Punishing a preschooler

Possibly a really dumb move on my part, but considering I seem to be getting sick she needs to be thanking her lucky stars that this was all she got. Well, this, and no family game time, and no more candy for the rest of the day. This is the dreaded multi punishment that I gripe at Steve about. Some of you will think she deserves worse, and some of you will be thinking I am a horrible awful rip of a mom who needs to be strung up by my toes while a troop of good mommies takes turns stuffing raisins up my nose.
Whatever.

So Adylynn wanted to write "letters" this afternoon. Since we have recently added/removed things to the dining room she decided that instead of asking where the paper was or looking for paper she would just write letters ON THE TABLE!

She needs to be super happy that her sick mommy didn't lose her cool and yell. Nor did I scream. Or grunt. Or Curse. Or even stand her in the corner. She was not sent to her room. She wasn't banished from my sight. Heck she was even allowed to still write letters.

She was able to write her first 2 sentences. She is one lucky kid. Writes on the kitchen table and still gets to do what she wants. She wrote 16 letters, 2 times. PENCIL IS FOR PAPER

SO at the age of 4.5 years old my daughter has been assigned her first set of sentences for bad behavior. Some might say I was easy on her and others will say it was wrong of me to punish her in such a way.

One thing I am sure we can agree on...She is darn cute writing them.

*the sentences now have a home on the fridge along side all the other pictures, drawings, letters we get from the kids. It is a nice reminder for us. I also figure she can show this off to Jonas and tell him the horrors that happen when you write on the table.

Damn you! All you have to do is blog.

I have nothing to say today. Actually I have a lot to say today but just don't have the time to think about putting it in words. Do you know how hard it is to decide when to use ALL CAPS or extra exclamation points!!!!! or really getting the point across with. extra. periods. OR...ALL. CAPS. AND EXTRA. PERIODS!!!!! I just don't have the energy to do it.
Here are some updates on what is happening here

We no longer get to spend our days loving on Sophie. Tiffany decided she wanted to be at home with her.

After 3 years of being in Clinton I finally have a friend and we do stuff together!

By some sort of miracle said friend, who is Tiffany, was able to join the Y this month so I don't have to go by myself. Most of you know what a hard time I have with stuff like that. She will never know how much Steve loves her for this very point. Or when I said I was going to kiss her hubby the next time I saw him I was actually sort of serious.

I have been working out the last 2 days and it feels great

This week I actually started a conversation with "this one time at a strip club I saw...." It was just with Steve so it wasn't too bad but it is getting filed in my "did I just say that" file.

Ady and Steve started running together this week. It is really special time to her. She was telling her Grandma "only I get to run with Daddy. Jaden is too little"

I have a corner table sitting in my dining room waiting to be put together. This is very exciting for us for a number of good reasons -being able to all sit at the table together comfortably -having more space in the dining room - both bench seats have storage space so the kids won't have to give up all of their crafts. However the best part of a new dining room table is that I can finally be rid of the stupid ass plank chairs! I ABHOR those chairs! I spent far too many hours cleaning and scraping those damn planks clean.

With the addition of the dining room table I can officially say My house is a home. MY HOME! There is still lots of work to be done but I finally feel like the property inside our home is special to only us.

Okay so I had more to say than I thought...but really I need to get ready to go workout. We have less than 2 hours to get breakfast, dressed, and make the 2 minute drive to the Y. Adylynn has yet to grace us with her morning attitude. Jaden is already attached to his "puzzlebooks" too.

interesting

first paragraph of a parents center article:

Men who do dishes do better in the bedroom
If only men knew what they were missing: Men who do more housework have better sex lives and happier marriages, according to a study by John Gottman, a psychologist who for more than three decades has been researching why relationships succeed or fail. Further research by Gottman suggests that harmony over housework may also yield happier children. His findings reveal that men who do housework frequently have kids who do better socially and academically.

