Being the "Bad Cop" and Other Stuff

I was just wondering today,do other moms feel like all they do is make people (children) mad at them?

Some days I feel like I always have someone ticked off at me.

On Thurs. I asked Hope to do a chore that wasn't on her mental schedule and she was miffed.

This morning Faith was irritated because she asked for a piece of toast. Daddy told her that there are three pieces made already and she shall ask Zeke if she may have one of them. The little chin went down and the lip came out and her mouth stayed closed. She kept looking at me to help her out...I waited, finally, Hope walked in and asked if she can have one of the pieces, finally Faith pipes up and asked if she can have the toast.

Later Shekinah was helping Faith to wash windows with the microfiber cloths and a water sprayer. As you can imagine a lot more water was being used than necessary. After awhile Faith was complaining that Shekinah was smearing up the windows faster than she could clean them. So I did the good mom thing and took the cleaning cloth. She lost her cool. I fed her. Found the plate that Ben didn't have time to eat on Thurs. night, nuked it a bit. She ate it and was in a much better mood.  note: she did eat breakfast, but it was now about 10 AM.

Then this afternoon, Joe was doing homework and he asked what "insential" and "non-insential" means. I checked exactly what he meant...he needed to know what essential and non-essential appositive phrases were. I told him that there is a big thick book that has that definition and the whole subject was discussed on the previous page. There we go...he was muttering under his breath. Don't get me wrong,  I do help, but I will not hand answers to a perfectly capable young man. 

Being a mom takes a thick skin sometimes, I'm trying to get used to being the "bad cop". I don't try to irritate my children,but I also refuse to ignore thing just because they might get upset or cry or mutter.

Then I have Hope come up and give me a hug and tell me she loves me.

We have conversations that show my children are glad for the challenges and knowing they can learn, can depend on me to pull them in and down when they are getting out of hand.

It might sound a bit harsh, but children need a mom and not a friend

they need a cheerleader, not a free lunch

somedays I'm tired and not sure I'm getting it right.

I pray that God will show me when I'm missing something. Meanwhile I look at the big kids and say, "they didn't turn out too bad and I didn't know what I was doing back then either!"

Here you go...water in a container on a subwoofer makes some neat designs.

As Ben and Zeke showed me this morning.

             Made the facebook recipe that takes a cake mix and pumpkin....it's OK, not wonderful.

Last night Ben was showing the younger ones how to bump a volley ball...check out Shekinah's  form!

This morning the temps were in the upper 60's and the girls decided it was time to gather hickory nuts.

They cracked some nuts and needed to sweep the drive afterward.

Last night when hubby and I went out for our anniversary meal, we were driving down the highway, I was admiring the cornfields. Suddenly it dawned on me what that odd contraption was that was sticking above the tassels. It was a tractor with cab, a corn picker, and forage wagon...all that was visible was the very tops of the equipment. The cab roof, the top of the "goose neck" and the roof of the wagon. Tallest corn I ever remember  12+ foot tall stalks ought to fill the silos pretty fast.