Bowling, Dog-sitting, and "Listen and Obey"

As part of my summer "PLAN" I was hoping to add some fun activities to our structured time.

We learned about free passes at a local bowling alley for kids 15 and under.

So after Hope and Faith had their annual physicals and Faith got her booster shots

we headed out to do a couple of games. (We had to stop and buy socks first)

Faith surprised herself and won one game and I won the other!

Last time Hope won all the games 

Thursday evening one of Zeke's friends texted him a bit frantically and 

asked if we would be willing to dog-sit this weekend. We accepted,

but I realized I never met this dog. I didn't get a lot of time to be concerned

because Son#1 and family were coming for supper.

Dog turned out to be a well-behaved beagle, slightly over-weight.

He sorta fit right in, doesn't get worked up over Shekinah's antics,

politely waits and waits for food to accidentally fall on the floor.

I told them they are not allowed to feed him cause his owner asked us to stick to dog food.

But you know accidents do happen.

He sleeps good at night- at least I think he does. I didn't hear him.

The only thing, he is strong enough to take Faith for a walk. On Friday morning it was a good thing that Shekinah came tagging along because Hunter decided to investigate a smell in the neighbor's yard and Shekinah had to help Faith change his mind.

 It took two of them to pull him back to our driveway.

On Thursday we went to Patches Family Farm Days It was OK

but my girls had just been at Oregon Dairy Farm Days and it just didn't compare.

Shekinah and Parker were a bit awed by the cows in the barn though.

Thursday was a big day! It was also the day that the bunnies were old enough to be separated from their mother. Grandpa's rabbit had a litter and Shekinah had been asking for one 

for awhile. Now he needs to be tamed so that she can hold him. We need to

wait till Hunter goes home to start that process. Hunter knows exactly what bunnies

are for! His nose reminds me of the German Short-Haired Pointers that we had a few years ago.

On Saturday, Loving ARMS hosted a video seminar with "TBRI Lasting Changes in Your Child's Behavior" by the wonderful folks at TCU. It was a review for me since I think I've seen this video about 6 times now. This week we are going to be working on  "Listen and Obey" and  "Ask with Respect"   I realized after watching that again, I have gotten lazy in my requirements.

BUT

It is hard work! One or two of my children think they are a bit "too old" to have to reply with "yes, mom" when I make a request, but if I don't require a verbal response, it seems they conveniently forget my request. 

From what I hear,  my children do wonderfully following orders and being polite when they are out in public--school or at jobs. For that I am so thankful. So should we just be satisfied with that? Somewhere in my gut, I think that if I don't teach them to be polite and respectful to their housemates what will life be like for their future husband or wife?  

So for my future grandchildren's sake, I will press on.