I didn't do it!!

Well, we figured out how he sliced his finger open. The excuse of the laundry basket did seem a little flimsy (esp. since the said laundry basket in question was pretty flimsy!) but I keep on thinking that my children are going to learn that telling the truth is always much better than lying to cover up. The culprit those mean nasty scissors. BTW my children have had "The Scissors Talk." They are not allowed to use them with out permission and supervision. This does not prevent them from rebellious behavior that will ultimately hurt them whether by physical means, mental or spiritual in the end. This one as the last one just happened to be physical. We are still unsure if he was cutting the sippy cup valves and bottle nipples at the time of the slice which would be why he lied to cover it up or if he was just testing how sharp they are. (Of course, he has to use my scissors and not the less deadly, more kid friendly kind!!) Either way big punishments came when Dad and Mom were enlightened of the situation. We have tried corner time, grounding, loss of privileges, spankings, hot sauce, Asian hot sauce(it's even hotter but he still likes it), to no avail. We keep hearing it is just a phase but you know when in the middle of said phase there does not seem to be an end. At this point, I am opinion to suggestions.

Where have I been??

I have realized that I have not posted in a while. Not for any good reason other than normal busyness around the house plus the added busyness due to holidays etc. I have not even taken any cute pictures of the kids to comment about. It seems like our house has fallen into survival mode which is never fun since you are, at least I am, stressed out all the time (okay not quite ALL the TIME) and I forget to enjoy my life during this season of small children. Just to give some perspective in less than 24 hours we have had the car we are borrowing (while we attempt to figure out what is wrong with our van) alternator go out, woke up to a four-year-old peeing on the carpet in my bedroom (this is after he peed in the hallway last night), one big tantrum and a few small tantrums, a finger slice open, children screaming, giving attitude or flat telling me no (which we all know does not work well for Brad or I), a tornado (of small children wrecking the house faster than I can put things away, not clean, just attempting to keep general order) amongst other things. Right now I can turn to my left and see the kitchen chairs in my living room, since my oldest child was distracted from his chore of sweeping to help daddy clean off the car battery, amongst the normal living room debris that has not been cleaned up since the last sweep around 11am. This has been our normal lately so suffice to say I will try to do better but will DEFINITELY not make any promises!