It started this morning when I was fetching dirty laundry and asked The Mercenary to bring any stray clothes down to my room so I could sort and wash them. (Note that I do all the washing, drying, and folding of clothes in this house - except for when my dear mother-in-law visits.) The Mercenary found a pile and was carrying it through the house when he dropped some and asked TechnoBoy to help. TechnoBoy was practicing his piano and said, “No.”

The Mercenary was not pleased. I’d prayed first thing this morning for help in controlling my tongue and finding ways to deal with situations that were more Love and Logic and a lot less Lecture. So, as I walked by I tried saying sympathetically, “Yea, I get real frustrated when that happens to me too.”

I figured he’d just pick up the pile of clothes and bring them down. He did pick them up, but then chose to take them over to his brother and rub the dirty laundry in TechnoBoy’s face. I attempted to remain calm, and told him that was just awful and sent him to his room. After a cooling off period, I tried to talk to him about it, mentioning that people who act in service to others enjoy peace when they’re not all the time counting how much work they’re doing. I even thought up a whole post on the topic.

After getting the laundry in and making my breakfast I told the younger boys they had 5 minutes until we were going to start their work. Cheerful replies were heard. When I actually called them, Captain Earthquake cried and pouted up a storm. Then he tossed a bowl of cereal on the floor, and this was after I had hugged him and reminded him that school is fun and we always have a good time. What was bugging him is the transition, and that I understood how hard it is to change from one activity to the next.

Had him clean up. Using the vacuum hose cheered him up and I called the boys to the table to start. By now it was 11:24, and I was starting to get anxious about time as there are some have-to-do’s on my list today. This was when The Manager started pouting and crying over every little thing. We tried to play Simon Says for math….he pouted. Tried to play the left and right game…he pouted. And so on.

At the same time I was trying to keep the older boys moving through their schedule (have-to-do’s, you know). This involved getting them started on what turned out to be incredibly difficult science experiments that required them to drill a hole through a cork and slip a straw through. We also needed to cut the bottom off a plastic jug, figure out how to attach fins to the cork, and more. I was trying to get the younger boys’ math lesson started, and called them to the kitchen because today we’re going to measure water and color it with food coloring. All fun things for boys to do.

I had the audacity to ask them to come with me to find containers of different sizes when The Manager started pouting. Again. For some reason, coming to the breezeway at his mother’s request was just too much and he was rude and uncooperative with me.

That was when I lost it.

I yelled loudly and sent everyone to their rooms. Granted, the older boys had less direct involvement with the whole thing so I’m trying to figure out what to do from here. They do have some responsibility in terms of acting like this for so many years in front of the littles thus giving them the idea. And the whole laundry incident still really annoys. It smacks of bullying, which I absolutely despise.

I really hate the whining and pouting too.

Now I have to figure out what to do from here. Yelling at boys hasn’t really improved anything, and I need to figure out something that will actually help. I admit I have a short fuse when it comes to pouting over school. I’ve fought the bad attitudes for so many years, and I want to just have happy times.

Unschoolers will tell me that I’m being mean, yada yada by having structure. I disagree, and do not plan to argue the point. The very fact that our day is structured is non-negotiable. I am working my tail off to make things engaging and fun. In my opinion, the kids need to be bringing some effort and good behavior to the table as well.

Guess I’ll talk to the older boys first. And yes I will apologize. I still need some way to deal with the pouting. How do you handle pouting?

Surprisingly they got really excited about it, and very quickly each boy picked out the prints of his choice. They were mighty pleased with themselves at the cutting counter, showing the ladies what they’d chosen. We got 3/4 of a yard of the main print, and 1/4 of a yard of the complementary accent color.

I washed and ironed the fabrics. There’s not a lot of cutting or sewing required for this project, but if you take the time to trim your pieces square the end product is much nicer.

This. Is a rotary cutter. It is VERY. SHARP. I do not let my children use it. I’ve seen far too many adults get cut with it, and with the number of exciting distractions present in my home I’m not ready to have the boys use it yet. When will they be ready? Perhaps when they’re 25. I’m not sure.

Hey Internets, did I mention that the rotary cutter was very sharp? Because it is. Sharp. Not for children.

If YOU want to use the rotary cutter, be careful! It is very sharp. It’s best used on a special self-healing cutting mat. All you do is lay your rotary cutting ruler on top of the fabric lined up where you want it, and run the cutter (which is very sharp!!) along the edge of the ruler.

I trimmed both of the cut edges of my fabric and “squared up” the piece. Basically this means that the piece is a rectangle, about 28 inches long and 42 inches wide. If your piece isn’t exactly those measurements don’t sweat it.

Lay the smaller fabric piece on the table, right side (printed side) up. Spread it out nice and flat. This is going to be the “cuff” of the pillowcase. Take the larger piece, and lay it right side down on top of the first piece, lining up the edges. This will be the body of the case.

