Doing the right thing, even when it's painful

G is on a new regimen. He gets a gold star on a specific calendar at home when he has a day where he doesn't hit or hurt anyone. He got gold stars Monday through Wednesday, and was allowed to pick out a magnet from a set of zoo magnets I bought as rewards.

When he does hit or hurt anyone, he loses reading--specifically, his current book in the Redwall series. He is loving these books. He loses the book for 24 hours from when I hear of the incident.

I thought long & hard about this punishment. How can I take away reading? Reading is so basic, so essential. Then I ran into his K teacher and we talked about his behavior and I brought up that he had lost Wii privileges for 13 days straight and it had no effect. "The only thing he loves more is reading! How can I take away reading?" I asked. "You can take away reading," she assured me. So when he loses reading, he loses his book but can read whatever he needs to read at school.

Last night, I walked over from church to pick him up from his aftercare. We walked out the back door and were in the parking lot a few steps later. A car went into reverse and I warned him that he had to close his book now for safety's sake. He wanted to finish the sentence. I closed the book and took it from him. He hit me, and I told him he'd now lost reading for 24 hours.

He fell apart. Just lost it. Said "But I need it!" about 15 times. It was so sad to see him lose it so thoroughly.

But at the same time, it felt... right. He stopped hitting me, he was profoundly affected by it, it just seemed to have the right effect. When he got it together a bit, he tried negotiating: "How about 24 minutes?" (Nice try, bud.)

We walked on, and when we got to the car, I opened it to put the book in while we went inside for dinner. After I closed the door, he kicked the car. I looked down, saw that the car wasn't dented in any way, and didn't stop him. He kicked the car 10 more times and then seemed to lose steam. I told him that kicking the car was a fine way to express his anger. We talked a bit more ("What time will I get my book back?") and went inside to dinner.

He was squirmy and unsettled at dinner and I seriously considered leaving a few times. I had made the soup for everyone, but I figured if we left that I would just get my pot back whenever. But I didn't feel like making dinner twice. Who knows? Maybe it would have been better.

I did enjoy it, though, after we got through the prayer (which the minister did twice, as about 10 people arrived late). G started mouthing off during the second prayer, so I took him out of the room and then served him soup first. I realized later that he was so hungry, and he has a hard time self-regulating when he gets hungry. So giving him a bowl of soup early was a good idea.

In the long run, the punishment and the system itself did feel right. It was so nice to feel in control in the face of G's flying apart. I feel like we're on the right road.

This is me, getting more mature

I really wanted new PJs for Disneyland for next week. The last time we went for a while, I found cute Disney PJs on sale at their website and bought each of us a set. I just made G new Pokemon flannel pjs a bit ago, and recently bought some flannel to make PJs for me (not Pokemon).

The old me would stay up late every night finishing them.

The new me says, "Nope, not worth it; I won't have time and I'd rather have plenty of sleep before our trip." Plus, I have super comfy "lounge pants" from Costco to wear instead.

Slowly but surely...

Whatever gets you going, you know?

My gorgeous new sink and faucet are being installed tonight or tomorrow night, so after the guy came through today and acknowledged that he can do the job, I looked around with a critical eye and decided that now would be a good time to do a thorough cleaning job.

I think I didn't realize it would take most of my lunch hour, but I swept and mopped the floor, sprayed and wiped the whole base of the toilet, sprayed and cleaned the tops of the baseboards, spot-cleaned places on the floor I couldn't reach with the mop, sprayed and scrubbed the toilet lid, spot-cleaned the walls (where do those marks come from???), and cleaned the toothpaste out of the sink, again. I have to admit, a sparkling bathroom is a thing of beauty. And that I need to drastically thin my magazine stand.

Yesterday was the M-Z Red Tryouts/Conditioning slot, and the five Green hopefuls really looked very good! They had good attitudes, too. We have a good turnout of Reds, about 3 per hopeful player. That also made for a nice bench for the scrimmage at the end, with our bench having 10 and the other bench 10 or 11. People were way too polite, which made setting up lines hard--"Where do you want to play?" "Oh, anywhere...". I chose to play D, since I haven't done that in a while, and found myself following the puck into the offensive zone without really thinking about it. It was super fun, and the hopefuls held their own pretty darned well, I thought.

I asked one on our team how many were trying out, and she thought a total of 9. Seemed kind of low, and she confirmed: there are several "old" players in Green who are just staying because it's comfortable. Yep, I get that.

Because the ice slot was so late (7PM), I was able to get to my Alameda Library knitting group that afternoon. Some groups, we have 2 or 3; this one had around 9! Including one woman who brought her beautiful spinning wheel and spun rather than knit ("I can spin and talk, but not knit and talk!"). I continue to be amused that this group meets around my hockey schedule. Hey, no one else arranged the groups, so... and besides, hockey does trump knitting. (but just barely)

G continues to have problems in the behavior department. His April 1 counseling date seems so far away, but I have now made contact with several people at my church who have experience as teachers to kids who have similar challenges, two of whom insisted I call them this week. I swear, this, to me, is God in action. Hallelujah!

