Spring Break is going to break someone....

The question is WHO is going to get broken?  It's either the boys or me....and I don't plan to break.  Bend, maybe.  But no breaking. 

Today started out great.  We slept in and  I let the boys relax most of the morning.  Then we started Spring Cleaning their rooms.  Daniel and Patrick wanted theirs rearranged.  Justin and Matthew just needed to clean.  Everyone worked together with such a wonderful spirit of cooperation.  Things got done in a timely manner.  I was so proud of them.

Then came dinner time.  Granted, they don't care for left overs, but I don't like throwing out good food.  So, we had leftovers from Easter dinner.  Ham and hashbrown casserole were the only left over foods.  I made biscuits and had a fresh pineapple that I peeled and cubed.  (Do you PEEL a pineapple?  Anyway, I got rid of the outside and the core and cubed the rest of it so we could eat it.)  Here is where the problem started.  I believe they should eat a well balanced meal.  Not just ham and bread.  So, I put a small spoon of casserole and ONE cube of pineapple on their plates.  You would think I was torturing them from the way they acted.  I  had a mutiny on my hands. They were rude, disrespectful and refusing to eat their food.  I won't go into everything that was said. Let's just say I pointed out that I did NOT appreciate how they were acting.  they were informed that the amount of enjoyment they have during Spring Break is directly affected by how they act and how they treat me.  I told them how much I had appreciated their earlier work, but that they had negated those good feelings by how they were currently acting.  Then I left them at the table until they completed their dinner...and required them to show me their plates before they could leave the table.  Then, they were sent to the kitchen together to load the dishwasher and handwash the rest of the dishes together.  The bickering started the moment they walked into the kitchen...and the ultimatum was issued:  Either cooperate or do the dishes all week long.  Hmmm...funny how they suddenly started working together - and fighting much quieter, thinking I couldn't hear them.  Oh please.  I'm sitting 20 feet away and there are NO walls separating us. 

Thus begins Spring Break.  Hopefully the rest of the week will go better.  Otherwise I will have a perfectly clean house and 3 very unhappy boys.

 BTW, Justin was the ONLY one who actually voluntarily put everything on his plate without being asked, ate it happily and is the only one not in trouble at the moment.  I should add  it was Justin's night to do dishes.  I'm sure he's quite pleased his brothers were being awful at dinner tonight.