Spiderman

Conversation At Dinner

(Adam and Rachel under the table) Adam: Don't touch it. It is dead.
Me: What are you guys doing?
Adam: Looking at something dead.

More 6th Grade Drama

Ruth came from school yesterday and said, "Hannah is mad at me because I played football with Megan at recess instead of playing with her. I asked her to play football with us, but she did not want to." Still Ruth and Kate went to the park with Hannah for 1 1/2 hours after school. When they got home from the park, Ruth said, "Kate and Hannah ditched me." Kate explained, "Hannah is mad at Ruth for playing football at recess. So she asked me to walk with her to her house to ask her mom if all three of us could play inside her house." Ruth responded, "I don't care. I like playing football. One boy gave me a compliment. He said, 'you are a good football player.' I think he thought this was my first time." Then everybody was happy again and we went on with our day.

Things About Kate

1.  A New Rule For Kate: Instead of saying, "No offense but..." Kate is now required to say, "excuse me, but I am about to say something very rude," or, "I hope you don't mind, but I am going to insult you now."
2. Kate's Story About Her Dad: While we were talking about all of the great icecream places that are not in Utah, Kate said, "Once when I was out with Dad, I said, 'I am hungry.' Dad said, 'me too.' Then we both looked up and there was Braum's drive thru. Dad pulled in and got me a great big double decker icecream cone. That was the best day."
3. Kate loves her fifth grade teacher and has been begging to make her teacher some brownies. Last night, I finally had time to let Kate do this. This morning while we were cutting and packing up the brownies for her teacher, Kate started singing, "I am so excited-- I made brownies for my teacher." Kate gave her teacher the whole pan too. Kate said that her teacher has a husband and three boys, so she needs a LOT of brownies.
   

A Good Reason To Be Angry

Johnny and Adam have been throwing rocks at each other for a game or a fight-- that we are not sure about. But we only found about this daily rock throwing event when they broke a window to our basement. Adam happened to be the unlucky fellow who threw the offending rock. (Should we feel blessed because they got our window and not some one else's window or car?) This happened when I was at the Temple and John was babysitting all seven kids. (And just to add to the stress for John, Rachel, Joseph, and Anya were crying non-stop the three hours I was away.)

When I got home and heard the story, I asked John if he had spanked Adam. John said he was too mad and did not dare touch him. So I grounded Adam and Johnny. Johnny is grounded for 2 weeks for disobeying about rock throwing. I think that a broken window has taught Johnny a lesson on why we do not throw rocks. However, I doubt Adam had learned not to throw rocks just because some glass broke. So Adam is grounded until he learns to make good choices. (That make take a year). They are grounded from playing out front or at the park unless a parent is with them.

Well today we had the glass company come over for an estimate to repair the broken window. It is going to cost $135.  I told this Johnny when he got home from school. Johnny all but laughed and said, "That is cheaper than a DS." I said that it is still a lot of money and a lot of damage repair. Johnny then said, "But you were willing to buy a DS so I know that you can handle this." I think I can officially label Johnny as a booger, and I feel justifiably angry and secretly glad that it is not costing us $500.

OCD and Housework

There are a few house-work items that I know I obsess about to the point of it being clinical. I really hate dirty floors. I do not know why, I think partially because I like to go around barefoot, but it is more than that too. I really hate floors that look dirty too. Currently, we have a white wood laminate kitchen floor. So if anything is on the floor, including a spot of water, the floor looks dirty. I used to do a hands and knees scrub of our kitchen and dining room floors weekly and religiously back in Wichita. That seemed to keep the floor pretty clean. I did not feel anxious about it until six days after I had washed it. With a white floor, that is not the case. It looks dirty almost all of the time. So I bought a wet-jet mop. I now do a hands and knees scrub weekly, plus, I mop the floor an additional once or twice a day. I am trying to forgo mopping on Sundays, but that has been hard for me.

On the other hand, in Wichita, we had whitish carpets. I would vacuum the high traffic areas daily. Here we have gray carpets in the upstairs bedrooms, and a shag every color of dirt carpet through out the down stairs. You just cannot tell when those carpets need vacuuming. I love that. I still vacuum them on schedule, so I know they are clean. But it doesn't stress me out so much to be a day late on vacuuming.

I also cannot stand dirty bathrooms. The other night I scrubbed our bathtub three times in a row before I felt like it was shiny and clean enough. I do not let John clean the bathrooms at all, and I check up on Ruth, Kate, and Johnny to see if they have cleaned them to my satisfaction before letting them off the hook. In fact, I still have not let any of my kids clean inside the toilets or the bathtubs. I know that I need to let this go some, so my kids can learn to clean and take care of things. But I think that will be hard for me to do. I can see myself telling the kids to clean the bathroom and then redoing it when they are not here and not telling them. (Is that okay?)

I do allow for some clutter. I do not like it, but I like the battles even less. I am also really bad at keeping my refrigerator clean. I hate that chore enough that I find a messy refrigerator more tolerable to a point. I know you are really suppose to clean those once a month, but I think I make it only 4 times a year. I actually have to do that chore now. I do not think it can be put off for another whole week.

Still concerning housework, I often find myself sighing and thinking, "I need a vacation from housework." But that never happens. I still have to clean and do laundry and dishes, and make food, etc.. even when we are on vacation. It never goes away. The floors and toilets still get dirty, the laundry and dishes pile up quickly, the house gets dusty and cluttered. It just keeps going and going and going...so I guess I will keep obsessing over the floors and bathrooms and grumbling about the dishes and the fact the refrigerator is dirty already, and even though I just did 7 loads of laundry I already have three more.

Rachel's bedtime prayer

Rachels prayer, done by herself, was quite cute:
"Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, Thank you that families can be together. Amen."