Uh Oh!

Is it a bad thing that it is not yet 9:00 a.m. and we have already had two drama episodes. Yikes! I really hope that is not a sign of how the day is going to go.

I have a confession to make. I wasn't going to admit it, but I think I need to. I am raising a tree hugger. We are about to go green people! Seriously, Kayla has this very intense desire to save the world one tree and one light bulb at a time. Craig and I have been noticing this for while and to be perfectly honest with you - it was really annoying me that my 8 year old was telling me that I needed to not drive so much to conserve gasoline and that I need to turn the lights off, etc, etc. However, I have since become convicted that maybe this is something that I need to encourage -- a little bit. I am all about conserving, but when you get right down to it I guess I just think that God has this whole earth and universe in the palm of his hand and by the time it begins to fall apart I will be in Heaven with Him looking at the plans He has for a NEW heaven and a NEW earth. That being said, I still felt the need this week to really talk about this whole environmentalist thing with Kayla. I'm not even sure I spelled that "e" word right or not, so from now on I will refer to the "e" people as "greenies". So, I told Kayla that maybe we needed to make a better effort at being greenies by starting out doing something small like recycling our Coke cans or something. If you are a greenie, please don't freak out, but we don't recycle. (gasp) But, I started thinking to myself, how hard is it to throw a container out to throw our cans in??? But then that poses the question of where does this said container sit and what color should it be -- should it be green? Oh, and what kind of material should it be made of? Okay, I'm kidding, but, honestly the dilemma of where to put said container is weighing heavy on my mind. If I put it in the garage will I remember to take my can to the garage or just throw it in the trash can out of habit? And if I do that, I am not about to go digging through the trash to pull out all of the cans that I have accidentally thrown in there out of habit. Dilemmas, questions, oh my!

Okay, so onto the morning drama. I went into Kayla's room to run the vacuum cleaner and I opened her blinds and turned on the lights. AAAHHH!!! Major faux pas! That little girl walked right in behind me and turned the light off! At this moment I lost all sense of greeness. I just saw red! How terrible that something so little set me off. Actually it wasn't her turning the light off that upset but what came next. I said, "Kayla, turn the light back on". To which she replies, aghast, "But Mom, you are wasting electricity." Huh? This is where the red began to flash before my eyes! Only because we have come home after dark numerous times to find that her bedroom light has been left on. Oh, and the fact that I pay the electric bill every month and I know how much it is also flashed through my mind. Well, I must admit that I lost my temper. And I hollered. And then I had to apologize for screa, er, hollering. However, I also sat down to explain that there are many ways that we can conserve electricity but for the purpose of vaccuuming I need as much light as possible to see all the crud on the carpet. I also asked how many times she had left her light on when not in the room and, bless her heart, she said, "but mama, that was before I wanted to save the world." I'm sorry, but it was all I could do to keep a straight face, because this so goes along with Craig and I's talk about this the other night. In the same conversation that we had about encouraging her to be a greenie, we also talked about acting classes and/or modeling of some sort. And I could just see the Ms. PreTeen USA Paegant - I want to save the world and I also want world peace. Please forgive my warped sense of humor, but it really did crack me up.

And just so that I don't have to feel guilty about talking about my child in a negative way and bashing the "greenies", let me tell you this. I am all about finding my children's gifts and talents and encouraging them in their beliefs. Tyler is so easy - he wants to be a monster truck driving fireman. I can make that happen! Have you seen how many toy monster trucks and fireman gear that there is out there on the market. We can take trips to the fire station, we can go to the monster truck races! However, with Kayla it has been a little more difficult. She has tried lots of sports and stuff and just doesn't seem to LOVE any of that, but she has been expressing an interest in going green for quite awhile. I really feel like I need to let God lead me in this and lead me in encouraging my daughter to become who He wants her to be and in helping her to follow her interests. So, if you see me at the grocery store and I am carrying my reusable grocery bag just know that I am doing my part!