The Lesson I Learned Today Was Don't Teach Your Son to Drive When You are PMSing

I think I did really well, considering . . .

We finished up an abbreviated Family Home Evening that consisted of going through the schedule for the week, deciding to read scriptures either at 5:45 am or 9 pm (guess which one was the winner), and then Griffin doing the activity which was entitled "Road to God." Each of us were asked to choose a marble and place it on the path (using his marble maze he built after school). If you made it through, then you got to live with God. If you didn't make it to the end, then you were going to the Devil's Den. (Maggie's marble fell off a couple of times, but she fortunately made it to the end.) This was all ad-libbed as he went along. Nothing like a little eternal salvation pressure to liven up FHE!

Since everyone had finished their homework (this mostly related to Griffin who had four pages to do since he didn't finish everything in class), I told them I would take them to Arctic Circle for cones or shakes. The kids had been fighting and arguing since dinner and I realized that what I really wanted was for everyone else to go and for me to stay home. Ian suggested that he could drive, and I told him that I would let him drive home. He had never driven the van or at night before, and I knew this would be challenging. (Yes, say it with me, "What was I thinking?")

He really did fine. He drove much slower (which I was okay with), but he was a little thrown by the size of the van. I finally said to him, "The key is, when you think you're going to hit something, STOP! rather than thinking to yourself, 'Oh, I hope I don't hit that.'" Maybe that should be a life motto or something. I think I was realtively calm and didn't raise my voice (I should probably ask him if he felt the same way).

We got home and I said to John (who decided not to go), "What was I thinking having my teenage boy drive when I'm PMSing?" My advice for any future and similar situations: don't do it.