Monday, July 12, 2010

Go On

It was a full weekend here at the Fry household. On Saturday morning we got up bright and early for a garage sale. We pulled out all our stuff, got everything tagged and ready to go and then waited. We had ads on Craigslist and a history of very well visited garage sales - our neighborhood tends to be a popular place for them.  In the past we don't even have to advertise, but when we do it is a sure thing we will see a ton of people.

So we waited. And we waited. And we waited.

And between the hours of 8AM and 12Noon, we had 4 cars stop at our house.

4. Yes, 4.

Was it national anti-garage sale day or something?? I can't even blame the weather; it was actually pretty nice out.

Well, regardless of how few people came, we did get rid of some of the bigger items; the Jumperoo, a couple of ride on toys, the TV... but there was still a lot of stuff left. It really kills me to take all of that to Goodwill. I mean, I know it's a good cause and everything, but to me it feels too much like throwing money away sometimes. Oh well. Here is to more walking space in the house! *clink*

Saturday evening I had a photo shoot for a Senior session and it was really fun. We didn't get eaten by mosquitoes, but I did manage to get some stickers in my shirt and they left a mess of itchy bumps all over my arms. Ah joy.

Sunday was just like any other, except after church we splurged and trekked over to Steak and Shake for lunch. YUM! It was soooo good! The boys did really well and we all left full and happy with a yummy shake in our hands.

The real excitement came though at dinner time. Kiddo wanted to watch some show on TV and Port wanted to watch Cars. Port was being particularly fussy and clingy and I desperately needed some space so I could cook dinner. So I told Kiddo it was Port's turn to choose the show and that we would watch his show in a little bit. Kiddo did not like this one bit and of course threw a fit and got sent to his room.  When we sat down to eat, again he asked to watch the show.

Well, he didn't ask - more like he fussed and whined that he wanted to watch the show. And his constant belly-aching about it was really getting on my nerves.  Hubby finally told him that if he would eat his dinner and not say another word about it, we could watch it. That lasted all of about a minute and a half and once again he was demanding in his whiny voice to watch the show. We told him no, because he hadn't finished his dinner and he didn't do what Daddy said by mentioning it again.  Kiddo of course got very angry and he raised a fist in the air in protest. Stern looks from Hubby and I made him drop his hand and then in a small angry voice, looking straight at us, Kiddo mumbled something.

I wasn't sure what it was so I asked him what he said.  He immediately got wide eyed and suddenly had a huge case of amnesia. He normally only does that when it is something really bad.  So, we prodded and prodded and finally told him that if he didn't fess up he was going to get a spanking for it. Finally he mumbled something again and Hubby repeated what he thought he heard,

"you two are going to house tomorrow??"

I asked again, and Kiddo repeated again in his mumble voice. Hubby replied, "house? did you say house? What does that mean?"

Then I realized what it was. Kiddo was saying "hells"

I expected to go through something like this when the boys are teens, but I never thought I would hear my 5 year old tell me to go to Hell.

*sigh*

So we sent him to his room so that we could cool off and finish our dinner. And while he was there we discussed his punishment.  Saying something like that is not something we were going to take lightly.  I had no idea where he heard that phrase or if he even knew what it meant. Regardless, the boy was getting a serious punishment. I wrote down on a piece of paper all the things the punishment entailed so that Kiddo has a visual reference to go by.  Otherwise, I knew I would be answering a million (more) questions a day about his punishment.  We went in to his room and talked to him, asked him if he knew what he was saying and how serious it was, and surprisingly I think he actually kind of knew.  He didn't realize how big of an impact it would have of course, but I do think he knew exactly what he was saying.

After the punishment was laid out it was time for him to quickly finish up his dinner and then we had to get the boys in the bath.  When trying to get Kiddo in the bathroom, he kept saying he needed to write something down. We put him in the bath with Port and I left for my weekly Musing Mommies meeting with Kim.

When I got home there was a piece of white paper on my desk. On it Kiddo wrote, "Stay home in vacation and rake all day when I'm on vacation! Privileges Lost! Mom & Dad"

Apparently, Kiddo was so mad at us he thought he could write out a punishment for us too. Needless to say this did not go over well, especially since he delivered it by throwing it at Hubby while he was on the computer. :(

What has happened to my child???

His punishment for the week is no privileges (that includes all video games, computer time and even things like leapster and any electronic educational games), no TV time and 2 hours of quiet time each day in the spare room. He can read or sleep, but he has to stay in the room, on the bed for 2 hours and not come out. For writing the note with our punishment on it, he is grounded to his room for 2 days, during which time he will clean and organize it from top to bottom. He is not allowed to come out for anything other than meal times and bathroom breaks.

Hopefully he gets the idea and has some time to reflect on what he did.  He told me he's been doing a lot of praying to God. Good thing. Me too.

Day one of the punishment (the room grounding starts tomorrow) has gone exceptionally well. The TV has stayed off completely, and the boys have argued less today than they normally do. It's been amazingly quiet. They have played TOGETHER!!! quietly in their room most of the day.

Spooky.

I kind of like this punishment thing. lol!

Until,
D :)

2 comments:

Jill said...

Once JM got in big trouble for something and she too wrote us little notes about how we were mean and how nobody liked her...and threw them at us and ran..nope didn't go over well. :-) I was proud in a small way that she was expressing feelings in a new way though. certainly a bright side. ha I love reading about what goes on in your house and knowing I'm not alone! :-)

Denise said...

Hmmm...Been going through the same here except it's been, "you're always bossing me around!", "I'll do it if I want to!", "Daddy's being rude to me"(he was being stern by the way), etc from our 5 1/2 year old here. Think this is a great idea! Might just copy cat you.
I think we moms should pray for each other, too! ;)