My girl

Charley will be 9 the end of July and I'm calling this her "Summer of Independence." She is such a big helper to everyone, but there are a few things she needs to work on to be more independent. I won't name them as I don't want to embarrass her. They are not life altering skills, just some minutiae things that I think she needs to know. So, as soon as school let out last week we started. I have also started making her do things like unload the dishwasher and put the dishes away. She's already responsible for putting away her own laundry and feeding the dogs each night, but I am adding to the list each week. We have these handy dandy sticky notes that remind her what she needs to do each morning and each evening. This keeps me from repeating myself (and if you know me, you know I hate to repeat myself) 1000x a day. It's a work in progress, but she's only been out of school for 6 days as of this posting. 

She does come to the Mercantile a few days a week on my "long" weeks and helps wait tables. She is working on the cooking, but for now I will spare you 😆.  I know she can become more independent as the summer goes on. I can't fully blame her for relying on me so much, you see I thought she was my last child so I may have catered to her a little too much AND she is the only girl in our family. When you have 3 brothers, you totally play your parents for whatever you can get out of them. I listened to a parenting book called "Love Centered Parenting" by Crystal Paine and she says your goal is to work yourself out of a job. I am taking that to heart. I am trying to work myself out of a job with these last 3 still at home. 

I think I did a pretty good job with that with Dylan, but each child is different. They each have their own personalities, needs and quirks. I am grateful each day God chose me to be their momma! So here's to a summer of growing, learning, and becoming more independent for my sweet Charley girl. I know she can do it!

Wishing you sunny skies and green pastures,

McKession

Unloading the dishwasher

The "chore" pad