Isn't it Ironic?

This morning I was cheerfully cleaning up the house whilst listening to happy children voices wafting in from the backyard. "Wow," I thought, "They are actually playing outside-- digging up bugs, playing in the dirt, using their imaginations, and doing just the sort of things you want your kids to be doing instead of being glued to the T.V." I was on cloud nine. There were no complaints against me because I was making them go outside, no complaints because life wasn't fair when I asked them to get off the computer, and, especially, no screams like 'I HATE YOU MOM!"

Just as I was on this little trip, my mom called. We started conversing about the play we were going to on Saturday when, suddenly, a scream came from the backyard. "Gotta go, Mom," I said as I raced out the backdoor. I was greeted by the neighbor boy screaming because Davis had whipped him in the face with a jumprope. "Davis," I said, "Did you whip Will with the jumprope?"

"Yes, but I didn't mean to. We were pretending to be Indiana Jones and he got too close." (don't you just love the way he blamed the other kids for getting in his way? AND how does Davis even know who Indiana Jones is?)

While Davis was making excuses and Will's cries were winding down, I saw Eliza and Abby (Will's sister) pulling apricots--unripe ones-- off the tree. "What are you girls doing?" I questioned, not really wanting the answer. You see, someone had picked an apricot earlier in the morning, and I told them all very clearly they were NOT to pick off ANY apricots yet. Then I noticed the 3 BUCKETS FULL of green apricots. Smoke was coming out of my ears.

"Mom," Eliza explained, "we were getting food for the potato bugs we collected." Yeah, 3 buckets full of apricots would definitely be a feast for the 10 bugs they had in wait in a plastic bowl.

I lectured the kids a lot more calmly than I felt (probably because the neighbors were there and I didn't want their mom to hear stories about how mean 'Prunella' (that's what Will and Abby call me) was. I promptly told them they needed to come inside because they had made 'bad' choices and couldn't continue their playing. I sent them downstairs and made them play with legos and Polly Pockets (they wanted to turn on the T.V.).

After I calmed down I realized I was so happy earlier when the kids were doing just what kids ought to do-- and forgot that getting into trouble while using your imagination is a childhood given. In the meantime, the only apricots left on the tree are out of easy reach and will require a ladder and more time to get down. . .