Thanks to Instagram, this is what I now know about Iceland: it's gray, the land is grassy and muted green, there's lots of water, and a fine meal is served on a cafeteria tray. Apparently, I MUST visit there. I'm skeptical. Although, I did see a picture of Ann and Katie in a steaming pond with drinks in hand. That looked good, although I wonder if they have to worry about prehistoric organisms crawling through their toes.
What, I'm being unfair? Instagram is not a complete window into foreign lands? Ah, wait until I get to Ireland in a month, then we'll really see what Instagram can do!
Well, here on the homefront, we've survived day 2. A bit more attitude floating through the air today, but all is well. I think we'll need to ratchet up the "help out around the house" bit tomorrow and see if we can blow the top off the "life is unfair", "my summer vacation totally sucks" and "woe is me" perspectives on life. It'll be a fun little game.
I did try a new approach to instruction this morning by telling the 8 year old what his and his older sister's chore was for the day, wondering whether the message could even compete with the trappings of the screen in front of him and make it to his sister's ear two hours later when she'd likely wake up. Amazingly, it did and not only did he convey the message, but he was the only one who managed to complete his piece, which was nothing more than folding and putting away his share of the clean clothes in the basket!
That's not to suggest the first half day of summer vacation on their own was a complete win for the boy. From what I can tell, he did fib his way into additional screen time and extra breakfast. But, when the person in charge decides to sleep until 10:30, then my sympathy is fairly low. So, we had a little extra instruction tonight on the responsibilities that come with being in charge, which was predictably met with "how is this summer vacation if I can't sleep all day!"
Tomorrow, I'm predicting a battle over friend time. Each have gotten pretty used to having friends over after school and on weekends. And as summer is apparently one big weekend, I'm to understand that not hanging with a friend every other day is a total buzzkill. The sleep over question has been posed by Cailin, and with a friend who I can't even say whether I've met. She tells me I have. But, she's got so many of them, that I can't even come close to keeping track. Ann mentioned that I should only let this happen with trustworthy and stable friends. But, she forgot to leave the list of who that encompasses. So, I think I'll default to them all being unstable and deal with the blowback. Why can't she hang out for a couple hours somewhere? Why a sleep over? Girls. Grmph.
I traded an email with Ann this morning about Cailin's new phone, but otherwise Instagram is all I got. No news, or contact for that matter, must mean they're having a good time. The boy misses his mom however, so we'll try to encourage a Facetime session.
Well, off to bed. I need to improve my going to bed time and be the old man that I am. 11pm is just not good for me. Much too late. These weary bones need more rest. Or maybe just more whiskey.
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