29 days down, 336 days to go!
Dear Orange Rhino,
Yesterday you admitted you needed help. Today you need to admit that you can’t blog every night. If you want to succeed at your challenge, you need to be relaxed and rested, not cranky! You need to go to bed earlier, spend more time with yourself NOT thinking about the Challenge, you need to have more time on the couch with your hubby watching Grey’s Anatomy and cursing at Ben for liking Courtney, and you need to take a step back. So today I am forcing you to not post. Or at least not post a full post. Instead share two new ideas you have then go to bed.
Did you hear me? Share and then GO TO BED. Yes I am yelling at you.
Cheers,
Yourself
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Okay, my two new ideas so that I can get to bed.
I will post “deep thoughts” from the trenches as frequently as I can (hope this is okay?) but when I can’t, I will do one of two things, or both.
1) I will post 1 or 2 or more Orange Rhino Revelations from the day. A teaser if you will. It might be new, it might be old, and it certainly won’t be eloquently written, but hopefully it will inspire you! Please don’t stop following or sharing because of my cutting back. Pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top.
2) As new Orange Rhinos achieve personal milestones, like 10 days!!! maybe 20?!!, I will invite them to write about their experience so that I can share it with you on days I need off. The way I see it, the more we all share our positive experiences, the more we will all be inspired to keep going.
So here we go.
THE ORANGE RHINO’s REVELATION: If I don’t take care of myself, I become cranky. When I become cranky, I yell. Therefore I need to take care of myself. Hence, this post!
THE ORANGE RHINO’s REVELATION: Don’t Assume my kids are up to no good.
#1 had a pen in his hand. He was standing at my desk, by my calendar. The one I put hours into choosing the perfect pictures. The one with all important appointments written on it in color code for each child. He was silent. He looked pensive. He looked like he was up to no good. I looked right at him and calmly (which totally surprised me!) said “Please don’t tell me you just wrote all over my calendar.” “No mommy, I didn’t. But can you tell me where we are in this picture? I can’t remember exactly but I know we were having lots of fun.” SOO glad I didn’t yell. He was reminiscing. How sweet.
And tonight’s Orange Rhino Inspirational Read…
This is from someone I have dubbed Mrs. Sunshine (didn’t know if she wanted to stay anonymous or not!) because to me, she seems to have a wonderfully sunny disposition and approach to life that I just love. She just achieved 10 days without yelling at her twin 4.5 year old boys! Here are some of her thoughts, so eloquently written too!
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“ahhh facebook, the escape at night from chaos and parenting… so, on my usual browse of what’s going on in facebook land one evening, a friend had shared this Orange Rhino blog.
I love reading Mom blogs, the honest cut throat, real deal of parenting.. the non cookie cutter way things really go down.. as soon as I read this blog I was both laughing and thinking.. wait a minute this woman is on to something!
NO YELLING? for 365 days, she’s got to be crazy… I can’t even go two hours with out something exploding in this house, let alone 365 days…
…I am so guilty of being the YELLER, I mean really, let the list begin:
Fighting : “quit kicking your brother!” “quit punching each other” “Don’t jump off the table, Share those cars, ” DON”T SAY MEAN THING TO YOUR BROTHER” ” I SAID GET IN THE BATH” “FOOD IS NOT A TOY” GET OFF THE COUNTER, LEAVE THE DOGS ALONE, KEEP YOUR PANTS ON, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS RIGHT , i SAID YOU CAN’T HAVE THAT! and my favorite, ” I SAID NO!”… and this is the short version..
Every time I would find myself being tested, my voice would go to 11! When I was a child, yelling was talking.. and then Eureka, I am going to take this challenge~
Can I do it? Can I really not yell at these two? Will I whisper? Walk away? Laugh? and the answer to all these questions is YES~~
The Orange Rhino Challenge is working!!!
I have survived Ten full days, and here is what I have noticed, not gonna lie, the boys haven’t transformed into these saints that don’t scream, fight, cry or share all the time… but I see what I have control over, I see that I have better ways of coping with frustration, anger, sleep deprivation, headaches, and any unwanted behavior..I know they wont give up testing me, that is after all their job…
My motivation is the same as it ever was… I know that my boys learn behavior and how to handle themselves by watching how I do these things… I know that I want them to grow up with better coping skills and learn that screaming and yelling does nothing but escalate the situation and leaves everyone in tears…
Not yelling is perhaps one of the best gifts I can give to them, life already has a bunch of obstacles .. I want to control the ones I can!
I’ll let you know how I feel at 20 days, but right now the best feeling I feel is empowerment!
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Thanks “Mrs. Sunshine!” Here’s to 20 days, and 20 more after that!
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it would be an honor to me to continue to be a guest on your blog! after all, you are giving me inspiration! hugs~ Mrs. Sunshine!
You are an inspiration by hanging in there and making adjustments as you need to. That’s wisdom! It’s encouraging to watch your journey, even though I know it’s hard sometimes. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us!