Attitude Adjustment

This past week has been a total waste for me, in the blogging/social life/general friendliness department.  I don't know what my damage was, but I just couldn't bring myself to want to go out the door.  Any words in my head would dry up the minute I tried to blog it out.  I don't think I was depressed, but I was certainly anti-social.  All I wanted to do was hide out indoors with my Dudes and watch trashy TV.  (Speaking of-Jersey Shore's back!)  I finally got over myself, just in time for us all to come down with various tummy woes.  One missed birthday party and two ruined outfits later, things are now back to normal, and I may have things to say again!

I know I had planned to post a recipe for Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, but B. kind of beat me to the punch with her recipe.  So, if you want to chip it up, fold in 3/4 to 1 c. of chocolate chips right before pouring it into the pan.  I used 1 c. and thought it was a little too chocolatey, which means I really must have been out of it last week, because there is no such thing as too much chocolate.

The mini-preschool project was put on hold for the last week or so, in the name of helping my sister and her family get settled.  Things are still moving forward on it-the felt board is done, the magnetic boards have had a work out, and today's goals are homemade play dough and getting a line for drying art projects hung up.  I still need to get the chalkboards finished, but that might not happen this week-between agreeing to some extended child care for my niece today, going out of town, a Crew game, and hosting a birthday party, I'm not sure when I'll get it all done!

I was introduced to a concept today that I probably could have used this past week when my attitude was in serious need of adjustment.  It's called a "love bomb", and while it seems to mainly be recommended for use with children who are going through a traumatic time (a death, divorce, etc.) or are having behavioral issues, I think it's something that can be used any time you think the child (or adult) in your life needs a boost.  You pretty much just spoil the person in question for a day, or a few hours-spend undivided time with your child.  Play their games, do something fun, give them some treats.  The focus isn't meant to be on money spent, or how lavish you make the time together, but on making your child feel like they are important to you.  I suppose the idea sounds kind of obvious, or maybe even counterproductive-spoiling your child?  What??  But I have yet to see a child spoiled for life by one day of ice cream for dinner.  Jeffrey's getting some love bombing on Friday.  He's had a hard time dealing with suddenly having all these other kids to compete with, and he's been acting out on it.  So he gets an all-access pass to mommy and daddy for the day, along with a trip to a pretty cool children's museum, and an ice-cream parlor.  I know it's not a long-term solution for his sudden desire to smack any child that gets too close, but I'm hoping it'll help "reset" things for him before the birthday party invasion.  Besides, my chores will still be there at the end of the day, but my little boy won't always be.