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The other night Tess comes in Scott and I's room and says, with a smile, "Can you guys hold it down?". Scott and I had been cracking each other up. Tess' comment made us laugh even more. May the three of us always remember that moment.

Lesson Taught:
While working on the school bottle cap art project, Tess led her group in designing the bottle cap lay out of a flower. The visiting artist suggested they use a few larger size caps. Tess and her group did not like the idea.I suggested they tell the artist they would like the original design. Tess responded "no, that's arguing". I explained that stating your position respectfully is not arguing. With encouragement, Tess stated her position to the artist who said they could leave the design since they had a reason for creating it as they did.

Lesson Practiced:
Tess wanted to spend Saturday night at a friend's house. I said no because she had been with friends since Friday after school. She called back later and said "I'm not arguing with you, I just want to know why I can't stay." I explained and told her to be home by 8:00. When I picked her up, she asked me to explain it in different words. I did so. A few minutes later she came up with more reasons she should have been allowed to stay.

All The Fabulous:

• All of the discussion occurred in what we call our "regular" voice.
• It was not an argument, it was a discussion.
• I got to see a life lesson played out in front of me. Wow.
• My daughter is learning to be respectfully assertive. Wow.

One of my soapboxes is the need for educational institutions to teach smart use of social networking. Fabulous - Apollo Career Center's Digital Citizenship Day.

I received 3 vegetarian cookbooks for Christmas. Already, these cookbooks are helping me to figure out healthy and yummy meals based upon ingredients in my kitchen. I call them experimental dinners. By using what I have, I'm more likely to try recipes that I'd otherwise skip over. Fabulous!