Good Behavior

I spent most of yesterday whimpering on the couch, leveled by yet another bug and lapsing in and out of sleep.  After lunch, Jada and I were both reading, but whereas I was reading for leisure (and to get sleepy enough to fall asleep again), she was reading because she's supposed to - 30 minutes a day, before which no screen time and no electronics. 

Next thing I know, I am awaking from a sneak-attack nap - didn't know that I had fallen asleep, temporarily didn't know where I was.  Jada was gone.  I was guessing she had cut her reading short so she could watch something on the computer or bop along her tunes on her mp3 player, but I was too tired to care and too sunk into the sofa to move.  If ever there was a weekend for her to cheat a little on her chores, this was it.

Instead, I heard her talking to Amy.  She had been writing in her prayer journal (another weekend chore of hers), and was heading down to the kitchen to do her science homework (something about fruits and seeds). 

Wow, without me breathing down her back she was still grinding through her to-do's dutifully before she got to the fun stuff.  I stopped her en route to tell her how proud I was of her for tending to the things she had to do before she did the things she wanted to do - an important trait I try to cultivate in both our kids. 

Who knows if this portends that when she's a teenager and has a chance to sneak out of the house or cut corners or lie to us, that she won't.  But so far, so good.