losing our marbles

I'm trying a new method of discipline.  The deal is that each morning the boys put 4 marbles in their pockets.  If they are good little boys they get to keep all their marbles.  If they are wicked little boys I will take their marbles one by one for each wicked deed.  At the end of the day they get to put any marbles left in their pocket into their jar.  When the jar is all filled up they get a special date with mama or daddy.

Now I'm hearing you ask..."Are your boys only wicked 4 times a day?"  No it isn't that literal.... I don't have that many marbles even in the big jar...  It is for disobeying or talking back or physical violence toward each other those sorts of things... that they would lose a marble.  Really the same things you or I would lose our marbles over.  They are very excited and a bit confused I think cause Eli asked as he put his marbles into his jar tonight before bed if he gets his treat now.  I had to remind him that he had to fill the jar completely before he got that special date.  It may take some figuring out.

I tried to pick the pint sized jars and not the quarts, but it still may have been an overshot.  In any case we're on our way and what is different from the sticker charts we had been doing is that we don't have to be in the kitchen at the moment of praise or reproach which widens our scope of life quite a bit.  Hopefully this won't scar them in any way for the future regarding marbles.  They are one of the finer things in life and I would hate to be responsible for the tarnishing of the marble association in a young child's life.  I guess only time will tell.

Saying goodbye

I did some family portraits for some sweet friends this weekend.  Even though we've only known each other for about a year we will sure miss them as they head on to their new chapter in a couple of weeks.  Here are some of the photos from Saturday.  The light was so tricky being a beautiful sunny morning (I'm not complaining!)  so some of the technical quality I wasn't thrilled with, but it helps that they all look like movie stars. :)

More monsters

Here are some bad images of encaustic paintings I've done this week to further the theme of the monsters.  It is wildly freeing and fun to make these and I am going to keep it going for a bit I think.

my little monster

Eli started preschool this past week and has since turned into a little monster.  He is CRAZY before and after school and finally today I asked his teacher if he has been behaving and she said he is totally calm and normal at school.  So he is saving it up for me.  I'm sure it is adjusting to a new schedule and routine, but honestly I am dealing with a lunatic.

He listened to the boxcar children audio book in it's entirety (2 discs) back to back yesterday until 10 pm.  Today he got to listen to it once and that was it!  I took it away for bad behavior part way through the first disc and made him earn the rest of it back.  He wakes up and turns it on.. He goes to bed listening to it.  I'm losing my mind.

So this evening I decided we needed some structured activity time and we sat down to do some stitching together after Jonah went to bed.  I traced some of his monster drawings from the weekend and we began to embroider them.

He is not done with his, but I managed to finish mine.  I'm dying they are so cute!
He did absolutely get lost in the process though which I've got to hope is burning some mental energy.

Sometimes even monsters can be sweet.

I'm not counting anymore.

I'm not counting anymore.  I probably should be, but I'm not cause I'm working on be-ing.  He-he-he. Anyway I thought you might enjoy the interchange in the car on the way home from church yesterday between Eli and myself.  It is paraphrased here but still VERY close to the real thing.  Slightly shortened cause I can't write as fast as he can talk. Enjoy.  I hope your thankful for it, cause I know I am.

“Can I go shoot guns with Uncle Ronnie and shoot a deer and cut off it’s head to put on the wall in the living room?  

“No.  You’re not old enough.  Why would you want to cut off a deer’s head? Then the deer would be dead.”

“OK.  I’ll just cut off the pokey parts.. what is that called on top of it’s head?”

“Antlers.”

“Ya, Antelers.”

“Wouldn’t that make you sad to think of a dead deer every time you were in the living room?”

“OK. Can I shoot a bird with Uncle Ronnie and cut off it’s head to hang on the wall in the living room?”

“No.  You’re not old enough. Why would you want a dead bird in your living room?  That is disgusting.”

“I just want it in my heart mamma.”

"Can I save my money in my piggy bank to buy a squad car when I am 18?"

"Yes.  I think that would be a great thing to save your money for."

"It will have a gun on it and then I can go in the mountains and shoot birds and deers and monsters in my squad car with the gun."

"Awesome."

-Eli age 4

-Mama age 31