A L O N G Day...

Ever have one of those days?... My children (minus the baby) are currently on "black out"... terminology and advice that I have picked up from Dr. Ray Guarendi, from the show The Dr. Is In... There is currently a siege going on. Today they were asked to clean their room. It had gotten WAY beyond out of control, and they had consistently ignored our requests to pick it up... Today I told them, no more yelling, no more threats, I was done. I officially called "Black out". No friends, no outside, no TV, no computers or computer type games. They stay in their room until I can see the floor. ALL of the floor, that isn't covered by furniture... They will get three meals, no frills, a day (They got ramen noodles and orange slices with milk for dinner, after I seriously considered bread and water...). They get approximately 15 minutes to eat, no talking during dinner. After dinner they had to clean up their plates, and back to their room, until I got their shower going, at which point they would all rotate in and out and straight to bed. Tomorrow is Church day.

I will readily admit that one of my biggest faults in parenting is "follow through". Sometimes I think I have the worlds most STUBBORN children, though I'm sure that every parent would say the same thing about their own on occassion... The kids don't quite get it, yet... They are in their room, in bed, now, chattering on... "Are we going to grandma's tomorrow?" I respond, "just to stop and pick up some eggs Auntie left over there for us. You aren't even getting out of the car. Grandma has somewhere else to be." "oh..." Maybe it will kick in when we get home in the morning and they are sent right back to their room until breakfast is ready, and they'll get another 15 minutes of silent freedom, before returning to "the pit", otherwise known as their room... ain't parenting fun?...

Anyway, their are some NASTY wind gusts outside tonight, with a 70% chance of rain tomorrow, so our sinuses are all a mess. But I'm more concerned about my brother in law, who is currently in the "down time" of his treatment, after finishing his first week of chemo treatments last Tuesday. Please say a prayer for his mind, body and spirit to reamain strong. He's only 59, and he and my sister have a 14 year old son, plus he has two older sons that live out of state. All I have to do is think of them and see that my life ain't so bad, after all... Thanks, and God Bless...