May I have some more discipline, please

Mack

Mack was going through a swearing phase and it got pretty bad. So I decided to go Old School with the discipline. We told him that from now on, he got one warning a day, and on his second swear word he would have his mouth washed out. He asked what that entailed, and I explained that we would put soap in his mouth.

This is a child who cannot have even no-tears baby shampoo go near his head before he is equipped with a bath visor and a washcloth handy for any accidental drips on his face. The idea of having to EAT soap was horrifying to him.

The threat actually worked. Yes! Discipline that worked on Mack!

Until Sunday, when he said “ass” for the second time that day. I said, “Now, you have to have your mouth washed out.” Byron brought Mack into the bathroom and squirted some hand soap on his tongue.

My “warm vanilla sugar” hand soap from Bath & Body Works.

Mack asked for seconds.


Operator error

Our computer died on Wednesday. Well, maybe it didn’t die. But it is seriously ill.

Anyway, I have books due to my evil editor, so I’ve been in a panic.

Byron set up his office laptop for me last night. He hooked it all up and wrote me a long description of how to log in and use it.

I came down this morning and couldn’t get it to work, no matter what I did.

I would turn it on, but I couldn’t get it to do anything once I had it on. I hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete and nothing happened. I couldn’t even get the cursor to move, using the mouse.

I called Byron in a panic. “The laptop is freezing up, just like our regular computer was! Maybe the problem is with the line, not the computer.” He told me that was ridiculous, and walked me through two restarts, eventually wondering aloud if perhaps it was a ghost doing this.

Which is when I realized the problem. I was typing and using the mouse for our regular computer, not the laptop.