A little bit of this and a little bit of that
This is going to be a bit of a bitty post….lots of odds and ends….
First though, I have a WINNER!!!
Nobody got the right answer – which was, by the way, that it was my 500th post! Wow – hard to believe that I’ve managed to witter on for 500 posts, but there you are, that’s how it goes!!
I put the closest answers in a hat and my son pulled one out …..and the winner is….Nancy!!
I’ll email you Nancy as I need to get your mailing address. Congratulations!!
Last night we had a big teenager related bust up at home. Usually I end up like a wet dishrag after one of these encounters – and mostly I come away from them feeling like I’m a bad parent and I get everything wrong. Well for once I actually think I handled the situation right. Rather than ranting and raving as I normally do, I stated my point (without shouting) and informed the offender of the consequences of her actions and then told her to please remove herself from my sight (as I was trying to work on French with her younger brother). There was a fair bit of screaming and a refusal to eat dinner – fair enough, it was her choice and I left her to it. Four hours later a recalcitrant teenager asked me to test her on French before her test today. I did this quietly with no reference to all former antics. She was astonishingly perfect – 5 pages of vocab word perfect.( Isn’t it amazing what some people can do when the computer and phone aren’t accessible?).
She then thanked me, apologized and told me that she wouldn’t behave in the way she had again.
I almost fainted with shock. This is a child who NEVER apologizes. I still can’t quite get over it. Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel after all.
Otherwise I’m still finishing off the Christmas preparations. The presents are bought, so hopefully there won’t need to be any more trips into Zürich. Now it’s just down to food shopping. I’m doing one small piece of Christmas baking every day. Yesterday some Christmas Mailanderli cookies and today I’ll make some sausage rolls before I head out to my son’s school carol service.
And it’s snowing, so it couldn’t really be more Christmassy.
I’ll leave you with this little snippet, gleaned from Facebook. It made me smile!
Helen
December 21st, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Shucks I didn’t win – but I did forecast your snow (lol). Speaking of snow it has just started here but unfortunately is forecast to turn into freezing rain later in the day.
Congratulations to Nancy and to you Helen on your 500th post.
Glad last evenings contretemps turned out well – let’s hope it stays that way.
I think I’ll send that note to Santa as well and hope that he will get it right!!!
December 21st, 2011 at 6:58 pm
Wow, you’re 460 ahead of me!!! LOL
My sympathies and at the same congrats on the teen front – I can only imagine… Perhaps she could send out some of the learning spirit to mine?!
Sadly practically no snow at all down here… probably out in the rain for the concert tonight, bleugh. Still, last year it snowed as we came out after the concert for Glühwein: magic!!
December 21st, 2011 at 7:46 pm
ah, teenagers, and girls I hear are a bit tougher than boys in the verbal category! Glad it all worked out.
It’s going to be 70’F here for Christmas…yuck!
December 22nd, 2011 at 3:39 am
Congratulations on your 500th post. Wow, that’s quite a feat, considering you’ve only blogged for about 22 month, that means you’ve blogged 22.7 times each month on average (sorry, it’s the accountant in me, can’t help it). So glad to hear the teenage tantrum is over, at least for now. Good strategic, keep doing what you’re doing, it seems to work. You won’t believe me now when I say that in a few years you look back and wonder what the fuss was all about. That’s what I’m doing now, but of course I wasn’t able to see the end of the tunnel either when I was stuck in “the dark”.
December 22nd, 2011 at 8:15 pm
Congratulations on your 500th post! And, thank you so much for the bag and goodies – I have admired the strippy bags on several sites, so I am excited to get one. Merry Christmas!
December 22nd, 2011 at 10:44 pm
Congratulations on your 500th post, and Congratulations on the way you handled the teenage tantrum. Vreni is right there will be more but you have some experience on your side now to help you through. I have two daughters and what I can say is it does get better as they mature and it will all just be in the past as we love them and move on to new memories.
Snow what a beautiful thought! I can only image, Australia is just getting hotter and I hate having to put chocolates in the refrigerater so they dont melt we just cant have the same types of displays as you would there. We will have a Merry Christmas in shorts and tshirts! Wishing you and all your bloggers a very Merry Christmas!
December 23rd, 2011 at 1:09 am
Oh teenage bust ups! My only experience of them are my own about 30 years ago! Great parenting Helen and sounds like you are all set. Merry Christmas to you and your family – I`m sure it must look beautiful where you are. x
December 23rd, 2011 at 9:21 pm
Well done you! It’s tough with teenagers. Caiti had a strop the other week, ended up shutting herself in her tiny en suite bathroom and jamming the folding door so we couldn’t open it! Oh boy. Chris had to pretend to start taking the hinges off before she grudgingly opened communication channels again! After a couple of hours she was sweetness and light again, like we knew she would be, but still we have to go through all the dramatics first. Big sigh… She’s a wonderful human being but she does have her moments. But then, so do I!