The best thing about Beagles
Yesterday was not a good day. In fact, it was one of those days where you contemplate throwing in the towel and sending your lovely off to school. Not that it would improve anything...just that then, someone else could deal with it for a few hours a day. And I could homeschool the little guy who crawls in my lap and asks,
Mommy? Can we have a nice long day of homeschool today?
And the three year old who is all smiles when the materials come out.

And the one year old who is the first at the table when I call and bursts into tears if I don't have something there for her to work on.

The beginning of it all really was no big deal. Minor behavior my Mouse has been struggling with for awhile, and a minor consequence which is the same every time. A little copywork out of Psalm 15. Just four verses. It only takes her five minutes. Except yesterday when she just laid her head down and stared at the wall for fifteen minutes.

Now this is mom's issue, not hers. When she does this, I know she is laying down her own consequences. She is wasting her time to play, go outside, read, do whatever it is a ten year old takes into her head to do in the day. But I can still feel the blood pressure rising as my temper flares.

Deep breath. Send her to her room. Ok, actually my room.

An hour later, I went to check on her. Still just sitting there, staring at the wall. An hour later, same thing. And then I lost it and yelled at her. She buried her head in a pillow and burst into tears.

That worked about as well as it always does. But as I went out, her Beagle trotted in. He jumped up on the bed, pushed his little nose under her arm, and laid down as she pulled him close to her. So I left her, crying out her frustrations into the fur of her little Copper.

Twenty minutes later, she came out, apologized and went to her copywork. I bit my tongue about the three and a half hours that had been wasted, sat next to her and pulled out a piece of paper.
What are you doing, mom?

Well, I shouldn't have yelled at you, either. So I'm doing my copywork.
And then I could see all was forgiven. She was all sunshine and smiles...and you'd almost think she enjoyed copywork or something the way she chatted and giggled while finishing it up.