Planning Ahead

Saturday morning, I told the kids we would be attending mass that evening. J was scheduled to altar serve and we were scheduled to take our turn selling raffle tickets for the school's spring fundraiser before and after. N greeted this news with lots of protesting and arguing. They go to mass every Friday during school and he didn't see why he should have to go two days in a row. He kept up the complaining until I warned him that one more word would earn him a grounding for the weekend. Since N never knows when to stop arguing, he ended up grounded for the weekend. This meant no tv, video games, or playng with friends. Yesterday morning he started in about how bored he was and there was nothing to do. He then proceeded to talk my ear off. With my head ready to explode, I told him to go entertain himself for a while. He countered that since he was grounded there was nothing for him to do besides talk to me. I countered that he got himself grounded and I really needed some peace and quiet. He grinned and said, " I guess you didn't plan ahead when you grounded me." Smart ass.

She strikes again

A had a bit of a rough night. She woke up a few times during the night, witht eh last time being at 5am. She fell back asleep on the couch by 6am. I got J and N up at 6:30 and we all tiptoed around in the dark so as not to wake her. Miraculously she stayed asleep and after they left I laid back down myself. She ended up sleeping til almost 10:30. A wanted to watch a movie and eat popcorn. I figured what the hell. Why not? I fixed her a bowl of popcorn, complete with a tiny sprinkle of buttery popcorn oil and started a movie for her. I then went about catching up on my chores since I spent the morning catching up on sleep. All was well til A asked for more butter on her popcorn. I told her she had plenty and then made my fatal mistake. I turned my back for longer than thirty seconds. While I made beds, she silently slid a chair to the pantry, climbed up, and got not the half used bottle of buttery popcorn oil, but the brand new one. She slid the chair back, removed the lid and the seal from the bottle. And poured the whole thing over her bowl of popcorn. Then she nicely offered to share with me. At least this time, none got on the floor. It all went neatly in the bowl. I gritted my teeth, dumped the popcorn, and gave her a time out. You'd think I'd learn by now that I can't turn my back on this kid for a split second. Or to never, ever leave the latch on the pantry door undone. Maybe I'll learn about the time A learns it is not mandatory to get into something every time my back is turned.

Don't look Mom!

Today A and I went to the grocery store, where I picked up a bottle of children's sudafed for her stuffy nose. I left the bottle, still in the box, on the kitchen table while I put away the rest of the groceries. Then I made the mistake of stepping out of the kitchen to check messages. In the approximately three minutes I was out of sight, A managed to remove the bottle from the box, drop it and break it. As I headed back for the kitchen, she frantically shouted, "Don't look Mom! Don't look!" She was attempting to clean up the spill with a paper towel and a sopping wet dish rag. I wish I could say my reaction to this little mishap was a calm, "Don't worry sweetie. Accidents happen." But I would be lying. After frantically asking her if she had drunk any of the medicine,(she hadn't) I furiously sent her to her room and kept up a muttered string of curses while mopping up the mess. From A's bedroom down the hall came a muttered, "I told you not to look."