Day 2: Pull the Trigger

     First off, for those of you who expressed your ability to relate, please know that I will be praying especially for you during this month.
     My first challenge came just hours after my blog post about abstaining from yelling for one month. My two year old caught her foot on a half-full bowl of ramen noodles while exiting her booster seat spilling broth and noodles all over herself, the booster, the chair underneath the booster and the floor (what her foot was doing on the table is mysterious to me). My initial reaction wasn't anger, just that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you realize more work has been added to your already busy schedule.  I did raise my voice as I yelled out, "No, Addy, Stop! Your foot is caught!" My oldest insisted that it didn't count against me since I didn't sound angry, but I felt like a failure anyway. Yesterday a similar situation happened when I was mixing my alfredo sauce, and my two year old informed me that she'd had an accident.  Yes, she's been interested in potty training lately which adds a lovely new dimemsion to my challenge. I felt sick to my stomach, and again dreaded the clean-up. I ended up asking my oldest to stir the sauce while I did a quick change of my little one. Surprise accidents  are triggers. My pulse raced, and my stomach tightened. Not good!
     I know that trying to be somewhere on time like appointments or classes are another trigger for my temper, so getting everyone out the door on time to art class/Bible study was a challenge this morning...however, there was no yelling this morning. This was one small victory for me...I was 5 minutes late though, so it felt like a really small victory.
      Whining children is another trigger for me to yell. Really this could be reduced, but most of the time I feel overwhelmed and choose to "discipline" with my voice. This trigger is really the only one I can control out of these three through consistently discouraging the behavior.The past two days, I've been trying to work beyond my pregnant brain and whisper a prayer for inspiration.  For my youngest two it has meant a lot of time outs, and loss of toys or privileges. Yesterday, my oldest was complaining about the amount of math (which wasn't more than usual), so she was assigned extra problems.  This got the point across plus it was educationally beneficial. Bonus!
    So for those of you joining me on my challenge, what is working for you? What are your triggers? Please help me out and put it in the comments below.