So long, Weekend- it’s been fun!

Church today was illuminating. Mostly because Max and Emmaline didn’t sit with me and I actually got to listen in Sacrament Meeting. I’m also reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey- which I realize has been around for just about forever and I’m a little late to the game. It’s been a good weekend overall. We rocked the smoked chicken (not ducks, Larry, and certainly not Chihuahuas) last night for dinner. My kids adore fruit dip and playing in the water at the beach (no oil yet, *fingers crossed*). A few awesome things from this weekend:

• My Ernie, per the usual, is the best!
• I really, truly, 100% think that my kids are awesome and I genuinely like them.
• Old friends are great. Thank you John Miller (a friend of ours from Indiana, Kentucky, and now Mississippi [Ernie worked with John in Indy, hired him in KY, and then hired him again a few weeks ago here in MS]) for being a part of our lives.
• Max might be the most feisty out of all my kids- I didn’t expect that.
• Sister Pendleton’s talk in church today was a beautiful expression of her testimony.
• The lesson in Relief Society today was about Mothers. It’s given me a lot to think about. I’m still processing.
• The end of LOST is tonight. Awesome!
• We’re making summer plans, lots of summer plans (which, according to the kids, means planning on going to the pool every day).

Oh- and we came up with our family motto: Love Family, Work Hard, Never Give Up

Bring it on Summertime

We are ready for you Summer. It was 90 degrees today at 10:30 in the morning, the neighborhood pool opened yesterday, today we set up the smoker, and Bogart got his summertime shave last week. Bring it on.

In case you’re wondering- dinner was delicious.

How does your garden grow?

Here’s what the garden looked like back in March:

Here’s what it looks like now:

And to help you get a little scope, here’s the front of the garden:

… the middle of the garden:

… and the back of the garden:

Here’s what we pulled in today:

There’s going to be much more where that came from!

Firsts in the month of May

We’ve had some “firsts” happen this week at our house:

• Ernie IV had his first Big Field Trip. His class, along with several other 3rd grade classes, took charter buses to New Orleans and went to the aquarium today. Ernie had a “magnificent time”!
• Max has had Hand, Foot, and Mouth virus this week. That’s the first time any of my kids have ever had it and it’s been pretty annoying in my opinion. Max has had a high fever, along with the mouth sores and the blisters on the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet. He’s been miserable and so have I.
• Max is now sleeping in Emmaline’s room, and it’s a first for him to share a room. He and Emmaline are both really happy about it and Emmaline is now super attached to Max. I think that this could go a long way in solving some sibling rivalry issues.
• We harvested the very first of the veggies from our ginormous garden. 3 potatoes (harvested by accident), a handful of basil leaves, and 2 perfect yellow squash.
• I set up, started, and cooked on our charcoal grill for the first time ever (all by myself) and the result was the most delicious Beef Roast. I’m not sure I ever want to grill on the propane grill again.
• I made Basil Mashed Potatoes for the first time (gotta use those veggies while they’re fresh!). It was pretty much awesome. We had those the same night as the grilled Beef Roast, along with Steamed Summer Squash.
• We used the Repenting Stairs for the first time. Nigel and Emmaline (of course) were the ones to break it in. They liked it. I think they liked that it gave them a structured way to solve their disagreement and a clear resolution plan. They were over the disagreement in about 3 minutes. I’m curious to see how this discipline works when it comes to something more serious than sharing a pair of binoculars.

Good times at the Smith house. School gets out on May 26th, so I am furiously planning the impending summer so that we all stay sane! I will post when I have all of that figured out.

Flowers in the Garden

Our yard here in Mississippi is heavily wooded, so almost everything that grows in our yard is a shade loving plant of some variety or other. It’s starting to smell really good here. Right now our deck is incredibly fragrant from the jasmine vines that have grown so well, they really need to be cut back. The front yard smells amazing too, with the tall magnolia tree and the gardenia bushes that have just started to bloom. If I wore perfume- which I don’t- but if I did, I think I’d have to wear a perfume that had gardenia notes in it.

 

Discipline

Four kids, all close in age, seems to breed arguments. Particularly from the Nigel and Emmaline arena. Those two fight over nothing pretty much all the time. So tonight I announced that starting tomorrow all arguments and fights and tears will be resolved on the Repenting Stairs. This is my twist on the Repenting Bench. Our stairs are hardwood and would not be comfortable to sit on for very long. The point of the Repenting Stairs is that the kids will have to sit there- next to each other- until they can tell the other one what they themselves did wrong. Once they can both admit their own part in the fight (I predict that this will be difficult for both Emmaline and Nigel), they have to say sorry and hug each other.

Emmaline’s response to this announcement was, “What if I have to go to the bathroom while I’m sitting there?” I told her that if she has to go to the bathroom while she’s in trouble, then she’d better own up to her mistakes and say sorry quickly. (She didn’t really like that.)

The form of censure that our kids are already quite familiar with is putting their nose against the wall. It’s essentially a time out place that doesn’t require a special chair or corner. The best part about it is that wall’s are everywhere! All of the kids have tolerated and mildly disliked putting their nose against the wall. Usually they stand there and fume. Except for Max. For some reason, Max thinks it is the most hilarious game ever when he has to put his nose against the wall. Tonight we were at Ernie’s office and Max was rude to Emmaline, so I told him to put his nose against the wall until he was ready to be nice. At which point, Max literally skipped over, happily placed his nose against the wall and said (with his nose pressed into the wall), “I counting! 1,2,3,1,2,3…”.

Apparently we need to find another way to put Max in time out, because now we know that he thinks that he is simply playing hide-and-go-seek every time we put him there.

Smith Team

At our house we call ourselves the Smith Team. This has gone on since Little Ernie was 4 years old and he got mad at me and told me that he was “going to tell Daddy on me” and I responded that he could try, but that Daddy and I were “on the same team”. He then started crying and asked if he could be on the team too. Hence, the Smith Team was born. This is now a common phrase in our house and I say things a lot like “I need all of the Smith Team in the car in 5 minutes”.

After going to Time Out for Women and listening to the Eyre’s presentation on families, I realized that it’s time to step it up a notch. So, dear reader, I am looking for feedback and ideas on chore charts, allowances (fiscal responsibility), family councils, etc.

In addition to the nuts and bolts of family dynamics, we are also currently working on a motto and a symbol to represent our family. Here are the suggestions so far for a family symbol:

• UGA (the Georgia Bulldog mascot)
• an oak tree
• the sun (to represent the celestial kingdom) [this was Little Ernie’s idea]
• a wildebeest [thanks for playing Big Ernie]

Regarding the family motto, we are all coming up with concepts and ideas that are important to us that we can hopefully turn into a motto. When we come up with the finalized motto, I’ll be sure to post it here.