Don't leave stuff lying around!

This morning didn’t start off too well, as the housework situation got the better of me and I got angry that everyone messes up and I have to clean it. After throwing a few of the boys’ things around, I left the house before school had even begun – just drove down to the docks, and sat there for a while. Then the good idea came to me of penalizing the boys by means of confiscating any toys left lying around after I have issued a tidy-up order, which they can redeem by buying back from me. They will also have to pay me money any time they leave a mess, eg spilled milk, things left out of kitchen cupboards, etc. I went home and explained the situation to them very calmly, and they understand now the problem and the proposed solution. I explained that they will need to grow up to be men of character who don’t simply leave things lying about for other people to pick up, but men who can tidy up and clean up after themselves! By that time it was nearly 10 am, but we had a quick spelling test and a sort of game of categorizing words, and then we had tenzees. It was raining quite heavily, and the new bathroom curtain is already soiled by the brown water which drips onto the windowsill. Speaking of brown water, our water is so dirty at the moment that the load of washing I did this morning came out dirtier than it went in. I had to rinse out two white t-shirts to try to remove the brown spots. The bathwater leaves a ring if it’s left sitting, and it’s not from body dirt! We finished school shortly after 12, and went out for lunch – instead of our usual Sally’s, we went to Ardees, as there is nowhere to sit outside and eat our lunch if it’s raining, which it still was. Vincent came by during the afternoon, and visited with Nick for a while, between Nick getting home from prison and going out to visit a lady who wants to be baptized. The boys were hoping that their friends would come by for their Friday afternoon ‘meeting’, but since they weren’t sure if the other boys knew it was supposed to be a weekly event, they weren’t too crushed when no-one arrived. Instead, they played outside, using a flipper and long pole as a homemade bat, at which was bowled a tiny rubber bouncy ball.