rulez of the house

today we sat down and made up our rules. yes, we were told to have these posted BEFORE we got kids. but we were also told we'd have respite care first and that didn't happen either. we then sat the girls down and talked about the rules and what is expected of them and clarified the "not fair" stuff is stopping as of yesterday. wooohoooo! thank GOD that monkey is off our back. i know what you're thinking "boy she sure is dooped into thinking that was easy." well, no, in fact it wasn't. BUT the ingenious idea of rewarding the good behavior IS easy. so now we earn points and at the end of the day we total up our points and for every 10 points we get a dollar that we can spend on lip smackers, (which, if you haven't been informed is THE best chapstick this side of the sun), cd's, special shoes etc. we will provide them with everything they need like clothes, food, shampoos. and then they can buy anything extra they want with the dollars they earn with their points. making the bed, 1 point; setting the table, another point; picking up after yourself, one more point; GOOD ATTITUDE, 2 POINTS! oh ya, bam! that last one was a divine inspiration from the lord god almighty himself. today we earned 4 points on good attitude ALONE! the girls are THRILLED to have a way to EARN the special things they want and we are THRILLED to be able to say "i have a feeling you are about to earn 2 whole points with that attitude!" i am LOVING IT!!!!!
and we bumped into some family friends at the resale shop today. it was SO neat to meet people from real life. it was good for the girls too. we were getting in the car and they pulled up and the girls said "i think that's so-and-so!" and i said "would you like to go say hello?" and they both ran to check out their car and sure enough it was their friends. so we said hello and i could tell they didn't know the situation and finally he said "so are you their social worker?" and i said "no, i'm their foster mom." and i could tell that everything fell into place for him at that moment. i could tell that the couple really loved the girls and i got their names so we can give it to the county and see if we can have more contact with them. the girls talked about it for the rest of the afternoon. and best of all, when we went to leave, he lunged towards me to hug me and told the girls to mind me and paul. so i know they could tell that we were loving on the girls for the good of the girls. it was just really neat to get a glimpse into their "real lives" for a few minutes. and i just have to think, as nice as it was for me to see a glimpse of normal for them, what a sigh of relief it must have been for them to also get that glimpse of normal for just a few minutes today.
and we have grandpa's phone number so we get to call him every night at bedtime to say goodnight.
and one more thing...i made vegan empenadas today and they were a hit. they would be even MORE of a hit if i didn't have to use that awful whole wheat flour but we're getting there. maybe the next batch we can put more white flour in there. let me know if anyone wants the recipe.