That Was a Counterproductive Move

Ah, summer. The time of year kids look forward to from the first day of school, only to utter the phrase, "I'm boooooorrrrreeeeedddddd" an hour into their first day of freedom. Except my kids, because even when every pore of their body is oozing that declaration, they have learned to keep their mouths shut. Boredom results in chores at my house. Complaining about chores gets you more chores. My kids, like your kids, hate chores. So while they really are bored, they don't bother to let me know that.

Luke and Micah had a particularly long week of self entertainment since the teens were in North Carolina helping hurricane victims. (So proud of them, by the way.) Luke is an excellent big brother and made forts with the bunk beds, and jumped on the trampoline with Micah, and played out approximately 283 scenes using dress up trunk inspiration at Micah's insistence. There were many sword fights, and Nerf gun battles, and a fair amount of wrestling.

Boys are so much fun. While I sometimes get frustrated at the number of injuries related to "play," I'd far rather have the rough and tumble than the Barbie crap that was all over the floor when Becky was younger. It's a little known fact that stepping on Barbie shoes in your bare feet at 3AM feels the same as stepping on Legos.

So after hours of self entertainment on a hot day, the boys were tired. (But not bored.) The inside of the house was just as hot as the great outdoors, and I had the fan on me while knocking things off my to-do list in the sewing room. Micah had reached the point in his day where his late nights were catching up with him, and coupled with the heat, he was pretty taxed. Grumble about this, and fuss about that. And toss in a few complaints about pretty much nothing for good measure. I just wanted to finish up what I needed to for the day before heading out to interrupt his grumpfest. A few more minutes...

I heard a hair dryer. And Micah fussing. And the hair dryer. And Micah fussing. And the hair dryer....

WHOEVER THE HECK IS USING THE HAIR DRYER, STOP ANTAGONIZING MICAH. I thought it but didn't say it, because whoever the heck was using the hair dryer wouldn't hear me over the noise of it. But for crying out loud, can't you tell the boy is THISCLOSE to just losing his cool in the worse possible way?

And then Micah walked into the sewing room. He was frustrated and needed my help. See this stuff on the back of my head? SEE IT?! Take it off. Take it off NOW.

My son, that's sweat.

And that's when I realized that the drying and fussing was all Micah. He tried drying off the sweat, couldn't get it, tried again, failed, kept trying...  I had to blow dry his sweat before he was satisfied enough to walk away.

Boredom is something we don't mention much around here. The kids don't want the chores associated with it, and I'm not really sure I know what it is.