That bad eh?

Wow. Have I fallen off the face of the earth or WHAT?!? What can I say. I'm busy. I've had my dad come out to see us, enjoyed a week of Jasper time only to be followed by the week from H-E-double hockey sticks all in the month of April. Yeah. I'm bizay.  And yeah, last week really was that bad.

Let's start with the day my children lost any trust I had in them. While enjoying some time with my dear friend, we'll call her "Liz", I did my best to keep up on those little ones who love to play and explore so much. Well, they pushed the boundaries a little when they 1) got into the pantry several times without permission, 2) tried to and later succeeded in sneaking food upstairs (at least it was some healthy fresh fruit), 3) injured their friends over at our house (biting & hitting were the culprits... or was it kicking...), 3) filled the wooden box for the blocks with water (Varick=2, Kai=1), 4) went into the room WHILE the baby was asleep--grrrrrr--and woke him up, 5) tore apart the house looking for a stuffed animal, 6) didn't clean up after their toy mess after NUMEROUS courteous requests from yours truly... okay, actually there's more but it's becoming painful reliving the chaos. I think I can feel my butt cheeks clenching a leeeetle too tightly... Anywho, you get the idea.

I pretty much had a meltdown eventually, I really couldn't handle it after all that (oh, and that was just the morning.). After Jasper got home, I rehashed everything that had happened and even HE felt my pain. The next day I tried to chalk it up to hormones, but even he said, "No, I think ANYONE would have felt that way after all that." Now THAT's what I love about my husband. That's a keeper right there. Talk about validation! :)

The rest of the week has been working on our obedience skills (okay, that makes me sounds like a dog trainer more than a mother...). Mommy asks nicely, gives them a chance to do it themselves, sometimes I have to add the "now" in there if it's of a timely nature, and if it doesn't happen, then the parentallly inflicted consequences follow. Now bear in mind this: I've recently read a book that totally blows traditional parenting as America knows it completely out of the water. If only I really knew how to implement that with my small children, and keep it in line with what I personally believe to be true. Insight welcome.

Oh for goodness sakes. I've got to get to bed and I've only talked about the bad stuff. Okay, on a good note: yesterday's family photo shoot was such a delightful experience! There were two parents present. Correlation? I think sp. And I still love my adorable children, even if they said to heck with the consequences all last week. :)