Here you can see that the two fabrics are right sides together on the table. I folded back the corner temporarily to demonstrate the difference between right and wrong sides of the fabric.

Roll up the body (top) fabric until you have a nice “snake” lying the length of the cuff piece. Like this:

If the selvage edges don’t line up on both sides, no problem. Follow through with the steps and we’ll address that little issue later. Just line up one side and the top.

Take the bottom edge of the cuff piece and fold it up over the rolled fabric and pin.

You want the single edge of the body piece and both edges of the cuff piece to line up. It’s important to be sure that none of the rolled fabric is up near the edges. (I’ve temporarily promoted myself to hand model only to demonstrate the roll of fabric inside the folded cuff. I’ll demote me again shortly for obvious reasons. Thank you.)

Sew your fabric along the raw pinned edges, pulling the pins out as you go.

Once you’ve gone the length of the fabric you’ll need to turn the tube inside out pulling the body print out as you go. It’ll look like this:

I like to run the iron over the cuff at this point. It’s easier to line up the edges and get a nice straight line on the finished product.

Remember those uneven pieces? Now’s the time to go back to the cutting board and trim off the longer piece to match the shorter one.

Fold the pillowcase in half, lining up the edges and pinning to hold in place.

Starting at the cuff, sew along the raw edge. Backstitch at the beginning and end of your line. Turn the corner and sew along the bottom of the pillowcase, backstitching at the beginning and end of the line again. Remove all pins.

Turn the pillowcase right side out and iron. Voila! One yard of fabric, two seams, and about half an hour of your time and you’ve got a beautiful homemade pillowcase. Enjoy!

8:30 am - Announced that we really had to get moving and have breakfast because today is Tuesday and that means morning piano lessons.

9:00 am - Asked The Manager and Captain Earthquake to get out their printing books and start on their page. Then told them that it would be nice to finish their math up before we needed to leave. “Leave?? Where are we going???”

“Piano lessons,” I told them.

9:14 am - Finished going over math assignment with The Mercenary. Told him that he had about 25 minutes to work on it before we needed to leave. “Leave?? Where are we going???”

“Piano lessons,” I told him.

9:20 am - finished printing with little boys, asked them to pull out their math books. Lots of playing took place. Reminded boys that we were on a schedule today and asked them to fill out their calendars. We needed to finish at least something before we left. “Leave?? Where are we going???”

“Piano lessons,” I told them.

9:38 am - Told littles that we’ll have to finish math when we got home, called older boys to get ready to leave. “Leave?? Where are we going???” asked TechnoBoy.

…

These lines on my forehead? They’re not wrinkles.

Nope.

They’re the imprint of the brick wall I’ve been beating my head against.

[blinking innocently]

So, here’s the new site.  It’s called Doorway Theaters, and I’m really excited about the concept.  Basically, the theaters will hang in any standard doorway and can be used for both puppet shows and theatrical performance.  When your children are done playing with it, the theater folds up easily for storage.

I originally made the theaters to sell as a fund raiser for the addiction recovery ministry I’ve been a part of locally.  All profits from the first 50 theaters are going to the center.  There are still some left in that batch so purchase soon to help the center!

I love sewing (many happy hours have been spent behind my sewing machine) so this new enterprise is an exciting one.  The boys are getting into the swing of things too.  They wanted to know yesterday if they could hire in as employees.  LOL.

Doorway theaters make a fantastic Christmas gift, especially for children between the ages of about 4 and 12.  Each theater comes with two upper curtains, one lower curtain, two suspension rods, and two puppets, all for $29.50 USD.  I will ship internationally.  (Currently the shopping cart doesn’t reflect that but that’s one of the changes coming soon.)

If you’d like to get a special discount, enter the word twitter in the special offer box of the shopping cart to get $5 off a theater.  That offer will be available until November 21.

Head on over to the site and let me know what you think!  New colors will be added to the product line over the next little while.  You know.  More changes I can make.

• It’s important to have a fire escape plan in case of fire in your home. Kids should know what exits to use, where to meet, and how to call for help AFTER leaving the danger zone.
• Equally important is having a plan for how to handle emergencies away from home.  One friend told me this week that she even goes over escape details when her family is in a hotel.  Never thought of that before.
• Everybody processes the shock of a dangerous situation differently.  Some cried on-scene (that would be some of us older folks) while others reacted later at home.
• Any question the children have about the event needs to be answered, even if it’s the 50th time they have asked.
• Children may tell the story of their adventure many times before getting it out of their system.  We tried to keep focusing them on reality when exaggerations started to creep in.

Is there anything I’ve missed?  Have you had an exciting/dangerous situation that taught you and the kids lessons?  How did they handle it?  What about you?