Hammock

I know the picture is poor quality, but I couldn't get it to come out any better. I was able to plant flowers the other day and get my front yard looking the way I wanted. On that day, Randy helped make the front yard an even more beautiful oasis by rigging up a hammock to my beautiful, strong tree and our front post. Not an ideal placement for those that want to come to my front door, but no one can fault us for what stands in their way. It is so wonderful. 

I came down this morning, our first official day of Spring Break, to find Tyson outside, swinging and singing. Not a bad way to begin our break. A much better idea than the one I would like to happen. I want another mega-cleaning day like the one we had in January. If we all put our minds to the idea, we can accomplish great things. However, they are a little against that idea. I don't blame them. But I want their help. We'll see who gets their Spring Break wish granted. 

11:00AM Update:

I am not above guilting my kids into doing what I'd like them to do.  Randy isn't either, thank goodness.  Here is our reasoning for making them do a little work today.  I decided our first week in our new apartment (14 years ago) that I wanted to work on Saturdays.  After all, we both worked back then.  I had Randy help me with the "Saturday chores" that I grew up with.  I thought it would be nice to have the house cleaned spotless at least once a week.  That lasted half-way through our first Saturday.  Ever since then, I have not had my family work on Saturday.  Here was Randy's get-up-and-help-your-mom speech:

"We have decided that we leave Saturdays to play.  That means 52 Saturdays a year you get to do nothing but play.  Your mom takes care of the house every day during the week so that Saturdays are free.  It is not unreasonable for her to ask that you clean a little during your Spring Break.  Either you get up and do what she'd like today, or we'll implement Saturday Chores."

And so we cleaned the basement for one hour today.  Every single thing on my Basement list was complete.  We'll clean for one hour tomorrow on the Upstairs and then we'll have no more cleaning for the week.  SWEET!

And that, my friends, is how you guilt your children into doing something that they don't want to do!