Sunshine = CTW

First a little background.....The boys are in a new primary class. They graduated from Sunbeams by the skin of their teeth and have moved on to CTR 5. In their new primary class they recieved CTR rings and learned all about choosing the right. Since then we have also had several FHE lessons on what it means to CTR. During one of these lessons, Jeffrey asked, "What are the letters for Choose the Wrong." "CTW," we replied.

Just the other day, temperatures reached the 50's and the boys spent their first day in a long time, outside. Let's just say that the warm weather wiped the idea of CTR right out of their minds. Here are just a few things they managed to do in the space of an afternoon.....

• Stole cookies from the cupboard that I specifically told them they couldn't eat until after preschool, running outside to eat them so as not to get caught
• Ransacked Mary Kate's room and doll supplies, breaking and losing everything. Mary Kate spent an hour crying while trying to locate and put items back together, many items were outside
• Stole the outgoing bills I had just put in the mail box, tore them open and scattered their contents over the neighbor's lawn
• Flung hundreds of golf tees all over the grass
• Turned on the hose in the backyard and drenched each other
• Ripped big chunks out of the loaves of freshly baked bread I had sitting on the counter, running outside to eat the said chunks so as not to get caught
• Destroyed almost a whole bushel of Mike's apples that were in the garage by taking one or two bites out of each one and then depositing them back in the box
• Got into the neighbor's garage and emptied an entire can of black car polish on their garage floor and then proceeded to tromp through it
• Took the gas can from another neighbor's backyard and tried to fill up their jeep with the gas, spilling it all over the road and their shoes
• Let Winnie out the front door at least eleven times forcing me to go chase her down
• Took boxes of cereal out of the cupboard and spilled them on the driveway after being told hundreds of times that cereal was not to be taken from the kitchen

That evening, after taking all the toys out of their room as punishment, we had a discussion with the boys about all the things they had done wrong that day. I named just a few things on the list and asked them if they were choosing the right when they did those things. Jonathan hung his head dejectedly and said, "Nope, they were all CTW things mom. We just CTW all day."

The temperature is back down in the 30's today and so far we have had mostly CTR from the boys. But, if the other day was any indication of what summer will be like I think I might just prefer winter.

We had some twin boys in our neighborhood growing up. Their mom told us that when they were little, during the warm months, she would tie them to the clothes line with leashes of rope in an attempt to keep them from causing havoc all over the neighborhood..........

I think we'll be installing a clothes line this summer.