Ok, I had a couple of emails & only 2 guesses about my earlier post's title. Either no one cares or no one has any guesses. Not sure which it is. ha! :) You'll have to read all of this post to get it.
Early this morning, Larry left with some other Cub Scout leaders to go work on moving a small storage building for the scouts to use. While he was gone, Samuel finished unpacking from camp, which means we had an empty suitcase & my goofball children wanted to get IN it. Silly kids.
Savannah zipped Samuel up in it & carried (err...DRUG) the suitcase from his room to the kitchen to show me. The nuts! I had to take a picture!
And then of course, everyone had to get in on it. First Savannah....
...and then Sarah, who felt it was important to use a seatbelt! ha ha!!
After all the unpacking was done, the fights started. Everyone wanted to play their own game. No one wanted to cooperate or play along with someone else's idea for a while. Me, me, me....it's all about me. Then it began--the mean words were flying, attitudes were flaring. They were being really ugly to each other. Ugh... I swear, breaking up arguments is my least favorite part of motherhood. But I was prepared. I bought some 'supplies' earlier this summer, waiting for this very situation and today it finally happened. I called everyone to the bar & had them sit down. I had this sitting there.
I put the toothpicks into my pocket & gave each one a plate & a tube of toothpaste & told them to go to town squirting all the toothpaste out of the tube onto their plate. They started giggling about their mom being such a wacko, but they went along with it.
They finally got it all squirted out, then looked at me as if to say "umm...now what?". That's when I handed them each a toothpick & said "now, use this toothpick & put all the toothpaste back into the tube".
(you should've seen the looks on their faces when I told them to do that)
They tried.
They really worked hard to get it all back in.
It was messy.
It got sort of gross & sticky.
But no matter how hard you try....
....it's just about impossible to get every last bit back into the tube.
That toothpaste is like our words & the toothpick, our hearts. Proverbs tells us that a "harsh answer stirs up wrath". It's real easy to squirt out all those nasty words and get ugly......but very hard on our hearts to try to take it all back. And no matter how hard you try, the words are already out there. Even if you work very hard, there will always be a bit of that toothpaste left on the plate. You just can't suck it all back in, so we have to be careful with our words & make sure they are ones that we want to leave "out there" once they're said.
The kids "got" the idea of what I was trying to show them & apologized to each other for being so mean this morning. Of course, I'm sure it won't last long and before you know it, they'll be back at it, but for today, the object lesson was well taken & they got the idea.
After lunch & some quiet time, we ran to Walgreen's this afternoon to pick up a prescription. When we got back home, the kids took early showers and ate supper so that we'd all be ready for the big event at 7:00.
That's right. Tonight was the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds 3D concert on the Disney Channel. We were prepared with our 3D glasses from Walmart. We all donned our glasses & hung out in the living room singing teen pop songs. Everyone got into the spirit.
...even me!
We had a good time watching the concert & singing along. It was a nice ending to our day. Hugs were given, goodnights were said & everyone is in bed for the night now. (well, the kids anyway) Ahhhh....goodnight to you too!
3 comments:
Ok, I could of never of guessed all that in any event *winks*...The lesson with the toothpaste was truly profound. I thought the kids were a riot with the suitcase. (Hugs)Indigo
How funny- the toothepicks and toothepaste. You crack me up. I have been at my parents for a family reunion and haven't been checking emails and surfing the blogs lately. Hope you and family are well. My niece had to leave early this evening, she was getting together with her soccer team to watch the Hannah Montana movie, as well. Such hip preteens.
Your kids come from a long line of suitcase riders. Remember the picture of Robyn in the suitcase on wheels, with the lid closed while her brothers pulled her through the house? I think it is genetic. Mom
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