NineTEEN!

These are the mugshots of my boys that are on the wall in the Primary room. Pretty pathetic, huh? Don't they look happy to be there? hahaha

So, I haven't been posting much because I was fairly convinced that hardly anybody read it anyway. I guess I judge my traffic by the number of comments. My sister Deanna tells me that she checks this every day, even though she has never commented. Similar story from my mom. So, I will post more often.

Tonight for Family Home War--oh, I mean Family Home Evening--neither of the boys had their stuff prepared, so we decided to postpone until Wednesday (Russ is night-flying tomorrow). Matt was supposed to have the lesson, which I kept offering to help him prepare, but he put off until he was actually supposed to give it. And then he couldn't find what he was looking for (he had made a puzzle on Saturday at the Primary Activity), and it turned into a full scale breakdown. Ethan was soon to follow--so we just put them to bed. Try again later. Usually it goes a little better than this.

Although, one might wonder just what are we teaching our kids when one hears a question like the one Russ heard from 5-year-old Ethan a couple of days ago..."Daddy, do I have to wait until I'm ninety to go on a mission?" NINETY? No, buddy, nineTEEN. Nineteen.

Poor, Poor Sugar

Guess what minor drama we had this morning....All of a sudden we heard this awful, high pitched screaming. It was the cat. Matthew had taken one of my claw hairclips (the kind that are straight, 3 inches long) and stuck it on the cat's leg. Oh boy, she was NOT happy. Every time I got near her to try to get it off, she would hiss, bite and scratch. Finally I had Russ hold her top half in a towel so I could break the clip to get it off. Poor Sugar. I asked Matt later what was going through his head when he did that. Nothing. Of course.

Tonight for Family Home Evening, we sat outside in lawn chairs for the song, prayer and lesson. Then for the activity, we took some kites over to a field nearby and flew them. The boys did pretty well. Lizzie, not so much, but she was tired and ready for bed. I was cranky, because I didn't exercise today. Plus, you will not believe how many times you can tell a child to go get their shoes on and still see them wandering about aimlessly and looking surprised when you remind them. I swear they will not move to action until I yell. I feel like I'm training basics. Only, you're supposed to be nicer to children.

One person's opinion...

Okay, here's something that just happened yesterday. We were all outside painting (except Russ was at work of course). Matthew got mad at me for something--I don't remember what. It doesn't take much with him. He left us and took the dark blue paint and in huge letters he painted on our concrete back porch the words "Mom is an IDIOT". I had to laugh.

He wrote me an apology later in code. It said, "Mom, I'm sorry I wrote "Mom is an idiot". Can you come outside and bounce me [on the trampoline]? If you can't, can I at least have a cookie? Love, Matthew"

You can just see that keen little mind at work. As for the consequence? I put him out there scrubbing at the paint. When he was ready to give up (which didn't take long, mind you), I gave him the option of continuing to scrub until it all came off, or using his allowance money to pay for a special cleaner from Walmart to get it off. He opted to pay for the cleaner. Smart boy.