I did set up two new things: for any day in which he hits/hurts anyone, he loses reading for 24 hours. (I know! Reading!) I did say that if he had a bad day on Sunday, his precious book from the Redwall series would get returned to the library. (He had a good day.) The other thing I set up is a calendar for good behavior. We bought a set of gold-star stickers and some rare-earth magnets shaped like farm animals. He gets a gold star for every day of no-hitting/no-hurting. After a week of stars, he gets a magnet (although I may surprise him by giving him one after 3 days). We also bought a pattern he'd spotted on Ravelry, and I will start the bear after a week of gold stars. I had planned to unravel it if he had a bad day after I'd started, but one of the teachers at the church said that the usual plan of action is not to take back something that's been given for good behavior.

Our church is having a Maundy Thursday supper Thursday night, and I've volunteered to make a lentil sausage soup. I've decided to prep tonight and have it ready to make tomorrow night. I love cooking with mise en place, where you have everything in little glass bowls, ready to dump in and go. I don't do it like on the cooking shows, where each ingredient is in its own bowl, but I tend to put things together that will be added together. It makes everything go super fast.

It's going to be a wild week, but I think it'll be a good one.

Our weekend

Friday, we had our usual early day so that I could take off at 3:15 to take G to his LHS class. I take a mini-break at noon to go home and let Lucy out to pee and also pick up snacks or whatever for the drive up the hill. I ended up running into our new gardener, which was good as I was able to hand her a check (rather than mail it whenever I remembered) and talk about future plans. It is so cool to finally have a gardener. She rediscovered this whole corner on the left-hand side of our steps! She also pointed out all the grass seed in it, so I have placed an order for WOW! Supreme that I'll spread there before mulching so that the freakin grass doesn't come back with a vengeance.

G's class went well; he managed to do the tasks this week (they investigated pistons and hydraulic presses), so he wasn't as frustrated as last week, when he just. could. not. figure out the gear boxes they were supposed to build. I, as usual, knat for nearly an hour. I'm getting close to being done with the fronts on my Must Have Cardigan... but that is a matter for another blog.

Saturday, I knew we had an easy morning, so I didn't set an alarm. It was great getting plenty of sleep. I had planned to cut out my pjs that I want to make for our Disneyland trip, but didn't get to it. I did manage to do some needed cleaning, including getting the kitchen counters cleared off, yeah!

Took G to his martial arts and watched for a bit (as he asked) before taking off to run to Longs for some things (holy cow, it is way too easy to spend $75 there). Went back and watched some more, then home for lunch before tennis. (Saturdays are going to be packed for a while.) He grumpily got ready for tennis, which he really enjoyed once he got there. He didn't much appreciate the warm water in the bottle he took; I pointed out he could pack his own chilled water, something of which he's quite capable.

While he was at tennis, I did some more work around the house and knat some more. After tennis, he and his friend W begged to have a playdate at W's house, so we zoomed home for a quick pee (so nice to be past the wetting-the-pants stage) and I dropped him off. It was one of those Great To Have The House To Myself/Missing The Kid things. I went back to pick him up at the 3-hour mark, and W's mother insisted on sending him home with a "piece" (which turned out to be half of it) of "pizza," which is some mystery flat thing that G has decided he loves. He gave me a tiny taste and it was yummy but absolutely mysterious.

We did some more errands, including a run to Albertson's Lucky for the ingredients for dumplings, which I ended up just winging. I found a won ton wrapper package with a recipe for spring rolls and just grabbed ingredients based on it and my memory of the recipe that G had brought home: napa cabbage, bean sprouts (which I forgot to use, which was probably good), green onion, ground pork. From home, we added shredded carrot and fresh ginger. They only had square wrappers, so I slapped them in my pot-sticker press and went at it. I steamed the first set, then, after consulting with Andrea, boiled the next. I decided the boiled ones weren't as good and steamed the rest. G and I ate a lot, but there were like 48 wrappers, so I just kept going and finished all of them. I still had filling left! I put it in a ziploc and froze it.

I thought they were good--as long as there was enough soy sauce. Which maybe means they weren't that tasty. Not bad for a first try, I think. Maybe add garlic next time.

Sunday, I set the alarm for 8:30 after moving all the clocks forward, so that we'd get maximum rest but still be on time to church at 10AM, since my bell choir was playing. We got there at 10:03 :( but it went well anyway. I got a chance to talk to a guy who's interested in our open Software Developer position (if he gets it, I get $500!), and he seemed really enthusiastic and capable.

After church, we headed home and I called a friend to see if our dogs could meet, since I hope she can watch Lucy while we're at DL. She called back and we decided to get together after hockey.

Hockey went well--we tied at 2-2 and it was a very good game. Clean but tough and I really liked playing with Jeannie and Kim. I managed to snag a few loose pucks and move them up the ice, but I tend to move right to the center and then panic when faced with a D--I pop it past her, and, since I'm never faster, I lose it (or have to fight for it in the corner). Well, at least I'm grabbing loose pucks and moving with them. It's all good.

I did get a chance to shoot off of Jeannie's rebound once. I whacked it, it hit Charlotte's stick, I whacked it again, hit the stick, and then she reached down and covered it. If I'd had a minute to think, I would have tried to lift it, maybe after pulling it back. If I'd had a second, I probably would have reached down and thrown it into the net with my glove. That would've been a smooth move. But it's not like I actually think while I'm on the ice.

It's been a great season. Thanks, cap'n! Thanks, Coach!

Fabulous Mondegreen

I was reading some post somewhere and the user said something like "It couldn't do X, little own Y" and it took me a while to get it... let alone.

I guess when you hear "little own" for a while, it seems normal to write it that way.

Maybe it doesn't live up to the original intent of Mondegreen, but I like it anyway.