When you’re begging to be sent to timeout

September 10, 2014 By

We’ve had a roller-coaster history with timeout.

During Hadley’s obstinate stage (ages 18 months-4 years) it was her second home. What a lovely dwelling that corner by the laundry room has become since we added Fat Kitty’s kitty littler box to the mix four years ago.

Talk about the ultimate punishment.

Since Bode is Mr. “Do What Is Right,” he didn’t have any marathon sessions in timeout but on the rare occasion he landed in the Corner of Shame, he was so broken about disobeying us that he would just sob.  Have you ever tried to discipline a sensitive kid? Trust me, you come out feeling like you’re the bad guy.

We really haven’t used timeout as punishment in a really long while because, for the most part, both kids are pretty well-behaved and there are certainly more effective ways of disciplining them as they grow older.

The other day, Hadley did something mean to Bode and instinctively, I ordered her to timeout. You know, for old time’s sake.

Timeout?” she scoffed. “Aren’t I a little bit old for timeout?”

“You’re right, you just lost technology time.”

“I take it back. Timeout sounds just fine.”

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor

The bright side of being a slob

September 9, 2014 By

Blurry Bode trying to keep me from taking a picture of his messy room.

For the most part, we keep our house tidy.

However, encouraging the kids to keep their rooms clean is a losing battle with the exception of making their beds, which they’re pretty good at doing most of the time.

Their actual rooms are another matter. Bode is the messiest and isn’t allowed to have any technology time until his homework is done and room is clean. This works great in the summer when I’m more lax on our schedule but during the school year, I only let him play video games twice a week.

Which means his room is only clean for a very small window twice a week.

The other night as I was putting him to bed, I commented on his messy room.

He carefully looked around, shrugged his shoulders and said, “At least you have a pathway to my bed.”

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

Our New Tradition: Labor Day Pancake Contest Eating Party!

September 7, 2014 By

I love throwing parties. It really started years ago with our annual pumpkin party and has grown to dinner groups, 4th of July bashes and then a few weeks ago, Hadley and Bode convinced me to invite a bunch of their church friends over for a night of movies, pizza and ghosts in the graveyard.

For Labor Day, the kids and I thought it would be fun to get some people together to do a pancake-eating-contest-breakfast so sent an email to some families to see if they were in town. Most of them were and so our house was flooded with eight Mormon families. If you’ve seen ‘em you know they have a lot of kids, which translates into a lot of fun.

Pancake Par-tay

 

Some of the men-folk

The women-folk

Last fall, the kids participated in their first pie-eating contest. Though the experience was hilarious, eating an entire pie was over-the-top so we thought doing the same challenge with a few pancakes would be a lot more feasible.

Here’s my sordid history with pancake-eating. When I was a wee Canadian lassie, my two brothers and I were very competitive. Oh wait, nothing has changed. So, one Saturday we challenged each other to a contest to see who could the most pancakes. For once in my life, I dominated, even beating out my brother who was four years my senior. I don’t remember how many I ate.

But I do remember how many I threw up afterward and it was All. Of. Them.

No lie: I couldn’t eat pancakes for 10 years after that.

For our First Annual Labor Day Pancake Contest Eating Party, the ladies went first. Yes, you will note my daughter is the only one who chose not to cover up her clothes.

Apparently, her strategy worked because she won.

Though I’m not sure if she looked like a winner.#She’sGonnaBlow

I had high hopes for the boys. Bode has an awesome group of friends so imagine my shock/dismay when I learned several of them had already started eating and didn’t want to participate.

“I prefer to eat with a fork,” said his friend Noah. What 8-year-old boy even says that?

I practically had to drag the few remaining boys down there but they sure loved it once they dove in.

Though Bode put in a good effort, his friend Carson barely beat him and even had a smile on his face doing it.

We had an all-you can-eat category and my friend Eva’s teen Rory dominated by eating something like 17 pancakes. Sadly, I did not photograph the evidence, probably because he was passed out in a corner somewhere.

