Effective Threats for a Teenage Boy

It was early evening yesterday, and I was moving about the kitchen assembling dinner ingredients, when Dainon staggered in, blood dripping freely from his head. "Wow, that looks real!" I said, with an appreciative smile. "But hey! It's dripping on your shirt!" It was a Toyota racing t-shirt. For some reason, those are favorites with the boys.

"I think I'll bring some of this to school tomorrow." There was a mischievous glint in his eye. He was throwing down the gauntlet, it was definitely a challenge.

"That's great," I said with a smile. "But you DO know what I'll do if you ever bring it?"

"What?" he looks at me with anticipation.

"If you go to school bloody, I'm going to help you out and deliver you some sanitary pads."

He wasn't disappointed. One point for mom.

Finding Fun

I am not the fun parent. I am the drill sargent. I am the 'it's time to practice your guitar/violin/piano' or 'do you have homework?' parent. With Lewis gone most of the time these days, I've begun to realize that I have to create a 'fun' hat to go along with all the other responsible hats I wear. So this is what I've been doing.
We have a lovely firepit in the backyard, and we've been putting it to good use. What goes better with boys than fire? All I have to do is ask someone to start one and we have a 4 alarm blaze on our hands. I've planned an outdoor meal for each week. Last week, it was hotdogs and marshmallows. Hey, I'm going for fun, not nutrition! Last night was foil dinners.
Oh! Foil dinners are divine! At least they are if you don't unwrap one to check if it's done, then put it back in the fire. That turns it to charcoal. There's nothing like the smell of the hamburger, potatoes and sweet onions roasting away merrily. The sound of the sizzling- that's great too. I bathed all the boys last night so they don't smell like a fire pit today, but I caught a whiff on someone's jacket this morning. I thought, "Ah, that smells like fun!"