer reading program schedule and there is something to do almost everyday so we can pick and choose. The theme this year is Bugs - my daughter was really excited about that. She is reading, but mostly the #1 and #2 readers and she brings these long chapter books to me saying she wants to check those out. I hate to discourage her but I know she cannot read a whole book like that. I try to be delicate and help her pick our something else.

I checked out the book "Does this Clutter Make my Butt Look Fat?" by Peter Walsh. So far it's interesting and pretty good. I hope to get something out of it. Since we painted the kitchen cabinets and I went through all of them I am kind of on a 'let's just toss it all' spree. We have so much more than we need. For example, our family of 3 has 37 dinner plates (this includes our 4 'summer' outdoor melamine plates but not formal china). Really, is that necessary? I think not. And my daughter and I usually use the salad plates. So I picked a set of 7 dinner plates (used to be 8), 3 salad plates and 3 bowls (used to be 4 each) to purge. My sister is going to take them and use them in her rental condo. It was hard to let them go but we just don't need them. The cabinets seem much lighter now and we are using some of our other plates that we didn't use often. And if I totally regret it one day I can get them back. :) Laurie had mentioned a while back about reducing what is in the house by 50% and I love that idea. I am not sure if I will totally get there but I know I will at least in some areas. I also tossed 3 pairs of shoes today and set aside 5 cookbooks to take to St Vincent de Paul. Tomorrow I will keep going.

I have to get my daughter in bed. I wanted to put her to bed earlier but it's hard to convince her it's night time with the sun peeking through the window. It's almost dark now though so off we go...