Slippery slope

Yesterday afternoon something terrible happened.
The boys were all home from school, the dinner casserole was in the oven and I was starting to work on Sariah's wedding dress.
I needed my dress form which was in the storage room. As I got closer to the door, I could hear some muffled giggles from inside the storage room.
The boys know that they are not allowed to play in the storage room, so I was a little confused.
When I walked in, I was shocked at what I saw.
Jacob, Ammon and Malachi were sitting in a darkened corner of the storage room and they were drinking something from cans.


My heart stopped.


When I got closer, they tried to hide the cans from me, but it was too late. I already saw what they were drinking.



Mountain Dew.



I was furious! I knew exactly where they got them from, because I have my stash hidden there in the storage room behind the bags of rice.
I confiscated the cans and gave them a lecture on honesty and not taking things that they know don't belong to them, and why on earth were they snooping around in the storage room and when they find something that isn't theirs they should just leave it alone.
I then talked about how they KNOW very well that they aren't allowed to drink caffeinated beverages and it's bad for their growing bodies, then I made them dump the cans down the sink and sent them to clean out the garage.

I was so angry! I've hidden that Mountain Dew there so I can have some when I really need it. It's strictly for medicinal purposes only! The boys have never seen me drink it because I'm very discreet when I do and then I put the empty cans in the neighbor's recycle bin so nobody knows I drank any.

When LaMar got home, I informed him that the lesson for FHE would need to be changed to one about honesty, with a bonus discussion on the Word of Wisdom.
We had a really good discussion about those things in FHE and the boys apologized for doing something that they knew was wrong. All things were harmonious in our home again.
Later, after the kids all went to bed, I went to the storage room to get some canned fruit for tomorrows Jell-O and I looked behind the rice to see exactly how much of my Mountain Dew they had taken.
Imagine my shock when I saw that there wasn't any missing. It was all there!

The boys hadn't found my stash after all.
Then I was completely embarrassed. They must have been so confused about me lecturing them about honesty and not snooping through the storage room and taking things that don't belong to them................

Then I got to thinking. WHERE did they get the stuff? They must have bought it at the gas station down the road or the grocery store.
This really upsets me because I can't believe that they allowed my children to purchase such an item without the consent of an adult.

Today they let them buy Mountain Dew and then tomorrow, what?

Energy drinks?

Oh my!! They wouldn't allow children to buy energy drinks??

Would they?

When food doesn't happen

I had planned on writing my first recipe tutorial today, but life got in the way, and we ended up eating hot dogs tonight instead of the yummy ham and potatoes that I was planning for dinner.

Please realize that with the number of kids that I have, disasters can happen at any given moment, such as the one that happened this afternoon involving a backed up toilet, and a toddler who enjoys flushing repeatedly.
Two things will be happening this week. First of all, we will be putting those annoying white doorknob covers on the bathroom doors to keep Alma out of the bathrooms and second, I will be fixing a menu of high fiber foods in the next few days.
Nobody laid claim to the "blockage" so I'm feeding the fiber to everyone!

After the disaster clean up was finished, and the kids snarfed down their microwaved hot dogs, we sat down for Family Home Evening.
The subject for the lesson?
"Reverence"
We had another subject scheduled for the lesson tonight, however, we decided to change it to reverence mostly due to the "incident" during church yesterday. What "incident" you might ask?
I'm not exactly sure which one of the boys brought the bubbles to church. None of them will admit to it, but I did see which one was blowing the bubbles out into the congregation.
I didn't notice at first because I was busy with the two youngest boys. The baby was chewing on the hymnbook and so I was trying to pry it out of his chubby little hands and he suddenly let go of the book which made me knock it into Mosiah which sent his cup of cheerios flying into the air all over the floor, and as I was consoling my screaming baby while trying to bend over and pick up the cheerios in my current state of pregnantness, the baby found out that they made a really neat crunching sound as he walked all over them on the carpet. Oh well, at least that stopped him from screaming.
(Really, I think it would probably be quite fair of me if I signed us up to clean the church twice a month instead of twice a year because my family is most likely responsible for most of the stuff that needs to be cleaned up.)
Anyway, as I'm trying not to pass out while leaning over to clean up the cheerio dust, and feeling bad for anyone sitting near us who might have been fasting because the cheerios were smelling pretty good, I look up briefly to breathe, and I see bubbles floating in the air.
Then I looked up at the stand to see the Bishopric who seemed rather amused. I could see that they were trying their hardest not to laugh out loud.
I guess I should be glad that our family provides so much entertainment for the rest of the ward. We cause laughter, which makes people feel happy right?
(Right about now, I'm really missing Sariah, she had always been such a great help to me in Sacrament meeting. I am so happy with how well she's fitting in with her student ward, but I do really miss her)
LaMar woke up and confiscated the bubbles, and we were able to get most of the cheerios cleaned up.
It's times like these that I'm extra grateful to be Primary President, because I can leave the meeting during the closing song to prepare for Primary. That way, I don't have the opportunity to enjoy all the clever/funny/sarcastic comments from the people sitting behind us.

Tomorrow, I will get the post up about the potatoes.