Parenting 101 or 10111

 Recently, my friend Grace was telling me that her boys had been fighting a lot over summer break.  She said some off hand remark about parenting skills.  I replied to her that we have had several moments lately where I wonder if my kids have any sense at all.  The other night, we were at the ballpark.  There was some rain in the area, but it was not raining where we were at to begin with.  Cameron's game was cancelled, and I drove over to the playground to pick up the other kids.  This is when Preston told me that Quincy and her little friend went to find the end of the rainbow.  UUUUHHH which end?  One end crossed over the highway, the other end went deep into a corn field.  I hoped they were in the corn.  We looked for them for quite a while before Cameron found them.  As I was giving the mom panic speech, they looked at me and said "why are you mad, we were looking for gold FOR YOU!"  Sometimes I really don't know whether to laugh or cry.  I explained to Quincy that there is not really gold at the end of the rainbow, to which her friend told me I am wrong --- it says so in the bible.  I must have missed that chapter?

 My son has always had a strange fascination with snakes.  I honestly don't mind them, and actually prefer a snake to any type of rodent.  Colin has been known to wrangle snakes out of neighbor's yards, out of grandma's barns, and just about anywhere else you can imagine.  This week, he and his friend came across a good sized rattler.  They killed it, which I am not sure if that is the proper thing to do or not....and then brought it home and were upset that I refused to cook it for them.  This lead to me scratching my head about why these kids would want to eat a rattle snake but they will not eat normal fruits and vegetables.

And finally, the kids found a weather balloon or "harmless weather instrument" while doing their pig chores this week.  It was a cool experience, as they actually saw it land and chased it down.  They did a good thing in reading the directions and packing it up in the attached bag to mail back to the National Weather Service. They then sat it beside the kitchen sink so they could take it to the Post Office.  I thank God that this happened pretty late in the evening because otherwise I would have made a fool of myself with our landlord. Colin came out of the shower and reported that there was a terrible natural gas smell in the kitchen.  I had been rocking Saige to sleep and came out to find that the whole kitchen was filled with the smell of sewer.  I said that is not gas, that is sewage.  I then proceeded to look at every drain, and forced Colin to go look for leaks in the basement.  I did not call the landlord because it was so late at night, but made plans to call him in the morning.  About that time, Mallory came into the kitchen and said "wow that thing really stinks" - and we realized that we did not have sewage issues at all.  Apparently, if the battery in the weather balloon hasn't had a chance to wear down, it will emit a 'harmless' sulfur gas.  Needless to say, I was a bit disgruntled that they could print all these directions on the box about how to package it and return it, but did not mention that it should be stored outside!

I do enjoy my kids, they are amusing, keep me laughing and sometimes shaking my head.  I don't know what I would do without them, but I do sometimes wonder what the heck I should do with them too!  :)