Yucky Monday's and Losses

The view out our master bedroom on St. Patrick's Day. No green in sight!

 Last Monday held lots of promise to be a fun holiday since it was St. Patrick's Day and all. Until we heard the wind howling. Aftyn said to me "Mom the wind is making noises!".  Not something we hear everyday. And then the snow started! And kept on going for a few hours. We just settled in to stay home and stay warm and un-winded and snowed on.

Aftyn and her puppy, Fluffy

We started a new job system at our house. The girls do jobs to earn marbles. When they earn enough marbles they have earned some spectacular something. Bronwyn has earned an ice cream treat and seemed to enjoy that. Aftyn has earned a few things. :/  Mostly because she grabbed something off the shelf at the gas station, wouldn't put it back when asked and when Reed tried to take it from her hand and she pulled back, the packaging ripped spilling candies on the floor. Reed had to pay for it and so Aftyn lost her almost full jar of marbles. She earned all the candies that she and Reed had to pick up off the floor at the gas station. Sad! But a good lesson learned I'd say.  She recently filled her jar once again after lots of work and she earned her puppy. He walks and yips and is so cute and soft. She adored him and carried him everywhere. 

Until today. See, Aftyn played with one of my earrings I left in the bathroom. Dumb me, I didn't put them back in my jewelry box after I switched earrings because it was right before church and Reed and the kids were waiting for me in the car. So I switched them, left my gold hoops on the bathroom counter and ran out the door. And promptly forgot about them until later in the afternoon after church. I dismissed the prompting I had to go and put them away and didn't think about them until later last evening as I brushed my teeth before bed. There was only one earring there in the bathroom. I searched the whole countertop and floor and the top drawer as well. Nothing. Fearing my earring had gone down the drain but not knowing for certain, I went to bed.
  I asked Aftyn in the morning if she knew what had happened. She blamed Bronwyn. I asked Bronwyn who really tried to come up with a good story of what happened, not unlike Anne of Green Gables and Marilla's broach. As she stood there really trying to convince me with her story and Aftyn was listening, Aftyn suddenly blurted out, "I did it Mom." .
I said to her "Okay, well if you did it then where is it?". 
"Oh, it fell on the rug." (meaning the carpet).
"Well then let's go look".
No sign of it. I asked Aftyn if she wasn't sure if it had maybe gone down the sink.
She answered and said that was what had happened to it. I still had hope my little gold hoop would be in the pipe under the sink and so I asked Aftyn to go get me a bowl so I could unscrew the pipe under the sink and get my earring out.
Long story short, no earring. My heart sunk. I have had those earrings for over 10 years. They
have become my go-to earrings. They were the only earrings I owned that I could wear for forever because they were made from gold and so my ears had no reactions to them.  I was so so disappointed and sad to lose that earring.
And our day became even sadder when Aftyn's puppy had to go to the trash so she too could understand how hard and sad it is when you lose something that you really really love.  Tears have been shed on both sides, but I think the saddest part was when her puppy was put in the dumpster and we both just had an empty sadness in our hearts. It's so hard when kids have to learn lessons like this. No one put situations like this in the parent handbook that I got. ;)  Hopefully this will be a lesson that stays learned and we don't have to re-visit with her again.

Now Bronwyn I'm not so sure about. That girl has an attention span of about 5 seconds and so it may be a whole lot harder to make an impact on her. ;)