You made a what?

I commented to Elsie last night how nice the living room looked after Micah had cleaned it.

"And I didn't even ask him," I added. "That's part of my pledge to be nice - to not be so bossy."

Micah stopped dribbling his nerf ball and laughed. "You actually made a pledge to be nice?"

I told him that yes, in fact, I had.

"You're really not that bad," commented Elsie and Micah agreed.

Still, this pledge-to-be-nice experience has proven something. When you set your mind to do something, you can actually do it!

I feel so much less stressed, less frustrated and just all around more pleasant since I promised myself to committ to being nice, encouraging and using my words and actions to edify.

Not that it hasn't been easy! There have been times I've literally had to bite my tongue from a quick, cutting response and even once I told mom, "I have something rude I want to say so bad...but I'm not." And I didn't.

So here's to day three of being nce. Of letting Micah decide whether to put the score on his sixes or twos in Yahtzee and telling my mom what I think but doing it graciously.

It's possible. It really is.