Apologies

     If I didn't mention it in my blog post yesterday, it was kind of a rough day.  Normally I don't even blog when I'm having a rough day because I don't want to fill my blog book with the negative happenings of our family.  I suppose it's not a true journal if I do this.  But I'd still like to dwell on the positive.  I blogged about the wall yesterday because I was certain that it was something we would someday laugh about.
     I still think that I left a lot of stuff out though.  My beautiful daughter was throwing a temper tantrum at the time.  I was trying to keep her from waking up her brother.  She was trying to tell me (loudly and in the hallway!) about something her sisters were doing that was upsetting her.  I grabbed her arm and pulled her into her bedroom and I accidentally bumped her into the doorknob on the way.  I'm not sure how much it really hurt her because I have learned from experience that the slightest scratch on her leg will suddenly impair her ability to walk.  I decided it would just be best to leave the room so I walked out and shut the door.  I left her to her tantrum, which only lasted about 2 minutes before she was in my room with the most humbled, apologetic face I have ever seen on her.  She immediately told me that she had accidentally put a hole in the wall.  I told her I didn't believe it was an accident because I heard her kicking the wall on purpose.  Her response was, "But I didn't know that could happen!"  She felt so bad.  I hadn't even looked at it yet but I told her to bring me all her money, which she immediately did.  She had $7 and a baby food jar full of change.  I said it might not be enough and that we might have to sell something of hers to pay for it.  She immediately agreed.  I knew she felt really bad because that would normally have really freaked her out.
     Daren and I talked about it last night and we decided that we didn't want to take all her money but we did want her to feel like it was a sacrifice to repair the hole.  So we thought that she should lose something and also that she needed to sit with Daren and help him do the repair.  Hopefully that will be enough so that the next time she loses her temper she will think first before kicking the wall or door or bed or whatever else she might think about kicking.
     At the risk of fully revealing her identity (which I should probably do anyway so in the future the kids don't argue about who this post is about; i.e. I was the one who put the hole in the wall!), I am posting the sweet note she gave me last night.

     Just to clarify, she did not receive any physical punishment at all for her crime.  She is merely doing her best to sound out and spell the word "Sorry."  So anyway, I guess we aren't complete failures after all.  But we have a lot to improve on, for sure!

P.S.  If you're wondering where Daren was during all this drama, he had a work training that went for 4 hours after work Friday night and then 8 hours yesterday.  So I was feeling a little at the end of my rope yesterday afternoon.  I have always wondered how single moms do it.  I feel extra amazement at them right now!