mother's revenge

So, after yesterday's post of frustration, I am very proud of what I accomplished. Yes, I did clean the girls' room. (And, by me doing so, the girls have lost their allowance for this week and I threatened for next week as well.) As seen from the 1st picture, I bagged up all but one Sunday dress, their Sunday sweater, and a slip. I would have paid to have gotten Libby's face on camera. I told her that she now had 1 dress for Sunday and her response was, "what dress?" She said it with a way concerned face. It was GREAT!! See, this sticks it to her because, she is way into fashion and choosing her clothes. What's on today's docket you ask? Well, once the 12 loads of laundry are washed, dried, and folded, I am choosing 3 pairs of pants and about 5-6 shirts and bagging up the remainder for a bit. Why so much laundry? Well, when you have a filthy room, and they don't bring down their stuff to be washed, it tends to pile up. I had them take the sheets off their beds a week ago, and as of yesterday, they hadn't replaced them. So, we had to make beds as well. Let me just say that I got a garbage bag, nearly too heavy to lift from their room. Then when I vacuumed the floor, the canister was full. (We have the bag-less type vacuum.) Gross!! We changed the hamster bedding and thank goodness for Febreeze!! I feel so much better about the mess that was the girls' room...mother's revenge is very sweet! Next step, the boy's room...

messy rooms

As one of our yearly resolutions, we are striving to cleanse our house of stuff. It was a blessing then that the Vietnam Veterans called and said that they were going to be in our neighborhood tomorrow. Today, after a month of seeing the girls' room get nastier and nastier, and to give the Veteran's something for their drive to our house, I decided to get them, the girls, started. With each thing that I picked up off the floor, the angrier & angrier I became. I saw Christmas presents thrown on the floor. The cute outfit that I made Libby, for the Primary program, was wadded up on the floor by Penny's crib. Paper...dang paper is everywhere!! They have swiped extra spiral notebooks from my school supply stash and drawn in all of them. There are probably 5 boxes worth of broken crayons all over the place, again, from my school supply stash.We moved the hamsters upstairs to their rooms and the bedding hadn't been changed, so they stank. Hair things were everywhere. I found a pile of bobby pins, neatly stacked on themselves on the floor, by their door. If they have time to stack them up neatly, then they have time to place them back in the hair baskets under the sink, in the bathroom. I have thrown away so much stuff today. I have 2 bags of clothes that they obviously don't need, a huge bag of garbage, AND we aren't done. I have yet to start in the boys' room. I know, I know, why don't I have them clean their room, right?? Well, I have tried and tried to get them to clean up. Either it is me, in their room with them, yelling at them to pick this up, get that, fold that shirt, hang up your dress, put the socks back in the SOCK drawer, or I send them up and check on them. Then, when I go up to check, they are coloring or fighting. Libby even tries to sneak in the use of headphones and puts on talent shows, all to get out of cleaning their room. I have started them on an allowance and have taken it away piece by piece for not doing their chores. I have threatened them with not going places, like Activity Girls at church, friends houses, with even eating dinner. And there have been Wednesday/ Tuesday nights where they haven't been allowed to go, for either not cleaning their room, or not having their homework completed. What am I doing wrong? Dr. Phil would say for me to get rid of everything they own. Does he mean bag it up and give everything they have away? Everything- that is- but 2 school outfits and a church outfit? Or- does he mean to bag it up and store it, so that they can earn it back? Is it a combination of the two options? I am at that point. However, we have a small place, so where do I store this stuff, without it driving me crazy or paying to rent a storage unit?? Even as I as rambling in this post, I am thinking that once Penny wakes up, I am going to bag up all but one church dress for each of the older girls to wear, with 1 pair of nylons, and 1 pair of shoes. Then bag up all but 3 pairs of pants, and 5 shirts for them to wear to school. They only need 1 set of PJ's and a few pair of undies. Hey- if they mess them up on purpose, then they have to wear them stained. I remember reading somewhere that Madonna does this to her daughter, Lordes, when she has a messy room. She takes away all her clothes except for one outfit that she has to wear everyday. Hey- if it is good for Madonna then it has to be good for the Wardlings as well, right?? Then again, should I be taking advice from the "Material Girl"?

Clyde's 1st game of the season

Clyde had his 1st game of the '08 basketball season @ church last night. Clyde's Stake calling is an assistant Basketball person. Anyway, he helps ref games etc. on Friday nights and Saturday mornings. This year our ward had enough men for 3 teams. That's right...3 teams. Clyde is on team B. He played well! Here he is at the beginning of the game. I must apologize for the blurry-ness of the majority of these pictures. He was always moving, so it made it hard to get a good one of him.


Resting before subbing in for our Bishop.

Wardlings @ the game

While Clyde was playing his game, we were cheering him on, from the sidelines. They are always willing to flash their smiles these days. Well, Penny was occupied with some cheese crackers, so her's isn't in this photo.

bored...

Before the children went back to school, they were a bit bored. This is great proof of their boredom. I caught Josh sitting like this in our computer chair. Thankfully school started the next day. We tried and tried to get them to fall asleep early, but alas, it didn't happen. We had 3 very tired children head off for school, bright & early the next morning.

ice block

We have the jitters here, so I sent the kids outside to play. Look @ what they found; a block of ice in the trunk of the escalade. They were all proud to show it. They return to school tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to put Christmas away in peace. Is that possible??

Happy 2008!!

Happy New Year!! Our family tradition is to bring in the New Year with 7up and cherries. We get out our fancy glasses and share a toast to the past year and welcome the new year in. We got the majority of the glasses from Randolph Hospital after the boys were born. I have to say we were spoiled. At Randolph Hospital, after the birth of your new baby, they served you a steak dinner and a bottle of sparkling cider. Clyde was in heaven. I'm not much of a steak fan, so he got mine as well. Anyway, the hospital gave you the glasses, so we took them home. The glasses are a nice reminder of the birth of our boys too. I am so glad that we do not drink, because as you can tell from the photos above, we'd be a family of wine-o's. The children had such a fun time drinking from these glasses. It made the night fun. We look forward to a happy and healthy 2008!!