Coffee With Maddie




Summer. It may not officially arrive until June 21st, but as far as I’m concerned it’s here already. I have the summer off from my job, my boys are finished with another school year, and the thermometer in my car registered 90 degrees this afternoon. The signs don’t get much clearer than that - it’s here!

I survived the first week of school break and am confident I’ll make it through the summer without too many problems. After about the third day of listening to my two younger boys fight about what they should watch or play on the TV, I solved the problem for them. We simply turned it off and kept it off for a day and a half. I not only grounded them from the TV, but also from the computer, hand-held video games, etc. While I probably won’t be winning the “Mother of the Year” award anytime soon, it was interesting to watch them find things to do.

My youngest son is a very busy boy and needs to be doing something 99% of his waking hours. I go for walks almost daily and I decided to take a walk to the library. When I asked if he would like to join me, he jumped at the chance. We enjoyed a good walk together and he ended up bringing home two books about making paper airplanes. He spent the entire evening making several different variations of airplanes out of scraps of paper, decorating them and flying them around the house. Amazing!

My middle son is a different story. He doesn’t just like to watch TV, he loves it. ESPN is his favorite channel and I had just cut off his link to the sports world! He discovered he could find out some news in the sports section of our daily newspaper and for the first time in his life he spent an evening listening to a baseball game on the radio. For me, listening to a baseball game on the radio ranks right up there with cruel and unusual punishment. For him, he actually enjoyed it.

That took care of one day, but we still had half a day to go. I’m pretty sure they had a meeting while I was in the shower because when I got downstairs they had a plan! They wanted to know if I would consider letting them watch TV sooner if they did some extra work for me - chores above and beyond what they normally do. This sounded like a good plan to me.

I made up a list of four things I wanted done and each of them took two. I was able to sit and read a good book while one of my flower beds got weeded, a bathroom got cleaned, the dishwasher got unloaded and loaded back up again and the family room got cleaned. Sweet! They did all of this to watch TV one hour earlier. They proceeded to watch TV for about 30-45 minutes, got bored with it and found other things to do anyway! I think it was just the fact that they couldn’t watch it that was making them crazy enough to do all that work. It worked for me!

I found a quote about summer on the Internet today that also works for me. James Dent said, “A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.” It sounds like it’s time to head to the beach or the pool. That definitely works for me!

Until next week . . . God bless you and yours! -Maddie

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Coffee With Maddie: Archive;
Blessings
Magazine Junkie!
Maddie Goes to College
Changes
Let the season begin!
Getting Older!
I'm Getting Fat!
I Love a good book!
Family Games
Manners!
Someone to Love
A Special Anniversary
New Year Goals
My Spinal Tap!
The Book Store
I Salute Our Men in Uniform
Valentine's Day
My Birthday Choices
Current Events and Politics
Cabin Fever
We Can Choose the Words We Use
Let's Get Organized!
Support Our Troops
Acts of Kindness
Find Something to Do!
Yippee, Spring!
Yo Dude
Mother's Day
Flylady
My Favorite Things!
Going Camping
Safety Tips for Women

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About the Author;
Maddie is a dear friend from the Midwest who will touch your heart with her gentle stories of home of family. You can just picture yourself at the kitchen table any early morning with Maddie, a fresh cup of coffee, maybe the smell of bacon in the air, and a log on the fire to take out the chill.

Talk to Maddie at ...
Maddie@boomerjournals.com