Last night I had a date — not with the wife, but with my youngest little girl. In homeschooling, one of the motivational tools my wife uses is “10 marbles”. Each kid has a jar with their name on it. They earn marbles by “getting caught being good” — sharing with one another, helping around the house, getting all their homeschooling done without reminding or complaining, etc. They can also get marbles taken away by fighting, not listening, whining, etc. It is behavioral driven and when they get 10 marbles they can trade them in for stuff. My daughter’s trade in today was a pizza dinner alone with dad. That’s pretty cool! Another time she traded them in it was an afternoon fishing with dad.
So tonight after I returned home from work, she and I headed out to Pizza Hut and sat down at the checkerboard table where we could play “chess” with the salt and pepper while we waited for our meal. It was some nice time spent with her and she even enjoyed (or endured) the Autozone/WalMart side trips after. I think she just enjoys special time with dad which I appreciate.
By the way, Autozone has an oil change special — 5 quarts of any regular Pennzoil product with a Fram oil filter for $10.99. For those of you that do your own oil changes, it’s a great bargain. I picked up enough for my Suburban as well as my wife’s.
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
