Congratulations! You are grounded!!

I have been a parent for 23 years.  In that time, I have had disorganized ideas of discipline.  Some things stuck, some ideas didn't.  I am not a huge fan of spankings, but believe me, I have delivered my share.  I like the idea of timeout, but really, I think I might be the only one who benefits from those.  Now that the littles are older, I have implemented grounding all over again.  That always worked with J.  Not so much with H.  H wasn't into TV or computers or games, so what was I grounding her from?  Not much. With J, I always unhooked the PS2 or the Xbox 360 and the TV until he earned it back. With the littles, for some reason I had a hard time making it stick.  Or I could never come up with the right amount of time.  

After perusing the Internet for summer fun a month or so ago, I ran across this little goodie:  Grounded??  I immediately got started on my own list.  I copied some from her list, used some from her list with different point values, and came up with some items of my own.  I know this list is a work in progress, for example, I am thinking I really don't want my 5 year old to fix dinner for us by himself or do a load of laundry from start to finish.  

I debated whether to have them earn 500 points.  It seemed too easy.  But really it isn't as easy as one would think.  Just because I would rack up thousands of points a day doesn't mean it is easy enough for the littles to do it.  However, this is discipline, a punishment for not-okay behavior.  It shouldn't be easy.  So I am going to go ahead and stick with 500 points for now.  They still have to do their regular chores - straighten up their room, pick up their toys, etc.  These are in addition.

A is already up to 140 points since this morning.  I now have empty trashcans, 2 clean toilets, the living room/dining room dusted, and a sweet note (even if she wrote it to get points).  

Oh my goodness.  I am not going to lie.  This is my new method of discipline.  A clean house?  Yes, please. I kinda hope they get grounded every week.  (jk, really, I promise...)

I'm bored

Oh my goodness.  I love snow.  I really do.  I am a winter baby.  Love it.  Love Fall.  Fave time of the year is from September through February.  Without a doubt.  But old man winter is playing a joke on me this year.  Kind of like ~ watch what you wish for, I'm gonna give it to you in spades.  We have had more snow than I can remember in recent history, except maybe during that blizzard a couple of years ago.  We have also had the coldest temps I can remember.  And school was canceled a time or two in January.  Then four or five days in February.

I love my kids.  They are some precious little people.  I do realize that I was blessed abundantly by four kids who want to be good all the time and who truly understand the Bible or are striving to.  So let me just lay that out there.  I know I am blessed.  I know they are good.

I also know that I have two chatty-Cathy's living under my roof.  Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, blah, blah, blah, talk, talk.  All day long.  Sometimes loudly.  Sometimes quietly.  Sometimes to me, sometimes about me.  Before you get all "Gee, I wonder where they get it", yeah, I know, their DAD talks a lot too.  Okay, and maybe me too.  But still.  

Almost two years ago I made everyone downsize from the too-big-for-us-but-we-are-filling-it-up house to a way small one.  Did you know that when there is a snow day and they can't go outside, that our way small house is SMALLER?  Especially when mama is exhausted because she doesn't know how to sleep anymore?  Try four snow days and two weekend days in a 7 day period of time?  At one point I told A "Only boring people are bored.  Go to your room and use your imagination."  This is what she came up with.

After one of those many February snow days, I decided I was going to finally get around to doing an I'm bored jar that I had done research on.  The template I liked best I found at Shabby Beach Nest.  I read through her ideas and some could work and some couldn't.  I am so thankful she left some blank ones.  I thought up more of my own and included those.  So I worked on them.  They are done.  Now maybe there won't be so many "Mama, I'm bored" convos.  I am super excited to start using them with my kiddos.  And I made them just in time for the RiDiCuLoUs amount of snow they predicted for that next weekend (which didn't materialize).  Don't fret ~ there are some chores in there too.  Ha ha, you're bored?  It is called Idea Roulette {I'm so darn clever}.  You can't figure out how to use your imagination?  I'll help you.  Got a chore?  Too bad.  

Yeah, I'm mean like that.  But I bet a time or two of getting a chore will help encourage and grow the imaginations.

Love it.  

One off the bucket list - Catering

Well, I took a weekend break from purging my house of trash and excess material goods.  Not because I needed a break - I need to purge!  But I, in all of my infinite wisdom, felt the need a couple of weeks ago to say yes.  I am learning that is a huge problem of mine.  Don't get me wrong, I am glad I said yes.  It was fun, that thing I said yes to.

