Slowly but surely

Hannah and I have had a pretty good week, and I think there could be lots of factors involved. First of all, I am making it a priority to pray for her every morning. For a while now, I've been going in both girls' rooms at night to pray over them--mostly that they would know the Lord, that their dreams are sweet, and that they would be healthy, happy girls now & into their adult lives--and just this week I've really begun to commit to praying for Hannah before she wakes up. I know this is helping my days go better, and I think it's putting me in the right mindset, realizing that I can do ALL things through Christ...including parent a strong-willed child! :) God is giving me the strength and endurance...and dare I say...patience (eek!) to show Hannah the authoritative role the Lord has given me with my children. (As He gives to all parents.)
Second, I'm putting some suggestions into play that I'm reading about in the two books I mentioned earlier this week ("Love & Logic" and "Growing Kid's God's Way".) I'm finding that by giving Hannah as many choices as possible, she's much less likely to balk at the choices I need to make. One of my favorite parts about this process is that the book suggests giving the child 10 seconds to choose...after that, guess who gets to decide? :) It makes it so that Hannah has responsibility, but that choice time does not end up being a stall tactic! In "Growing Kid's God's Way," it talks about reminding kids constantly that they are loved, even while having a consequence. While this has always been in my mind, it reminds me to take the time to have that conversation with Hannah before, during & after each disciplinary action. In this way, I'm striving to model the amazing love that our Heavenly Father shows each of His children, and that is a very important character trait of God that I want my children to grasp.
Third, I know that many of you are praying for my journey as a mother, and that is so precious to me. :) I need to remind myself of that as I'm having some of my more difficult days with my children; that there are other mothers around me who are at various stages in their parenting journey, praying right along with me!
Fourth, I am really limiting Hannah's TV time. I've decided to go back to our earlier plan of making movies a special treat--not even necessarily a reward for specific good behavior, but more of a random positive reinforcement (I know there's a word for that, those of you who have taken child psych--variable reinforcement??) At any rate, I don't think Hannah has watched a movie once this week, and I'm limiting her morning TV (PBS) to one hour, if that.
Fifth, with the exception of today, I am spending very little time on the computer while Hannah is awake. This means that my personal time on e-mail, blogs, etc is reduced quite a bit, but I feel like it's worth the sacrifice when I see the rewards of Hannah's better behavior! :) Today was an example of the Love & Logic choice-making, where she didn't decide in 10 seconds, so I made the choice for her. A little biased on my end?? Maybe...but sometimes Mom just needs a few minutes of quiet time, regardless of the day. The rest of the week, we've passed the time during Gemma's nap with fort-making, store-playing, and book-reading. Surprisingly, I find it very enjoyable! (That probably sounds bad, but when thinking about nap time/quiet time in the house, I imagine being able to sit down with a good book, watch some videos on YouTube, write some e-mails, check my blog, etc. What this change in routine requires is an adjustment in my thinking about quiet time--that instead, I can look forward to having time with my oldest child to play a game, imagine something, read longer books, and simply be together! Incidentally, that whole "adjustment in thinking" has become forefront in my mind as I've done these last couple weeks of homework from the Experiencing God study. I'm going to say again: everyone should do that study at some point! It is amazing!)
At any rate, I know Hannah's behavior could be contributed to ALL of these factors, and I'm just going to keep at it while it's going well! I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on this stage of childhood as well, so tell me what you think about these (or other) strategies. :)
Thanks for reading this long post...I wasn't planning on it being quite this wordy, but once I get going, it's hard to stop! ;)