Love and Logic Magic

Oh, if you haven't taken a "LOVE AND LOGIC" class I would totally recommend it.

One of the classes talked about "Making Your Words Into Gold". The concept is to stop making empty threats and follow through with consequences. There is also some logic in what you now make into consequences. Let me illustrate.

The mom yells down the stairs, for the twelfth time, " Kendal, if you don't get dressed for school, you are going in your PAJAMAS....and I MEAN IT."

Enter boy wandering up the stairs...in his DINOSAUR PAJAMA ENSEMBLE that his grandmother gave him for Christmas.

Now....Do I seem like the kind of parent who would send her child off to school in those fuzzy, cuddly, dinosaur pajamas???

Did you see the picture?

Now, in my defense, they were clean, matching, and appropriate for the weather.

He was extremely upset that I would not let him change after he realized I meant what I said. A fit ensued, but I lovingly put his backpack over his shoulders and wished him a wonderful day. I also called his teacher to prepare her for what was coming her way.

When he returned home, still in his pajamas, he was incredibly calm. He had worried that everyone would make fun of him, and then his teacher took him aside and told him that if he acted like those pajamas were his regular clothes, no one would even notice. To his absolute relief, nobody bugged him about them.

I was hoping for SOMETHING to get him to understand the concept of responsibility for his actions...or lack of action in this case.

We haven't had a pajama incident since, and that is GOLDEN MAGIC to me!!

Drippy Puddles...

Apparently, when we retiled our upstairs master bath about a year and a half ago, we didn't fix the problem. We knew there was an issue when a nice drippy puddle ended up in our basement bathroom one morning after showers.

The reason for the drippy puddle became clear when the cleaning and restoration people who cut into the wall said, "Huh, your tub doesn't have an upward facing phlange." The plumber came and said, "Huh, your tub should have an upward facing phlange, and it doesn't." Then the tile guy also mentioned that he would not EVER tile around this kind of tub because....yep, no upward facing phlange. Now, the guy who contracted and built our home SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THIS!! In fact, when we came to look at the house, there was this unmatching tile in the shower area. His reasoning was that he and his wife were "BATH PEOPLE, NOT SHOWER PEOPLE". Oh yeah, that wasn't a red flag or anything. Being first time home buyers, we completely just loved the house and bought it anyway.

Well, as you may have guessed, if the tub has a downward facing phlange, the tub is designed to be a free standing tub that sits on a tiled frame. Because we tiled on top of it, the water can still wick behind the tile. Water accumulates and viola: instant drippy puddle! That is our problem. The restoration people were very impressed with the tile job Cameron and Rodney did. The tiles were spaced properly. The grout was intact. The silicon caulk was in great condition. The problem was the silly PHLANGE!!

So out came all the tile and wet sheet rock in the master bathroom and basement bathroom, too. We have gone from a 3 bathroom home to a ONE bathroom home. Needless to say, togetherness takes on a whole new meaning and the close quarters continues for what we have been told will take up to and perhaps longer than an entire month.