Kids. And Parents.

Me: We don't drink juice all day.  It's not that good for us.
Alan:  Well coffee's not good for you and you drink it all day.

First of all, no I don't.  Second of all, if I did, how would he know?  He's at school!

Last night after dinner I had Alan straighten up the living room, Holly sweep the living room, dining room, and hall, and Julia fold and put away one basket of laundry.  Julia griped about having to put the laundry away, saying I didn't TELL her to put it away.  I just told her to fold it.  And she folded it on the living room floor that Alan had just uncovered.  As she begrudgingly put the laundry away, she fussed at me not to be mad when it was all in the wrong place because she didn't know where things go.  This morning I found my underwear in Jillian's dresser.  Along with a pillowcase for a living room throw pillow and some washcloths.  A bathroom hand towel was hanging in the kitchen.  I'm beginning to think she needs to put away laundry more often - just so she'll learn where things go.  Hm.

There was a point last night that I fussed at Julia for leaving Alan's clothes neatly folded on top of his dresser instead of putting them in the drawers.  Silly me.  I should have known.  Holly had put the clothes there earlier in the day as a favor to me to make up for being so just generally mean that we left her at home while the rest of us went to the store.  The clothes Julia put away were shoved in the first drawer she'd opened.  So as the girls went to bed I calmly told Julia that the next time I mistakenly accused her of something, perhaps instead of getting mad (I know it's easier said than done), she could just calmly tell me that those were not the clothes she'd folded.  Her response was that I never see the good things they do and only the things they do wrong and I never say Thank You but I get told Thank You all the time.

Okay.  I can work on that. 

I'm making an effort today to say Thank You for all the little things. 
And don't think I'm not counting how many I hear for comparison.  Then again - on second thought - I think that might just be depressing.  I think I'll stick to being possibly overly thankful today.