Mellow

I wish I could blip the sounds around me as I took this. At this time of night the bees are still buzzing around, the nightingale and blackcaps are still competing in the "most bewitching song of the day" contest, and the blackbirds are just starting their evening shouting match at the bottom of the garden. Over to my left an owl is just starting some gentle hooting, probably the owl I watched swooping down to my veg garden from the big pine tree for half an hour last night (I'm pleased to report there were no new mouse holes down there this morning!)

A busy day - with school admin in the morning, shopping for the kids, afternoon shopping for the URGENT things for school the kids forgot to tell me about this morning when I asked, and then the evening putting together a 'House Rules' contract, which we all signed. During the 'family meeting minus Daddy' that preceeding the drawing up of the (sigh) bilingual contract, this conversation happened:

CarbBoy: What happens if I, you know, don't do it?
SooB: You'd be punished* - I'd take away a treat as punishment, like no TV for a day or no iPod for a week.
CB (smiling): Ah that's ok, you haven't taken away my favourite thing.
SooB (exchanging confused glances with TallGirl): Oh, what's that then, Doggie? [his favourite toy]
CB: No, my friends.

(TallGirl helpfully passed me a tissue at this point before any pretence at lawyerly efficiency was lost.)

*This followed immediately after a discussion of what would be the appropriate punishment for a 4 year old boy with real proper life problems, who bit another boy. I said when I was young he'd probably have been smacked, which CB thought was the best thing to do. It took me a surprisingly long time to get him to understand that hurting someone to teach them that hurting someone is bad lacks logic.