D1 and D2 constantly fight, not physically, well there has been shoving and slapping at times but it is mostly verbal. They just can not get along most of the time. I have tried everything except tieing them up together, which at times doesn't seem like such a bad idea. The hardest part for me is I don't know how to handle this, up until I was 13 I was an only child. I feel so lost and just want to pull my hair out at times.
When they are getting along it is great, like last night, after an evening of fighting, they played together great. They were laughing and compromised about bedtime since one likes to stay up late and the other goes to bed early. I love the times when they get along because they do get along so well.
When they fight it wouldn't be such a big deal if they weren't constantly telling me about it and wanting me to fix it. I can never just yell at one it's both because no matter what neither one according to them starts it. I have tried time outs, apologies, making them stay in the room together and only talking to eachother, having them do a chore together, writing sentences "I will be nice to my sister", and groundings. I have even tried ignoring it, which does not work because if someone is coming to tattle they want to see some action now.
My girls are only two years apart I know this is a problem, they also have the attitude of it's my way or the highway another problem, and they share the same friends a big problem. Sharing friends at times is great because they all hang out together sometimes, at times it can be difficult when they want to get away from eachother, but they made that happen, they turned their own friends into both of their friends.
I am not sure if I will ever be able to stop the fighting, though I wish I could because it is driving me nuts!
My girls are constantly fighting
Where is my summer going
I feel like I wake up then go into a mad rush and it is time for bed again. I swear I did not know it was already July. I was going on about my own business when my husband told me the day before July 4th don't forget the cookout. Yeah too late, actually I didn't know of such a cookout, but we were having one and I barely had time to prepare. Cleaning my house involved opening a bedroom door and tossing everything in and closing it. I didn't even know what we were having at the cookout, my husband had the grilling stuff all together but sides are all me, to say the least 15 minutes before people were getting here I was making macaroni salad, lucky I had everything to make it on hand because we never went to the store.
I haven't even had time to dye my hair, oh my roots are showing so bad. Someone actually told me my hair looked cute two toned, I think they were trying to make me feel better, it didn't though, I came to the conclusion that they are on crack.
Oh and my house is like a big hangout for kids, I'm constantly running into kids, I don't know where they all came from. I didn't know we had so many children living in our neighborhood and I know I would remember speaking to a parent about their kids being over here, at least I think I would remember, maybe parents are doing driveby drop offs, just slowing down enough to shove the kids out the car door. Who knows.
I need a vacation, at this point I would settle for a night at the hotel down the road, and absolutely no children or husband.
What have our kids sports become
The boy plays football, in the off season they lift weights to get buff for football season, which is great. It also teaches the kids discipline, 6 months ago The Boy really enjoyed it. Now not so much, 3 days a week he's weightlifting. He's made wonderful progress, he can now bench 130, squat 250 and dead lift somewhere around 250. He loves that part of it, you know the progress he's made. But he wants a break, he wants a mini vacation. But when he takes a day off the coach rides him. He gets aggravated and comes home and he tells me he is one of the only ones who has went through the whole 6 months, and he just wants a break. Of course being the mom I tell him he made this commitment and he is doing this to better his team, but in the end it is his choice. At the same time I am saying to myself he does need a break. Pretty soon his practices will begin and at first they will be 3 hour days instead of 2 like he's doing now, then he will go right into two-a-days which is 5 hours a day with a little braek in the middle once that starts 6 days a week will be dedicated to football till the end of the season.
Isn't extracurricular activities supposed to be fun? When did they turn into a full time job.
Ranch Chicken
Source: Recipezaar
My son asks for this as his birthday dinner every year
Servings 6
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts halves
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
3/4 cup bottled ranch dressing
1. Dip chicken into ranch dressing then into bread crumbs
2. Place in a 9 x 13 baking dish.
3. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 - 45 minutes
Nature Valley Nut Clusters Review
Thanks to My Blog Spark I was able to try Nature Valley Nut Clusters. These were great and my kids really enjoyed them. None of us could decide which flavor was our favorite. I think these are my kids new favorite snack.
My kids want to be fishies
I have no clue why that recipe posted today, I screwed up I think.
We finally got a pool, I could not handle going places to let my kids cool off anymore. Do you have any clue how tramatizing it is to see men in Speedos? I can't believe men still wear those but they do. I also hate how crowded pools and beaches are I spend the whole time counting my kids to make sure I have them all and God forbid one of the decides to go under water while my head is turned because that instantly causes a panic attack. My kids are not the type to stay in a bunch they have to be spread out in a circle around me so I am always having to look around, this is no fun.
On top of this I am tired of having to pay to swim in clean water it gets expensive. I was so happy when my girls friend's older brother got a job where there was a pool. He went with all the kids daily to go swimming, he's such a trooper he didn't mind at all and he's very responsible for a 15 yr. old. Then he got laid off because business is slow. I feel bad for him, it was his first job. Lucky for me I already had ordered this pool.
It's the 15' x 4' my kids are in heaven. It was so easy to set up, I really thought we were in for it, it says it takes 45 min. to set up but you know how some things are they tell you 20 min. and an hour later you are done. But this was really easy and straightforward, I was surprised. I was not even tempted to knock my husband out with one of the pole's once which is saying something.
I at least didn't want to knock him out until yesterday. The husband really knows how to get my anxiety going. He is a worse worry wart then I am. So this year we are using chemicals for the pool next year we are going to go to saltwater. I wake up yesterday morning to a note reminding me to turn on the filter and test the water, let it run and test the water again. He looked up online to see what the proper levels were and wrote those down. It is not the same as my test kit so I will go by what the test kit says. I checked the water once and that is because we added the chlorine the night before so obviously I wanted to make sure we did that right. Then the husband calls me in the morning to make sure I followed his instructions, and talking about we have to keep an eye on the water and test it because he read online about chemical burns from to much crap in the pool (his internet privledges have now been revoked) and, don't let the kids splash until we get whateverkindofswitch...HUH? Areyoufrigginkiddinme. I told him that we don't have the filter going while the kids are in the pool, and that I would run it in the morning before they got up because I wake up early and have plenty of time before they even think about going in the pool. His response "what if they splash water and it gets into the electrical housing?" I told him that was fine when he gets home he can tell the kids no splashing, but whatever damage a wet electrical part in the filter will cause is nothing compared to the damage the kids will cause when they start rioting. He seen things my way when he got home.
Greek Style Pasta Salad
This another of my kids favorite recipes!
Ingredients:
1/4 lb. dried pasta, such as tubes, wagon-wheel or shell shaped
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup cucumbers, sliced, then quartered
1/2 cup California ripe olives, wedged
4 oz. Feta cheese,crumbled
1/4 cup green onions, sliced
1 Tbsp. parsley, finely chopped
Dressing:
3-4 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. dried mint
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1/2 cup olive oil
Directions:
Cook pasta according to package directions. Combine with the next 6 ingredients. Whisk together lemon juice and seasonings. Whisk in oil. Pour dressing on salad and toss gently to mix. Adjust seasonings to taste. Note: Add more lemon juice if salad loses lemony-tartness upon standing.
Makes 4 to 6 servings
