Day 223 The Perfect Mom Project

It was awesome having Ashleigh here yesterday, it was like I had my own homemade referee! Avery was showing her all the items she was bringing on our family trip and Ashleigh was trying to help her coordinate them. When Avery was invited to a friend's house later in the day, Ashleigh went into action.

 Avery was barely out the door and Ashleigh started opening Avery's dresser drawers and going through everything she had. Ashleigh was doing what I had hoped to do for a very long time; I like to call it "The Cleanse". She started throwing out the old and stained items and setting aside the too small items. Before we knew it she had found items that Avery had been looking for and organized Avery's drawers. The best part was when Avery came home, Ashleigh was in the room finishing up, and she explained to Avery what she had done and gave her suggestions of other items she could bring on vacation.

 Here is the thing; if I had done that Avery would have gone ballistic! It was kind of nice to have someone else run interference for me. The other nice thing was that Ashleigh was able to talk with her and show her outfit ideas without a conflict. I would not have been able to do that. I would have been trying to convince Avery that I knew what I was taking about and eventually Avery would have become annoyed with me and there would have been a fight. Having Ashleigh handle this situation was the best solution. All the benefits of parenting without doing it myself, I love that!

 I am enjoying having my oldest daughter and her husband home. Not just because she can run interference for me, but because when they are here it completes our family. I love them both very much and I enjoy spending time with them. I am a very lucky Mom to have that. We will spend the day together today and enjoy dinner and then church. Our plan is to hang out later and play games and just be a family. It is a good thing that Ashleigh is here as we prepare to go on vacation. She can continue to explain to my family why I am so stressed about preparing to go on vacation. She can run interference more if needed and I can hug her a bunch before we leave. She is also going to take my sweet puppy Roxanne home with her and care for her while we are gone. I really like who my oldest daughter has turned out to be. Not only is she my daughter, but she is a great friend and sister too. I guess seeing how Ashleigh has turned out I should be confident in my other girls too. Maybe they will not be just like Ashleigh, but I am sure they will be great people too. There is also a great chance that now the youngest one might even know how to organize her room. Cross your fingers!!