The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I think I've experienced it all today, the good, the bad and the ugly. Thankfully I can say most of it was good. However I had to be the bad mommy at one point and one of my kids missed out on McDonalds. It all started after school when Tristan got home. I told him yesterday that the yard needed mowed and we decided together that it would be his responsibility while daddy is gone. He didn't have any homework so he got to it right away. I pulled out the weed eatter and did that part of the job. I'm a little hesitant about that part because I'm worried I'll cut my toes off and I certainly don't want my son to cut his off, so I'd rather do it myself. That's just one of those irrational fears I have. Overprotective, maybe, but my son isn't going to lose his toes to a weed eatter. hehe I was happy to have the help with the yard and he did a good job aside from me having to remind him that he wasn't done every time he came in for a drink and ended up on the couch. Nice try Tristan, but not happening. When the back yard was done I went out front to trim my hibiscus. The yard maintenance people have learned not to cut them without asking, I use to keep a sign on them, but that's no longer necessary. Anyhow, they were getting way to tall and out of control so it was time for a trimming. Syd grabbed a rake and raked up all the trimmings. Then she helped me pile them into a trashbag. Shay had a lot of homework so she spent her time doing that.

Since they were all getting along and being so helpful I decided they deserved a treat. I told them to all get ready to go. Right away I got the "where are we going" feedback. That would be okay if it were simply a question and my answer of, "it's a surprise" was sufficient enough. I let it slide and finally got them to understand I was not telling them until we got there. As we walked to the car I noticed the lawn mower was still out so I told Tristan he needed to put it away. I got the annoying loud sigh along with the, "why do I always have to do everything". I explained that he used the mower so it's his responsibility to put it away. It's not like it was that big of a deal to push it into the garage anyways. He got mad because he had to move a couple bikes over for it to fit back in. He pushed them out of the way with the mower and knocked them all over. I was not happy that his bad attitude made all our new bikes crash over. I told him to pick them up and lose the attitude which only elevated his attitude. Long story short, he was told to get back in the house to stay home. I was not taking Mr. Attitude anywhere. I wanted to have a good time and was not dealing with all of that. The girls and I headed to McDonalds for dinner and ice cream. We weren't gone long, but apparently it was long enough for Tristan to get himself in check. Also long enough for him to make quesadillas for himself so he didn't starve. I brought him home apple pies because I was proud of him for helping me in the yard, and he at least deserved something for helping. I do believe I got my point across. I doubt there's any fussing next time I say we're going out for a surprise.

I have to admit that it's partly my fault that they think they can get by with acting ugly. I'm the mom that acts in the heat of the moment and blurts out punishment that I know good and well isn't going to happen. I mean it when I say it, but it's not realistic so I don't follow through. That's changing and they don't like it. It's working though and they're finally starting to realize that even if I blurt out a punishment I'm going to follow through, even if it's not very realistic. I too am learning to keep my cool a little better so my punishments are more realistic, most of the time anyways. It sure would have been nice for God to include a manual with each child, pertaining to that child specifically. HeHe

I haven't had much chance to talk with my husband lately so this morning I decided to take my chances of his phone being on and I called him. I didn't care what the cost would be. I've wanted to talk to him for several days and rationalized the huge phonebill that it would incur and decided against the call. I was done waiting by this morning and called anyways. After two rings he answered the phone. What a great sound. I really wasn't expecting him to answer. It turns out that two of the phone cards he bought only had a few minutes on them when they were suppose to have 40 minutes each and they had been on blackout for the past couple days. He couldn't have called if he wanted to. There was no way to do anything about the cards because the people selling them weren't allowed inside the wire because of recent happenings. They did however get the internet hooked up in their rooms finally. All but the people that were on a mission while they were running the wires. Of course that would include my husband. When I called he was working on getting ahold of the people to run his wires, but he'd been trying to catch them for two hours with no luck. I really hope they get it done soon because he's already paid for the month and it's not cheap so we will not be happy if he paid for the month and didn't even get his money's worth. I just don't get why they even have to pay for the internet. They have a place they can go and use it for free, however the line is 2 hours long and they don't have cams. When they don't get much time to sleep as it is, 2 hours to wait in line just isn't doable. Plus what's the point when the advantage of internet is so that we can see each other and they don't even have cams. We'll all pay the price because seeing each other and having that kind of contact and communication is worth it, but it sure would be nice if they could be so kind as to provide something so important to our soldiers moral without the high cost. Such is life I suppose.

There will always be those things that we just don't understand and that don't make sense to us. We just have to remember that there's always some sort of lesson that can come from every experience. God just wants to make us stronger so He allows trials in our lives to push us to be stronger. If everything was ribbons and roses we would have no need to seek God's guidance. Let me tell you, I've been seeking a lot lately. But let me also add that the more I seek the closer I feel to God. He always reassures me that things will work out in the end and that He's always on my side. Whether it's a good day, a bad day, or an ugly day, in the end it all turns out for the good. As Dawn O'brien on 95.5 The Fish says, "Tough times don't last, tough people do".