After having the grandchildren here for a couple days to celebrate Christmas, I noticed a word that seemed to work itself into many of the conversations – the word, No! Realizing that many of my decorations are not “kid-friendly” the parents of our three soon to be two year old grandsons were saying things like: “No, just look at the manger scene” or “No, do not take the ornaments off the Christmas tree.” Even our four year old granddaughter Charlotte needed to be reminded, “No, Charlotte, we cannot open presents just yet!” After doing some research, I learned that the average toddler hears the word ‘no’ an astonishing 400 times per day! At first I felt that 400 times seemed to be an exaggeration. However, just stop and think about how often we say things like: “no running, no throwing, no hitting, no jumping on the furniture, etc.” We are constantly telling our children how NOT to act – instead of telling them positive things like: “walk please, put it down gently, be gentle with your hands, or sit on the couch please.” Even though it is good for children to learn the word ‘no’ and what it means, I feel that we use the word ‘no’ more often than looking for or saying a positive statement.

It’s been a weird week for me. I spent the entire week in my own bed. Before anybody gets too excited by that,due to the snowstorms in late December and early January, I spent several nights at Jon and Heidi’s house. And now the forecast is for ICE and snow for Monday. Not a fan of the ice.

Question: I was driving on the freeway during the worst part of a recent storm. Just had a question—are people supposed to use their emergency flashers when they are driving? So many cars on the freeway were, and it made it impossible to tell if someone was actually stopped or moving slowly (also, if they changed lanes, there was no way to tell).