the Princess plan

Yes you are! (Well, there may be some princes reading this, too!) We are in princess training mode in our home. My 8 year old daughter, Anna, loves all things princess. She wants her room in our new house to be decorated as a princess room. She loves to dress as a princess. BUT her current room was atrocious! Since all of her clothing seemed to have disappeared and I was suspecting that her room had "eaten" it, I took a day to clean her half of the room she and her sister share. It was even worse than I suspected! I removed 2 huge packing boxes full of just trash. Most of it just tiny little pieces of nothing. I removed 4 packing boxes of things that just didn't belong in her room: her brother's toys, dishes and other misc stuff. I then packed up most of her belongings. Normally I would have gotten more and more irritated with her as I discovered how poorly she took care of her belongings. But this time I just started feeling bad. I have tried to teach her better, but I am not a tidy organized person either and I suppose she has learned more from my poor actions than my words. :-( As I was sitting on her floor sorting piles into trash, jewelry, and Polly Pocket clothes, an idea hit me. If my daughter wants to be a princess, let her. This really is a biblical concept. As children of God, we are adopted sisters and brothers to Christ, THE Prince of Peace. So, I began forming in my mind the concept of "Princess Training." When I allowed my daughter to come back into her room, it had been cleared out and rearranged. She was thrilled with how it looked and I explained that she was beginning Princess training.

Rule #1
Princesses have nothing on their floor but furniture.

Rule
#2
Princesses don't have clutter around them.

Rule #3
Princesses
keep their bed clean, made, and pretty.

Rule #4
Princesses wear
clean clothes.

Rule #5
Princesses take care of the things that God
has given them.

These are what we are working on right now. More will be added later. As I was thinking about this, I began to look at myself. I am a child of God and a princess too, but I don't hold myself to this higher standard. There is nothing regal about my own work space. It is cluttered and unorganized. It may not be as messy as my daughter's room, but a far cry from a Princess space. So, I am taking this to heart. I need to hold myself and my family to a higher standard because we are representatives of a royal family. We are children of the Almighty King. I would really like to develop this idea a bit further. Obviously, it could work for all of us "girls" in the house, but also my son could go into Prince training. My husband.....Well he may not be real interested in playing along. He still will be MY prince no matter what!