Two weeks ago some lovely people whom I greatly adore asked me if I like to cook.  "Depends on what it is" was my reply.  They then asked if I could cook for 14.  I stood there and thought about it.  I used to have friends and neighbors over when I lived at Lake Carmel, there was often 14-ish there.  I have a family of six that eat like a family of 10 sometimes.  "Would you consider catering our dinner on January 19?"  Surely I could handle 14.  So I told them I would talk to Michael about it. 

Michael, as usual, had no objections.  I think he was dumbfounded that someone would PAY me to feed them.  So often in my house, these people would pay someone to eat my food FOR them, rather than eat it themselves.  I think he just wanted to see if it would really happen.  I don't know what he was thinking.

So I pretended and prepared and planned and shopped.  The number to feed went from 14 to 12.  Then the big day came.  I got up and worked at the food pantry as we usually do on the third Saturday each month.  I was chill.  Relaxed.  It was all under control.  When we were done at the food pantry, I came home and started on the green beans and the rolls.  Then relaxed.  And cleaned a little.  The issue of plates and silverware and glasses ~ which should I use??~ slowly rolling around in my head.  Then my mother left around 3 and I thought perhaps I should start on the turkey.  At 4, with two hours left and just salad and mashed potatoes to go, Hayley and I calmly drove to the place we would be serving dinner.  I cannot even begin to tell you the calm before the storm.  I thought it was strange that I was so calm.  It was so unlike me.

Then we walked in and panic hit like it can only hit me.  For those of you that know me, I can add drama to an anthill.  To quote one of my fave tv moms, Amy Duncan, "buh-bam!"  Panic hit me and I came totally close to an absolute breakdown.  I could NOT serve paper plates in that beautiful setting!!!  I had to break out my grandmother's china and my crystal glasses that hadn't been touched in 15 years!  But what to do about silverware... I simply did not have enough.  Hayley and I sped to church and it was locked!  We called two of the pastors who were there and neither answered the phone.  About that time, an unsuspecting family was walking out the door and we started waving like crazy women, hoping they wouldn't let the door shut.  They stood there staring at us like we had lost our minds, but the nicely held the door.  We rushed to the kitchen and were counting out spoons when we were "busted" by one of the pastors.  We asked permission to borrow silverware, but honestly it is possible he was afraid what would happen if he said no to the two wild-haired, crazy eyed women before him.

We grabbed the silverware and took off for home.  Hayley unpacked and washed all the china while I cut up potatoes and secretly cursed that I had waited til 4:30 to start.  Potatoes cooking, I started the salad.  And do you know the ONLY person freaking out in the house was me?  Hayley was talking on the phone with DCP, acting like she hadn't seen him in a month and a half or talked to him for two weeks...as if.  Ha. (because both of those are right...).  Michael was wisely nowhere to be found.  I have no idea if there were other kids in my house at that point because I was ridiculously a spazz. 

At 5:30, everything was ready to get packed into the van and taken over to the site of the dinner.  On my way out the door, I was literally changing my shirt so I looked a little more presentable.  Once there, Hayley and Michael set the table, I finished the salad by putting the fruit, cheese, and salad dressing on and finished the gravy.  There was no place to do a buffet though, so we served up the food family style.  At 6:03, the family was seated (only 3 minutes late).  We made sure everyone was served and Hayley provided the entertainment by sharing details of her Senegal trip.

No one was acting like I poisoned the food.  No one choked, no one gagged.  We re-filled drink glasses, chatted with our friends, and acted like two charming hostesses.  At least that is what I keep telling myself.  By end of the meal, there were leftovers, except potatoes.  I didn't go with my gut instinct so ran out of potatoes.  But they survived.  Clean-up was a piece of cake there.  We loaded everything up and took it home to clean.  Took us like maybe 10 minutes. 

I have a few things to say to finish this up.

1. Hayley and Michael are two incredibly brave and wonderful people to not only tolerate my brilliant ideas but to go along with the flow, even in the midst of my madness.

2. That was fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3.  Now that I have crossed catering off my bucket list, I don't want to do it again.  I'll leave the catering to the professionals.

But that is okay.  It is just a matter of time until I come up with another off the wall idea and the party starts all over.

So if you lack drama in your life, cater to another family and make sure you start the potatoes late.  Nothing creates drama like too much to do and little time to do it and a last minute change in plans. 

Seriously, love those people and had a blast. 

Peace out.

~Rachel