Spare the rod....Soften the blow?

So i think there is only one thing worse than having to spank your child, having to sit and listen when someone else (ie your spouse) does it!
at the kids school, if you get a mark, it's a warning, two marks, one last chance, three marks and you fill out a think it through and have to have your parents sign it and return it the next day. when they were younger, they had colored fish, one time and one time only did frankie get a bad colored fish, and he got a spanking and grounded from some privelages. this standard is how we have kept him from doing anything bad (enough to get a think it through) in the years since.
until yesterday. 3 marks, and a think it through! he did not want to tell his dad. he knows mom can be a softee on these things, and so does she, which is why dad has to be involved. he asked me not to tell his dad, i said i wasn't going to, he was! so we get home and i call chris upstairs and he tells frankie to hurry up, he had to be on a business call in 4 mins. now as bad as it seems, i am doing a little dance in my head, he can't surely do too much punishing in that short of time. so frankie blurts out what happened. chris informs him he will be back up to deal with him AFTER the call! dunn dunn dunnnnn! so frankie heads to his room, and the tears fall. i go to him, to discuss how just the night before, we discussed, being responsible and accepting the consequences to our actions and not trying to get out of them. he asked shouldn't he get some credit for telling the truth! i said, yes and he will not loose privelages due to that, but he still has consequences. he said, ya it wont' save my butt. i said no, the only to soften that blow would be a couple extra pair of underwear and a soft pair of pants. and i left. well chris gets off his call, and asks for the wooden spoon. he asks how many whacks i recommend. i said no more than three. so he calls frankie downstairs, as he goes by (i'm picturing dead man walking) i see he still has his school pants on, and feel bad that he didn't atleast change pants. i kept waiting to hear the spanks....nothing, i kept waiting to hear the wails....nothing, finally they start to come up, first frankie, and close behind, chris. as frankie is winding the corner, chris says "wait, what do you have on under your pants" frankie mumbles extra underwear, chris is about to add to the spanking, and i interceded and said i told him to and sent frankie on his way. chris is having a hard time not laughing, yet he was mad at me at the same time. i said, i did not interfere with the spanking, i just offered advice! and i told him he needed to now go in and make sure frankie remembers how much he loves him still.... we go in to frankie's room, and chris asks how many extra pairs he has on, and frankie says, three, so he tells him to take off the extra pairs and put them away so not to accumulate extra laundry (we always have tons of laundry! ) so as frankie takes off his school pants we discover, underneath he had also added a pair of fleece pajama bottoms! now we both were having a hard time not laughing! but chris informed both frankie and i, next time it will be a bare butt spanking! :-( i still refuse to feel bad, all i did was offer advice and i'm sticking to that!) however chris did think it odd, he didn't hear the crack sound when he spanked him, and that frankie received the spanking without fighting nor did he cry as much as usual....what's a mom to do, baby steps to letting her kids get what they deserve......

Spring Yard Work

WARNING! my garden/yard work blogs will probably be boring to most, but i want to keep them so when my kids are older they can look back at our experience while hopefully working in their own yards/gardens! Ahhh! i love spring, however, all the yard work that goes into it.....well i don't mind alot of it while the weather is cool. but it can be expensive and seem to take forever to get all the things done you want to. however for the first time, we have made a list, and prioritized it. for instance, the garage can wait no longer.....as you can see it is in DESPERATE need of new paint....

and the trellises around the pool may come all the way down to be used in the garden and then plant bushes around the bottom, however that decision has not been official yet, due to....the money portion to buy the bushes. however i am happy to say that stupid fence thing around the burner barrel is gone as of today. we will till all that area up (where every year it turns to weeds!) and plant weed and seed grass seed there, and just let it be grass for a few years. however the old clothes line pole, is taking alot of work to remove, seems they dug to china, then poured cement then put the pole in. it is gonna take more time and effort to get that baby out of there!

Frankie and Chris have been working on cutting down the branches in some of the trees to open up more areas that the sun can reach on the ground. i missed getting the shot of frankie in the tree on the ladder and sawing away, but he did and i let him....that's a hard one, i just knew he was gonna fall or cut a finger off! but i am happy to say he did neither and he did a very good job! here he is opening up so the sun can reach the grapes we planted next to the arbor last year. the front ones really took off cuz they were able to get alot of sun, but the ones behind were blocked alot from the tree's branches.

however there was some new growth on all the grape plants, no mater how small!

there also is the work of the garden this year.....last year we left grass in between the rows, something i had read in a book. i really don't care for that book any more, because it caused me tons more work keeping the grass from growing around all the plants! this year, we tilled it all up and expanded. therefor, not knowing how many rows i could fit in and how many plants in the rows, gracie and i measured it all out (where the sticks are) and then we also made a path down the middle (that's what grace is doing) that we will cover with straw and planks to walk on later. we already got the peas in last week, so i still need to plant a few other cold hardy plants then we wait until may, where all the plants i have started in doors will get transplanted and the rest direct sowed.

we wer very pleased with how the cherry tree we planted two years ago shot STRAIGHT up this spring! we thought it was a goner when one of the dogs dug it up that first year! the dog is gone but the tree is luckily still here! lol

the peach tree we planted just last year, got blooms on it this spring, we were extremly suprised to see that, chris said we'll probably get tiny peaches that are all pits but it's still exciting! we still have a LONG way to go in this wonderful yard of ours, but i am glad to have my large (to me) yard to do soooo many things, and plant so many things that we can rely on to feed ourselves instead of settling for high priced, low quality produce that seems to be the norm here lately. it's gonna take us awhile to get everything, but one day, i will garden like it was second nature, can food in my sleep and kill chickens with my eyes closed (but i have to wait until next year for that experience!)