Well, this week Ryan has been gone. This has left all of the discipline up to me. Ryan had to leave at the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning. Because he isn't really good at being quiet, he woke little Salem up as he was getting ready. I love my guy, and this is in no way complaining, because I wouldn't change him, but he does everything in a big way. He walks loudly, talks loudly, and he laughs loudly. What can I say? He lives large, works hard, and does everything to the extreme. Anyhow Salem got up so early, and then didn't nap very well during the day. She likes me to sit and hold her while she sleeps, and most days, I just cannot do that all day. Needless to say, by bedtime, she was exhausted and crabby. I got her to sleep in no time. In fact, everyone seemed to be settling in nicely. We had had our scripture study, and people were going to bed nicely and quietly. I began drifting off myself, when I heard a huge ruckus downstairs. Complete with name calling, shrieking, and slamming doors. I groggily came staggering down the stairs to find Rooshkie and Oak engaged in a huge fight. Oak was so upset he was bawling and shaking. Jazz, thankfully had witnessed the fight and told me what was going on. Apparently, Oak had drawn something that he was very proud of. Jerusha had sat down and drawn on top of his drawing. Naturally, this made him mad, and she just proceeded to tell him that his drawing was horrible and didn't matter anyway. This little fight has been building for awhile. She has been embarrassed by Oak and his appearance on the bus, and has called him a Hobo in front of her friends. In her defense, I am sure that he has insulted her back, and her friends just for good measure. Anyhow...all of the pent up anger came out when she insulted his drawing. According to Jazz, he kicked her, and she slapped him across the face. After the slap he picked up a chair. According to Jerusha he was planning on throwing the chair at her, but according to Oak, he was merely planning on poking her in the eye with the chair. Either which way...the chair was not a good idea. Luckily I intervened at that moment. (How do you poke someone in the eye with a chair?) Anyhow, I grounded them both, tried to calm them both down and sent them to bed. Oak didn't seem to care either way about the grounding. He was still seething about her insults. Rooshkie, however was very upset about the grounding. What if my friends call? She kept asking..."too bad if they do" I kept telling her.
Well, the next day rolls around and about the time that school is getting out, I get a friendly phone call from Rooshkie. "Hey Mom, you need to come and get us because we are all going to come to the house and go swimming." Of course, it took me a moment to process that information and to remember that she was grounded. When I tried to remind her of this she just brushed it aside and explained that she had thought of all of that and was prepared to serve out her sentence tomorrow...so no problems right? When I tried to tell her no, she basically told me that it had all been arranged with her friends and their parents. They had their swimming suits, and were all geared up to come and swim in our water trough. Somehow as they all swam and splashed, I knew that I had been fast talked and duped to a large degree. She swore up and down, that she would not only be grounded the next day, but would also clean up the whole basement and their party. I still felt and feel fast talked and duped by my Rooshkie. Today as she has had to clean and be grounded, there has been a lot of wails and bawling...but hey, at least I made her serve out her sentence.
Another example...the other morning, I was up banging around the kitchen, fixing breakfast, and packing lunches for the kids. Mo came staggering in and wanted me to hold him. I did for a short time, but the clock was ticking, and I needed a lunch for the elementary kids. Because Ryan was gone, we were just having cereal. I pulled out some sandwich stuff and some Doritos to go in their lunch. Mo spotted the chips and began demanding some. I offered to cook him an egg, or make him a piece of toast. He just kept insisting on "Weedos" Finally I knew that the weedos weren't going to do lasting damage, and that I just didn't have it in me to fight him on the issue. There's got to be some cheese and wheat in the weedos right? Something good...aren't we supposed to look for the good? Anyhow, yep, he had a cup o weedos for breakfast. This made him happy and made his breath weedowy for the rest of the morning.
Another thing Mo did that made me frown...he tried to make himself a treat out of a cube of butter and a half cup of sugar. He combined the two and mixed them up a bit. He then began eating his concoction. Chlo came tattling, but at the moment I was busy and figured hey, all he has is the makings of cookies really. I found his abandonded treat the next morning, and have been guiltily trying to utilize it all week. I cooked Ryan's French toast in it and I have made cinnamon toast with it....maybe Mo is onto something.
The other day, I noticed that Mo and Chlo had been awfully quiet for awhile. I finally crept down the stairs to try to eavesdrop on their activities. I finally opened the bathroom door to be about knocked over by a rush of incompatible fragrances. It smelled heavily of perfume in the air. I guess that they were dumping all kinds of mixtures of perfumes into the toilet. This was making Mo all sorts of happy. In fact, when I caught them, he seemed kinda proud of their activites. Chlo was sheepish, but Mo was quite enthused about what they had been doing. When I had to run in to town to pick up Jams and do a little shopping their fragrance was quite overwhelming...obviously they had gotten the girls' perfume all over themselves too.
Mo has also been impatient during prayer times this week...whenever someone is praying, he will just cut whoever it is off with a loud and boisterous AMEN!!!! This is supposed to end the prayer so that we can eat, or go to bed etc. Needless to say, I really want him to learn to be more reverent. He has been saying most of the prayers so that he can control their length, but when anyone else says it...they get cut off with a rude and loud Amen.
Salem has acted and felt much better this week, I can tell. She is crawling and climbing, and pulling herself up to things. She is quite happy for the most part. The other night, when it was bedtime, she got quite upset and impatient. She was crying loudly in Jazzerz arms, when Oak came up and was snapping rapidly in her face. While he snapped he would say "Daddy's girl" loudly over and over. This seemed to calm her down for some unknown reason. It kinda reminds me of the time that he would try to calm Mo by saying "Tico Taco yah, yah, yah" over and over.
Another example of my weak parenting...Mo likes to come with me to pick up Jamie everyday...I tell him no everyday, and yet he comes begging and bawling every day, and I always give in. Usually I don't want to bring him because well, he is usually scantily clad. Today he bawled and of course, I gave in. He came and had to have a frozen yogurt when I stopped at the health food store. He fell asleep in the melting frozen yogurt. When I stopped, he had become fused to the seat in a small pool of frozen yogurt and I had to peel him off. Then I wonder why he wants to come...he gets a treat for going against my wishes.
Jams also got a party going at Bunker's pond the other day. It was a little cold still, but the kids did last in there for a little while. We had a few of the Lee kids come too, and a good time was had by all. Mo was even brave enough to go down the slide. Chlo was taken over to the trampoline by a very nice Saggers, and Salem was also treated to some splashing thanks to my Sags.
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