We have invited a new family in our ward to several of our recent fetes and the father Craig commented to me how cool it was that we regularly open up our home as a place for all these people to come together for fun and chaos. “The party people” he called us, which kind of took me aback because it’s what we’ve always done. Growing up, my parents made our home into the place where our friends would congregate and it’s funny because Jamie once received a similar blessing that our home would be a “happy place, where our children love to bring their friends.”

I responded to Craig that it was important for me to have my kids build relationships with their church friends and I wanted to provide many extracurricular opportunities for them to have good, clean fun. I had fabulous neighborhood friends growing up and I’m still close with all of them. But during the teenager years, like many teens, they experimented with a lot of wild things and being the designated driver grew tiresome. Of course, I want my kids to have friends in all walks of life but there’s nothing like having friends who share your same morals and values.

Like stuffing your face with pancakes.

 

Filed Under: holidays, LDS

When the boy becomes a Cub

September 4, 2014 By

Scouting is in my blood. For years, my dad was our ward’s Cub Scout leader and I saw him camp with those boys, teach them to start fires, tie knots and everything under the sun. I desperately wanted to be a Boy Scout but there was a problem: I was a girl. And so I signed up to be a Brownie, fully expecting to have have the some rough ‘n tumble adventures as those boys.

Oh, how wrong I was.  I don’t think we went on any backcountry activities–in fact, we never even left the school stage where it was held. All I can remember was being required to wear ridiculously short brown dresses as our uniform, singing cheesy songs and skipping around in a circle.

Suffice it to say, I was a Brownie dropout after one year.

Upon turning 8, Bode reached a rite of passage in the church: he became a Wolf. We have a great Scouting tradition in our ward–in fact, most of my friends’ sons have achieved their rank of Eagle and are some of the most stalwart young men I know. I made Bode pose on his first day, telling him we’d share that picture in his slide show when he became an Eagle Scout.

“But Mom, we don’t know if I’ll become an Eagle.”

If you know anything about Mr. Responsible/goal-setting Bode, you know that once he delves into Scouting that boy will fly.

Their first gathering was a fun pack meeting at the lake on July 31 but his first Den meeting with Sisters Mauger and Phillips (his den leaders) was the following Thursdays when they learned about personal hygiene and household safety. He came home with a checklist of precautions we should be taking, which he took very seriously and proceeded to lecture us in the areas where we were lacking.

Welcome to the next 8+ years of my life.

Most of his besties are in his den, which makes it extra fun but that’s not what it’s all about. As we were thumbing through his Wolf Handbook, we reviewed the 12 achievements he must pass to learn his Wolf badge and I became convinced that every young man should become involved in Scouting as they learn everything from Feats of Skill (physical) to Your Flag to Tools for Fixing and Building to Your Living World to Family Fun to Making Good Choices.

The Boy Scouts of America has gotten so much flack in the media that people have forgotten what it’s all about. As I was waiting in the car one day, I watched a normally rambunctious and wild group of Webelos Scouts (age 10) respectfully learn to raise, lower and fold The Flag.

I was teary-eyed over their reverence…something that is NOT being taught in today’s society.

And coming from a Canuck, that’s really something.

Now, if I can just rope someone into sewing on all his scouting badges….

 

Filed Under: Bode

Happy Back-to-School!

September 2, 2014 By

We had such a fabulous summer that I was dreading school’s schedules and homework. Then I hit the kids-constantly-being-home wall a few days before they went back so the timing was perfect.

Hadley’s school started a few days before Bode. It’s tough to believe that she is in fifth grade.

And that she had a growth spurt and is now a few inches taller than her friends who are all fashionistas. Her friend Fiona even had hashtag-shaped earrings.

Welcome to the tween years.

As for Bode, he is now in third grade.  The nice thing about starting on different days is they each get their own special breakfast and celebration. Hadley asked me to make gingerbread pancakes and Bode wanted doughnuts. Lots of doughnuts.

The best news? He was in school when the sugar crash inevitably came.

Good luck to both of their teachers this year.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley
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