Difficult People

Today my day begun a little brighter. It may have something to do with the fact that Bryan is home on Saturday and any day could be better than yesterday. Yesterday Claudia was behaving terribly. In the morning I caught her squishing, yes squishing, the cat with her body. She was punished. Then after I had spent the entire day cleaning the basement I come down to find toys of hers lying all over the place and garbage from her snack thrown on the ground. We have a rule that if she leaves a room to play somewhere else she needs to pick up. If she doesn't those toys get taken away. So I calmly began picking up the toys to add to the already-full laundry basket I have in my closet and she saw me. She began screaming at the top of her lungs and I ignored her and continued upstairs. When I put the toys in my basket she began HITTING me. So I punished her again. I feel like I can't win with her sometimes. No matter what I do she doesn't seem to care. I am at a loss. Anyway! On the brighter side of things. We woke up to two happy, and well-behaved kids. Claudia went out to the animal farm with Herman & Julia today and she also went to a garage sale where she got a princess castle that she is using for her trolls(thanks Herm!). Then we wrestled and laughed for an hour or so. Then we got a phone call that put a spin on the whole day.

Have you ever had ones of those people in you life that no matter what you do for them they are never happy. They are the type to twist everything you say so it sounds like you've insulted them. I have found that these types of people generally have the last word in a conversation and then somehow when the conversation is over you feel like you've done something wrong. Man! How do you deal with those people. I had a very similar situation arise today. (God's has convicted me about gossiping so I won't divulge who it was. ) I don't know how to handle people like that. It doesn't help me when I end up feeling guilty and yet so angry at the same time. Today I confronted someone because of the manner in which they were speaking to Bryan (this person has done this for quite sometime and I have been silent). I kept telling myself that I wouldn't tolerate anyone else talking to him this way so why am I tolerating this person doing it. So when I confronted them somehow they twisted everything I said and the topic got changed and now I am the one being confronted. My issue never even got addressed!! It was a total failure. Nothing is resolved, it is now that much worse. Then this person said a very immature comment and I snapped back by telling them that they should "grow up". I suppose that I could have said something nicer like "that's a very immature thing to say" but what I was feeling was "my goodness GROW UP already!!" so I don't feel bad for what I said because I meant it. I wonder if I should apologize for something that I am not sorry for. I know that you can't change people but I wish you could. So I intend to lift this person up to prayer and ask God to take over.

Hopefully this afternoon and evening will be better. We are getting together with my Dad & Step-mother and my grandparents. So hopefully we can redirect our day to have a better time from here on out. Tomorrow Ella & Claudia are being dedicated at church and our family and friends will be there. I can't wait!

Alicia