Go Patriots!

Well, Ethan is giving up reading time tonight to watch the Patriots play the Bengals. Nothing beats Monday night football, but it is hard when you are eight years old and they don't start the game until a half and hour before bed. Sometimes we break the rules just a little.

It's been a good day today. I got several things accomplished, and that always feels good. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen every day. I am always surprised how long phone calling errands take. Can you make phone calling errands or does that make sense? Anyway, it seems like that always takes all day, somehow. I am trying to do some things on the computer that require a few calls to technical support. That takes hours. I hate those calls. You just can't budget enough time. Maybe I just have large, unsolvable problems. I don't know, but I'm still working on a few issues.

John is feeling a bit better. He'll have an MRI in the morning, and maybe we'll get some answers, or rule some things out. I'm glad he's pursuing it. He did make a delicious pot of chili yesterday. I'm so glad that I married such a good cook. I love to eat what he prepares.

Gertie and I made a quick visit to the park while Ethan was in piano. We had a good time sliding on slides while Ethan had a "perfect" lesson. We've been working on practicing, mostly trying to remember to do it. It's paying off.

Ethan and I are having some issues with his attitude. Maybe I should say I'm the one with the issue. He had a friend over yesterday and they made a huge mess of the upstairs. Ethan likes board games. I'm glad he does. But he took out about six board games and left them all out. Gertie plays up there all the time too, and she gets into that stuff. So anyway, I asked Ethan and his friend to pick up after themselves, and then I went about doing other things. This morning when Gertie and I went up there, it was still a disaster. I picked it up because I didn't want it to get worse, with the board games especially. The whole time I'm thinking about how I don't want to be a maid to my kids. I want him to be responsible for himself.

Well, on the way home from piano I was talking to him about this. I asked him if he thought he did a good job. He said he didn't know what a good job is. I said we have a problem if you don't know what a good job is. Then he gets upset and says that what he meant is I'm the one, as the parent, that determines what a good job is. I think this is ridiculous because he is smart enough to know when he's done a good job and when he hasn't. This makes me mad because he doesn't want to take responsibility for the bad choices he makes, and he tries to blame others. This is not a new game for him.

I told him he'd be cleaning up after dinner tonight by himself, and I expected him to do it with a good attitude, and to do a good job. He needed to determine what a good job was.

I have to hand it to him at this point, because he did do a good job, he did it with a good attitude the whole way through. He can really turn it around, which is also not a new game for Ethan. It made me proud of him to know that he could do a good job, and with a helpful heart, but also a little privately frustrated to know that he just doesn't care to obey sometimes.

Probably a boring story for many of you, I'm sorry. I just think it's so hard to be encouraging and discipline your kids all in one day sometimes. I don't want to ride him too hard, and I want him to enjoy his days and his friends and his home life. My expectations are high, but it takes a lot of effort to see them through. Sometimes I fail to do that, or I forget what I've disciplined. (That's one reason I think disciplines should be immediate and not last forever.) I want him to grow up to be responsible; to recognize his faults and turn them around.

I have to realize I can't always control his attitude, but I need to just hold his feet to the fire. I love parenting, but it is hard. It was physically taxing when they were young (and I'm in that stage too right now), but now it is full of decisions on how to best reason and influence and shape these more mature thinkers. I have to remember to do that prayerfully.

I work in Rochester the rest of this week. It's been a while, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to be working with the same judge that I worked for for three months. It will be good to see him again.

Patriots 10, Bengals 7. Top of the 2nd quarter. Go Patriots!

Goodnight.