Trimming the Tree

We got our FAKE(GAG!) tree put up Saturday. As in the previous years we always do it with Jonas home but this year I realized that for him to truly enjoy the tree we really need to put up earlier. We decorated Saturday night, he went home after lunch on Sunday and won't be back until after Christmas.
The tree will remain up until he gets here to open his presents and have "Christmas morning" with us. This year he got special attention in trimming the tree. Ady slept through most of it, Jaden didn't care, I was unwrapping our treasures, and Steve was...hmm...I don't remember what the Awesome Hubby was doing but that left Jonas to hang 3/4 of the decorations himself.

He strung the bead garland. I know it doesn't look like much but he really put a lot of thought into which branches to use.

With the exception of the angel topper and 4 glass ornaments this is as high as the ornaments go.

After Ady woke up she did help in decorating. She likes to cluster decorate. She also likes to have the ornament friends near each other so they don't miss each other. There are several character and animal ornaments that are facing each other so they can talk.

The finished product!

~*~ Check the walls behind the tree! That is "Bayfront Palm" the most wonderful color of green EVER! More to come on the living room, after it is officially done. Lots more pictures and lots more to talk about!

Room remodel

The boys should be in their room very very soon.
The floor has added a few extra days of work but with any luck we can start moving them in after Christmas. Steve and the kids are sick with colds so we need to get everybody better before we start in on the floor.
The paint colors: Cosmos Blue and Yellow Sand are very nice together. The trim is done. I have decided that houses that "have a story" suck. Our next house will be brand new, or we will live here forever. I am done fixing complete strangers half assed jobs. (or paying to have them fixed) There have been no end to the problems in this house and the boys room is awful. I hope that once the boys are able to be in their room that they LOVE it. Hopefully, Jonas can adjust to sleeping in a "boys" room, the past year he has had to suffer through Care Bears, Princess, and Dora in Ady's room. He will have his own space again. I will have my own space again too. I am really excited about that.

I already have big plans for the extra space in our room. I am going to divide the room off and create a living/office like space for Steve. I plan to do a White Sox theme. The only problem is how to divide it. If I use the space that Jaden is in now, that would put our closet in Steve's space. If I rearrange so all the bedroom stuff is on the same side then Steve is by the freezing cold windows. :( I got alot to think about and I don't plan on doing this for a while yet so maybe by then I will have something figured out

Home

Why is it when you start working on "bettering" your living conditions you have a plan laid out in your head, but once you begin work things start changing and you add to your plan? Basically all I have done is created this never ending remodel to my house. So does that say I am not happy with where we live? Does it say that I went all these years without stability and now that have it I constantly have to mix things up? Since buying this house-the one with the outside entrance to the bathroom, the master bedroom on a different floor than the kids, and a "bathroom" in the basement with no walls, I have remodeled it 1000s of times(in my head) but never actually changing the things that drive me nuts about the house. Why?
As we start on the journey to remodel the boys room I think about all the cool possibilities we could do to the room. Why isn't just making it livable good enough? I have a lot of plans over the next 5 years for my house and by the time I get them all done it will be time to fix Ady's room and turn it into her "castle" then it will be time for a fresh look in the boys room too. It seems like the house I had to have is never going to be perfect for me. I am happy happy with my kids, Steve, and life in general so why the desire to change the house around ALL the time? I just don't get it. By the time I finally have it all perfect we will probably move. I love this house and want to stay here for a long time but Steve wants more kids and I am sure once Jaden is 6ish I will have that baby desire again. So we will be forced to move. Why should I move from a house that we put so much work into? UGH I just don't understand the never ending desire to change my house. oooo maybe if we had a couch that I could rearrange the living room with I would be happy. Hmmm.....I need a new couch. That's it I have solved the mystery I will be happy with a couch. A PURPLE COUCH Everyone knows true happiness lies in the color of things. Afterall I vacuum all the time since I got my purple vacuum.