Mom's in {Training}

For the past couple of weeks I've been reading Merrilee Boyack's book, "The Parenting Breakthrough" A Real-Life Plan to Teach Your Kids to Work, Save Money, and be Truly Independent. I heard about this book years ago {she lives here in San Diego and spoke at a women's conference . . . or something}. A few of my friends read it and raved about it, so when I saw it at Deseret Book {for the gazillionth time} I decided to finally get it. I must say that it has completely opened my eyes to how UNprepared my kids will be when it's time for them to leave their cozy little nest at the rate of "training" them to be independent I am doing! I barely make them do anything beyond making their beds and picking up their rooms. They {up until a couple weeks ago} had no idea how to scrub a toilet, read a recipe, vacuum . . . all kinds of things that they are perfectly capable of doing. I'm telling you, teaching them new "grown up" things has made a huge difference in the way that our family has run. They do a lot and have learned a ton in two weeks, and they actually love the new chores they're being given . . . so far. I know it wont last!

After school I had the older girls make rice crispy treats . . . and of course they "fancied" things up a bit and made them purple {or pink . . . depending on who you ask}.

Hannah has been asking me for the last three years AT LEAST to teach her how to sew, and I finally figured that it was a good time to sit down and teach them both how to sew a straight line. We decided to start a simple {but super cute} quilt, and so far they are absolutely loving it. And after sewing together 14 pieces we haven't had to take out any of it. They're doing great . . . I'm actually quite proud of them.

Hannah's first piece . . . don't pay any attention to her nasty nails. The "nail grooming" lesson hasn't come yet!

Reha's first piece.

I'm excited to see how it turns out. If they keep it up and keep doing as well as they did today I'm sure it will be really cute. I'm thankful to have had my eyes open to how "able" they are to do so much. It's been fun seeing them learn so much new stuff . . . I have such good girls.